Trusting a mover with your personal belongings can be quite stressful. After all, you welcome complete strangers into your home and allow them to transport your goods to your new home. Performing a proper background check is an essential part of choosing the right mover. When a moving company “checks all the right boxes” during background research, you can be confident in their ability to move you to your new home. Here are some tips on performing a thorough background check:

• Verify licenses: Professional movers need to be registered and licensed to operate. Each state has its requirements, but all properly certified moving companies have an MC number (interstate movers have a USDOT number, too). If a mover does not have a license, DO NOT USE THEM!
• Research complaint history: Once you have a mover’s license number, you can check their complaint history on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s website see here.
• Check the BBB Rating: The Better Business Bureau is an excellent resource for checking a mover’s credibility. A mover with a rating of “A+” is what you should be looking for.
• Check reviews: It’s essential to view a company’s reviews from a variety of sources. Don’t just check the reviews on Angie’s List or Yelp. Make sure to check Google and other sources to get a complete picture of a company. When reading reviews, make sure to read reviews carefully — some “bad” reviews are fake or generated by competitors — and some effusive reviews can be fake as well. Use common sense when evaluating a company’s reviews.
• Speak to the mover:  Thoroughly interview every mover you are interested in. Make sure to ask as many questions as you find it necessary to make a proper decision.

If you follow the tips above, you can be confident that your chosen mover will be a good fit for you and your family. For more great tips, read here.