United Van Lines Review 2024

With full-value protection included on every move, a long list of available services, and one of the most recognized names in the biz, United Van Lines is a top contender your upcoming long-distance move.

United Van Lines offers just about every service you could need during a long-distance move, from auto transport and home cleaning to storage and full-service packing. This makes United a first-rate option for anyone looking for a convenient, one-stop shopping experience for their move.

And, since United offers instant online quotes, you can quickly decide if United is the best company for your budget or if you need to keep looking. 

Learn more about the highest-rated companies on our Best Long-Distance Movers list.

Now that you’ve got a good idea of what United offers and how much it charges, let’s talk about some of the things that really make United stand out from its competition.

We love how transparent United is in its package pricing, but we wish it were a bit more forthcoming with how it prices packing and unpacking.

The most useful moving service a company can offer is, arguably, packing up your belongings. But it’s also usually the most expensive service offered. With how transparent United is with its pricing of other services, we think it’s missing an opportunity here to offer the type of transparent pricing you’d expect from a program that boasts its straight talk. We can get a general idea of packing costs based on our online estimate prices from before. Scheduling an in-home estimate will provide you the most accurate price for your move, however.

Moving companies traditionally charge for packing based on a combination of two things: how long will it take and how many supplies will be needed. The more things you need packed, the more it’ll cost. That’s why larger homes tend to have higher packing costs.

United’s packing service isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition, though. You can also select a few items for its professionals to pack and then pack the rest of your home yourself. The fewer items you select, the less packing will contribute to the cost of your final moving estimate.

Even if you decide you’d rather pack your whole house on your own, United’s crew will still step in to help by blanket wrapping your furniture on moving day. Your local United agent may also have moving supplies for purchase or free used boxes to help you get everything packed.

Be sure to ask during your in-home estimate what supplies your United agent offers.

United Van Lines has a lot of moving services that take the weight of the move off your shoulders, but one service in particular stood out to us above the rest—its tech services.

United’s tech services are unique in the full-service moving industry. Other movers advertise assistance with appliance installations, but unless you’re taking your gas appliances to your new home, we find these services to be overpriced and generally unnecessary. (Is it really that hard to unplug an electric dryer?)

Tech assistance, on the other hand, is a far more useful service for many households that are looking for a full-service move. United offers disassembly and setup services in two main tech areas: home theaters and PC networks.

If you’re looking to move your in-home cinema to your new abode, United can arrange to have your television and stereo disassembled and set back up in your new house. It can even have its crew take care of your TV stand or wall mount for you so you won’t have to search online for those instructions that you threw away promptly after opening the box.

United will also happily arrange to have your computer and computer network disassembled, packed away, and set up at your new home. We find this service to be especially helpful for those who aren’t so tech savvy or who have a particularly complicated network setup.

You read that correctly. United finds another way to stand out with its full-value moving protection for every move—a service other movers normally offer as a paid upgrade.

If this doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, we promise, it really is.

Full-service movers usually include only basic liability coverage in the cost of your move—and like the name suggests, it’s pretty basic.

With basic liability coverage, the mover assumes liability for $0.60 per pound per item. This means if your 100-pound sofa gets damaged, your mover would pay you only $60, regardless of the sofa’s actual value. United’s included full-value protection, on the other hand, is much more comprehensive.

United calculates your coverage by multiplying your estimated shipping weight by $6 per pound. If you have a few higher-value items and you don’t think this level of coverage will be enough, United makes purchasing extra coverage easy. Each $1,000 of protection you add will cost you only $5.50.

Movers who are concerned about protecting their belongings—and don’t want to pay an arm and a leg extra to do it—should definitely give United a look.

United’s rates are very competitive. For apartment moves, we’ve found that United’s prices range between $2,100 and $6,200 depending on how much stuff you have and which services you use. For house moves, prices can range between $4,300 and $11,400.

Many full-service moving companies make you go through the full estimate process before giving you any pricing information. United operates more transparently than that—it offers both instant online moving estimates and add-on service package pricing without requiring you to provide any personal contact information.

This is a huge break from the norm, since many other movers require you to provide a phone number and an email address before offering you any sort of quote—online or otherwise.

To give you an idea of how much your move might cost, we ran an example move with varying home sizes through United’s online estimate tool.

Here are our results for a 1,100-mile move scheduled about a month in advance.

