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[quote=Anonymous]Longtime HM here.  We have been with Au Pair in America, Cultural Care, and AU Pair Care over the years.

I would absolutely NOT recommend Au Pair Care.  We had a horrible experience with them. They grew very quickly a few years ago, and there were serious lapses in their screening.  We also found they could not keep their LCCs.  For example, we had FIVE in one year because the people they hired kept quitting.  So you can imagine how much help they were (not) when and if we needed something.

We used APIA for three years and really liked them.  Our LCC was outstanding.  I do not like their matching approach - APs can be interviewing with many (5? 7?) families at once, so if you're a family who wants to take your time and get to know a candidate, it can be difficult when candidates are just desperate to match and will match with anyone.  Don't get me wrong - we liked the agency well enough to put up with this, but it was a feature I found annoying.  I also like the DISC personality  test, and APIA doesn't do that.  Finally, we have found APIA about $500 more expensive for HFs after all the discounts, so that is something to take into account.

We have been with CCAP for four years in our nine of hosting.  Price-wise they are about 500 less than APIA, and I like their matching process (HFs can consider multiple candidates but APs aren't family-shopping).  The downside to this is that you need to make sure any AP you consider has ample opportunity to look at other HF applicatinos to really know that you're a good fit for them.  I usually send candidates on to greataupair.com (if we're the first family to contact them, which we often are since we match so early), to make sure they see all that is "out there" and available to them.

The exclusive matching thing doesn't matter too much during regular matching, but during rematch, it made a huge difference for us.  We never went through rematch with APIA, but we did with APC and with CCAP, and I just say that with APC, I felt so much pressure to pick NOW that I missed something crucial in the rematch application and ended up in rematch again.  With CCAP, since we could take our time (a few days) and be very careful and deliberative, we ended up with a much better rematch candidate.

We will stay with CCAP now because they bring male APs over, whereas APIA doesn't, but otherwise I would look at both of these agencies.  Definitely interview the LCCs for both in your neighborhood.

One last thing: the size of the local cluster really doesn't matter anymore, now that the APs all connect over facebook so agency doesn't matter for them.  The size of the AGENCY does matter, though, as a PP said, if you end up in rematch (which can happen through no fault of anyone).

Good luck![/quote]

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