Choosing an agency
Before paying any maid agency in Singapore, verify three things: that it holds a valid MOM Employment Agency licence (searchable at mom.gov.sg/eadirectory), that it will give you the helper's unedited MOM employment history before any work pass is filed, and that it will put a fully itemised fee breakdown and its refund and replacement terms in writing before you sign. All three are legal requirements under the Employment Agencies Act — an agency that resists any of them is telling you something.
Every legitimate agency has an EA licence number and is legally required to display it on its website, name cards and advertising. Search it on the MOM Employment Agency Directory. It takes thirty seconds and confirms the agency exists, is currently licensed, and holds the right licence type. Ours is 25C3180.
Agencies must give you the helper's employment history printed from MOM's Work Permit Online system, and are prohibited from altering it. If you are shown a retyped summary rather than the actual printout, ask why.
The Employment Agencies Act sets out the minimum. Your agreement must state its validity period, a clear breakdown of every fee and tax you pay, the circumstances in which fees are refunded, the replacement terms including how many replacements you get and the timeframe to request one, any additional services and their cost, and an independent dispute resolution mechanism. If any of these is missing or vague, that is not a formality — it is where disputes go wrong.
Placements fail sometimes, for reasons that are nobody's fault. The question is what happens next. How many replacements are you entitled to? Within what window? What is refunded, and what is not? Get the answer before you pay, not after.
A good agency asks about your household before showing you anyone — how many people, ages, whether anyone needs care, what you cook, whether you have pets, what the daily routine looks like. An agency that leads with a stack of profiles before asking any of that is filling a vacancy, not matching a household.
Volume matters less than what the reviews describe. A handful of specific reviews naming the actual experience is worth more than a hundred generic five-star ratings. Be equally wary of an agency with no reviews at all and one whose reviews all appeared in the same week.
At a large agency you may be handed between staff, repeating your situation each time. At a small one you deal with the same person throughout. Neither is automatically better — but you should know which you are getting before you commit.
Questions
Search the agency name or licence number on the MOM Employment Agency Directory at mom.gov.sg/eadirectory. Every licensed agency must display its full name and licence number on its website and advertising. If you cannot find it there, do not proceed.
Under the Employment Agencies Act it must state the validity period, a clear breakdown of all fees and taxes, the refund terms, the replacement terms including how many replacements and the timeframe to request one, any additional services and their fees, and an independent dispute resolution mechanism.
Not inherently. Larger agencies have more candidates on hand; smaller ones usually mean you deal with the same person throughout instead of being passed between staff. What matters more is whether they ask about your household before showing you profiles, and whether they put everything in writing.
Read them rather than count them. Specific reviews describing an actual experience tell you more than a large number of generic ratings. A new agency will naturally have few reviews — that is different from an established one having none.
Your service agreement should already answer this before you sign, setting out how many replacements you are entitled to, the timeframe for requesting one, and what is refundable in each scenario. If the agency cannot answer this clearly upfront, treat it as a warning sign.
Talk to us
Run this checklist on us before you commit to anything. Our licence is 25C3180 — check it on the MOM directory, then WhatsApp us whatever you want answered.
