Removal Company Reviews › Methodology
How We Rate Removal Companies
Every company review on MovingCost.co.uk is scored out of 10 using the method on this page, and only this method. The score is calculated by code from the facts recorded about the company - the same code renders the numbers below, so the published method and the scores cannot disagree. Looking for how we estimate moving costs? That is a different method, set out on our cost methodology page.
The six categories
| Category | Weight | What feeds it |
|---|---|---|
| Customer reputation | 30% | Trustpilot and Google ratings weighted by review count, the 12-month trend, and whether the company answers negative reviews. |
| Trust & protection | 25% | Companies House status and filing record, years trading, BAR membership and Advance Payment Guarantee, declared insurance, other accreditations and a complaints route. |
| Range of services | 15% | How many services the company confirms, measured against what a company of its type would normally offer. |
| Coverage | 10% | Local, regional, UK-wide or international. |
| Value & pricing transparency | 10% | Published prices, fixed or hourly pricing, and clear payment and cancellation terms. |
| Quote & booking experience | 10% | The ways you can get a quote: home survey, video survey, online, phone. |
How each category is scored
Customer reputation. Ratings from every platform are combined, weighted by how many reviews each has, then pulled towards a 4.0-star baseline as if the company had 50 extra average reviews. That stops a perfect score from a handful of reviews beating a near-perfect score from thousands: 20 five-star reviews score about 6.4/10, 1,900 score about 9.9/10. A combined 3.0 stars scores 0 and 5.0 scores 10. An improving trend adds 0.5, a declining one takes away 1, and answering every negative review adds 0.5.
Trust & protection (points out of 10): active company 2.5; accounts filed on time 1; trading 10+ years 1.5, 5+ years 1, 2+ years 0.5; BAR member 2; BAR Advance Payment Guarantee 0.5; goods-in-transit cover declared 1; public liability declared 0.5; any other recognised accreditation 0.5; a stated complaints route 0.5. For marketplaces and brokers the same scale applies, but the cover on the day is the individual mover’s, and the review says so.
Range of services. Confirmed services divided by a target for the business type - 12 for a removal company, 6 for a man and van, 8 for a marketplace - capped at 10.
Coverage. Local 4, regional 6, UK-wide 8, international 10.
Value & pricing transparency. Published typical prices 3; fixed pricing 3 (hourly 2); payment or deposit terms stated 2; cancellation terms stated 2.
Quote & booking. Home survey 3, video survey 3, online quote 3, phone 1, capped at 10.
Missing information
We only record what we can verify from an official or first-party source - Companies House, the British Association of Removers, the company’s own website and terms, and the review platforms themselves - and we store the source and the date for each. If we cannot verify something, the review says not stated, never no, and it scores as not present.
Gaps lower our confidence rather than the score. Each review shows high, medium or low confidence. A company with no review data, no Companies House record, or four or more gaps (for example BAR status, insurance, fewer than 8 known services, pricing basis, cancellation terms) is low confidence.
Red flags
Any red flag caps the overall score at 5/10, however well the company does elsewhere, and is shown in a box at the top of the review with the evidence. The triggers are:
- the company is dissolved, in liquidation, or has re-registered to shed its history;
- no goods-in-transit or public liability cover is published;
- not a BAR member and a customer reputation sub-score below 5/10;
- a large upfront cash deposit is required;
- recurring complaints of hidden charges, or of goods being held until extra payment is made.
When a review is published for search
A review is only offered to search engines when it is published, scored with medium or high confidence, has at least 25 of the 37 data points we track, and carries at least 400 words written specifically about that company. Reviews below that bar are still readable, but marked noindex until they qualify.
Badges
Badges are calculated from the same data, never assigned by hand - with one exception, Editor’s Pick, which must be justified in a written note. A company never needs to display a badge, link to us, or contact us to be reviewed or to keep its score.
Editorial independence
Badges, profile claims, photos a company supplies, and any contact a company has with us never affect its score or its position in a list. A company can correct facts about itself, with evidence, and a corrected fact is scored exactly as it would have been had we found it ourselves. It cannot buy, earn or negotiate a better score. Where we have any commercial relationship with a reviewed company, it is disclosed at the top of that review.
Some links on our reviews are affiliate links to quote services, and we may earn a commission when you use them. That commission is the same whichever company you read about, and it plays no part in the score. See our affiliate disclosure and editorial policy.