Who are you using?

My latest agency is pushing me to decide as part of my application and have provided a list of “certified” ones, whose websites are next to useless for info on there charges. I have been using Parasol at my last contract but was given a recommendation for a new one that had more reasonable charges. Of course the new one isn’t Hays certified… so can you just tell me you umbrella company? (and I’ll see if there on Hay’s list)
Bearing in mind I’m not a £300 a day contractor, contract will have a max of 35K a year (doubtful as I’ll only be part of a pool they can offer work too), so weekly charges matter as much as the money they can save me.

The Dunlop ones from sports direct don’t last two minutes. 🙂

NASA Consulting are pretty good.

Very good Paul…

See now NASA’s weekly charges (clearly mentioned on their website) are less than half of Parasol’s… but are they on Hay’s list, like **** are they. Cheers anyways Lunge, that’s exactly what I’m after.. any more?

I am currently using Paystream, they have been ok so far. I used to use Sterling Solutions, who I preferred, but was forced to change as they weren’t on my new agengies list.

Ok, let me think who else I’ve encountered. JSA are good but I don’t think they’re cheap, Work2Live aren’t bad either.

I’ve been using the Umbrella Corporation but I have doubts about their morals.

Have you not considered going LTD and using a standard accountancy company?

We’ve just closed our business, but used SJD Accountancy for over 10 years – they are very good.

Not really interested in going LTD, haven’t been working that much of late (by choice).

JSA, Paystream and sterling are on the list, so that’s a +1 for Sterling in my book. Sterling are slightly cheaper than Parasol & JSA, paystream figures aren’t obvious…

Was a contractor for a couple of years and used 1st contact. They do charge a fee, but its not a lot and is claimable, so you pay less than stated. Good online time sheets and payslips online via pdf. Would happily use again if I had to go contracting.

http://www.1stcontact-umbrella.com/contractors/our-fees

Grant Barnett

Sadly Lawtex went under in 2002, shame as they made several of my wife’s designs.

Or is it not that sort of umbrella companies 😉

I use Danbro. Haven’t compared the prices to others but I’ve been satisfied with the setup.

http://www.drolecomputingservices.co.uk/index.html

Used for 2 periods…always paid. Cheaper than most. Small company. I found some of their paperwork a little odd/ confusing but it always worked out right in the end.

I thought this was about a Zombie apocalypse at first.

Disappointed.

Danbro for me too. Always quick to respond to the few queries I’ve had and most importantly always prompt with payments.

What about http://www.giantgroup.com ? I used their composite company when I was contracting and was happy with the service.

cheers for the replies guys, will take a look through later.