1st Contact: London Office

I used 1st Contact because they advertised that they could open a UK bank account before I arrived in the country. After I had paid they stated that they "no longer offer this service" and refused to refund my money. Several of the other things they claim to do are also not available if you are not moving to London. This is fraudulent advertising at its worst.

excellent customer services at all times friendly and good rates always available and secure I have used 1st contact for years now and would highly recommend them

wow

Waste of time and money. Got incorrect information about collecting my BRP card as they want to delay getting a phone and bank account set up so you use their pre-pay phone provider. The oyster card they provided then was not registered so they ask you to contact the TfL and sort it yourself, which you can't because they ask details about where the card was first purchased. Finally, I did not hear anything from the recruiters that they use (because of my number had changed from the pre-pay to a phone plan in the interim) and they can't help send an updated contact number.

We have just completed a move to the UK from Australia with assistance from 1st Contact. The Kickstart package has proved the best investment we could have made in planning and executing the move.
The advice and service from the teams in Australia and the UK, coupled with a response time measured in minutes, the organisation of appointments, BRP collections, etc and the final challenge of moving an extremely large amount of cash from Australia to the UK to facilitate a property purchase, was exemplary.
We have concluded that to have attempted this on our own may have been successful but, using the Kickstart package sped up processes and added surety to visa applications, NINO applications, and bank account openings. All deadlines set by 1st Contact were met or bettered.
The Forex team then took over and again, through excellent communications from 1st Contact, and close liaison and decisiveness on our part, we have been able to move the required funds at rates way better than those available through banks or other institutions and were able to easily meet our target in the UK for the purchase of the property at extremely good exchange rates. On checking this morning, the funds are now in our UK bank account ready for contract completion, all achieved in less than 3 days. Mission accomplished.
We have no hesitation in recommending the investment in the full Kickstart package if you want a seamless, stress-free shift from Australia to the UK.
One piece of advice that has been proven to work - read the 1st Contact instructions, read them again, ask questions if unclear, then read the instructions again, and then execute exactly as recommended, provide all the documents and materials requested on time, and the process WORKS brilliantly!!
A massive thank you to all involved in our move.

Firstly I want to say thank you to the entire first contact team, I spoke to so many of the staff over the course of my move from Aus to London and they were nothing short of incredible. Everyone I spoke to was amazing, supportive and understanding. They are very well organised made sure everything was perfect. It is honestly the sole reason feel completely settled and at home after only 3 months of being here in London. I would highly recommend to anybody.
Thanks so much guys

Received wrong information on what s needed to open a bank account . If you dont have a proof of address they cant help you at all. Information they give you can be easily found out by yourself, all that was good about the service is that they got me an appointment to get my NI number. Might be helpful for some but was a waste of money for me.

absolutely useless... Do not waste your money...

1. you provided us with a sim card we could actually easily have got from any Tesco or supermarket.
2. You setup a NI interview which we could easily call and set up ourselves. you say you get it quicker but ours is going to take 2 months.
3. You gave us a letter to open a metro account with our temporary address. but apparently we need 2 proofs of address and yours doesnt count it just last 30 days after which we need 2 for our new apartment. but all the proofs take months to get so basically it was not very helpful. we could have just opened up a Monzo account