How much would you expect to pay a nanny agency?

[NannyTreeSally]

It seems that most agencies are secretive about their fees and then when they do spill the beans, the fees are really high!

How much would you expect to pay an agency for finding you a nanny?

Expect from knowing what the fees are or expect as in be prepared to pay for the service?!

I'd be interested to know both?!

Well I used to be placed for multiples of my net weekly wage. A job I left due to irreconcilable differences after 2 weeks told me I wasn't allowed to leave because I had cost them 10,000? in agency fees.

Knowing what most agencies actually do for their fee I wouldn't expect to pay in excess of £1k but equally I know can do it myself for the price of a couple website memberships and a few phone calls to searing bodies and references.

The only thing an agency can do that I can't is get a British CRB processed and there are registered bodies that will do that for a fee. Or OFSTED will for just over £100.

So let's say that for an agency to be worth it I'd need it to be less than a CRB (£50odd), an ad on nannyjob (£50ish for 2 months) and membership of greataupair (£150 for 6 months), 1 month of phone bill and internet (another £50ish) making that £300 of what I'd pay to a nanny agency. So that leaves my time - the search for interviewable candidates would need to take me 28 hours pricing my time at £25 an hour for it to be worth it.

But even with an agency I'd be using my phone bill and a few hours of my time checking qualifications and references anyway!

Awarding bodies (interesting autocorrect).

seems most of my local ones charge 3/4weeks salary

Thanks SnapFrakkleAndPop and Blondeshavemorefun :)

It would be really interesting to see what other mums would expect or have paid?!

we paid 3 x weeks net as a fee. I felt this was a bit much as the nanny was only available for 7 months, but I was desperate and the agency would only agree to 25% off recruitment fees for my next nanny, so accepted it.

It does seem like a lot of money, but I have tried to do it myself through contacts, local forums and even newspaper adds and to be honest if you find a good agency it will save you a lot of time and angst sorting through the 'dross'! If you get a good nanny that stays a couple of years then it's not too bad a deal.

Also the fee is fully refundable if the nanny doesn't work out in the first 4 weeks.

We paid 4 weeks of net salary. We registered with 3 agencies in total. 2 of them had this has their terms (its sent to you in a pack when you register with them) but the 3rd agency (slightly more la-de-da) was something like 8 weeks.. We also advertised on gumtree and a nanny website but didn't get the quality of nannies that we were looking for, so the agency route ended up being quite helpful for what we wanted.

Thanks everyone! WOW noviceoftheday - 8 weeks !!!

Has anyone found an agency that charges less than 3/4 weeks salary?

There are some with flat fee between 800 and 1000. Personally, think that's ok but have ended up twice paying 4 weeks net fees!

I was quoted a flat fee of £3,000 plus VAT recently!!

£3,000 PLUS VAT!!!!!! Wow.

That's what I said. The consultant I spoke to seemed to think that I was being unrealistic to expect to pay less for top-quality service.
Just in case people on here think I am nuts: no, I am not going to search through that agency. There must be other ways.

We paid 4 figures agency fee and our nanny then said she'd been watching for jobs on Gumtree and would have applied through there had it not come to her via her agency.

Hey ho.

Next time (although I hope there won't be a next time - we're hoping to keep her!) we would advertise on Gumtree and then go agency if that didn't work.