United bases its online estimates on very limited information, so these numbers should serve only as a rough idea of what you might pay.

Your actual moving quote will depend on your personal in-home estimate and a few other factors:

• Your moving date and time
• The actual weight of your moving shipment
• Your moving distance
• Any additional moving services or protection you purchase

Although we can’t break down the specifics about how the first three factors will affect the cost of your move (it depends largely on your local United agent), we can let you know how some of the additional services will affect your moving estimate.

Most movers happily tell you online what extra services are offered, but very few actually tell you how much those services will cost until after you receive your final estimate.

United opts for a more transparent pricing approach with its Straight Talk Advantage program. It outlines six service packages with a range of both moving services and protection options you can customize to your liking—and it tells you exactly how much extra you’ll pay for each package.

Are you concerned about your budget?

If your budget is your biggest concern, get a quote of your own to learn exactly how much your move with United might cost.

United offers a wide range of both included and paid services to give you the moving experience that best fits your needs:

• Local, interstate, and international moving services
• Corporate relocation
• Government relocation
• In-home moving estimates
• Customizable packing and unpacking
• Loading and unloading
• Home cleaning
• Trash and debris removal
• Home theater and computer network services
• Full-value protection for all moves
• Auto transport
• Storage
• Shipment tracking
• Clearly advertised add-on package pricing
• Online moving services

Many of United’s services are included in the price of your move, but others add an additional cost to your final moving estimate. Take a look at the table below to see which services are free and which will require you to expand your moving budget a bit.

• Full-value moving coverage on every move
• In-home tech support to uninstall or set up home theaters and computer networks
• Package pricing online

If you’ve been on the hunt for a mover for long, you’ll know these features are uncommon. We’ll dive into each a little bit later, but first, let’s take a look at the rest of United’s offerings.

United Van Lines is one of the best international moving companies. It excels at overseas shipping and storage services for employees moving for work. The international moving company also tailors moving packages to your budget, so you never have to pay for things you may not need, like packing professionals or monthly storage.

Several other highlights set United Van Lines apart from the competition:

• Wide availability. United Van Lines can ship almost anywhere in the world and has partners in more than 150 countries on all 7 continents.
• Tri-regional communications network. United has regional headquarters in three strategically placed areas: Asia, North America, and Europe. As a result, it can help you troubleshoot potential problems in real time without worrying about the difference between time zones.
• Custom clearance management. The best companies not only ship your belongings to another country but also tell you what items aren’t allowed. United assigns a personal coordinator to walk you through the dos and don’ts of clearing customers in your destination country.

United Van Lines is a great option if you’re planning a long-distance move and need to take advantage of one of its unique moving services. Anyone can benefit from United’s included full-value moving protection—but if you’re moving a home theater or PC network, you should definitely consider contacting United.

One of United’s biggest perks is its readily available pricing information. Although its online estimate gives you only a general idea of what your move will cost, we loved how much other pricing information we were able to gather from its website before ever needing to schedule an in-home estimate.

United’s customer service is generally very good, but your experience will depend largely on the United agent you choose to work with. Be sure to look up the agent’s customer reviews online before reaching out to them.

What's next?

Now that you know everything United has to offer, the next step is to get a quote for your move. Remember, it’s free and easy!

If you want to look at other movers that might be a better fit for you, check out our Best Interstate Moving Companies list.

Move.org evaluates and identifies the moving industry’s best full-service movers using a fivefold research approach:

• Compare pricing transparency. We gather quotes, check for binding estimates, and read customer reviews about pricing to ensure each moving company’s prices are trustworthy. 

• Review accreditation. We check every company’s records in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s database to confirm companies are properly authorized to transport household goods.

• Mystery shopping. We review every company’s website, pose as customers in calls to companies, and read customer reviews to analyze every company’s moving services, transit protection, and customer service. We also interview actual customers to learn how their moves went from start to finish.

• Site visits.  We invite moving companies to our headquarters in Salt Lake City, UT, to share data and expertise. We verify the information they provide by comparing it to data gathered through independent research and interviews with other movers.
• Regular review. We routinely repeat this process to update our recommendations to reflect current data and trends. We also revise each review annually and make updates throughout the year.

If United doesn’t feel quite right for your move, then we recommend checking out one of these other interstate moving companies:

• International Van Lines
• Atlas Van Lines
• Allied Van Lines

• What to Expect When You Move with United Van Lines—Kerry’s Move