Help re Au Pair

Has anyone used a company to get an au pair? If so which one if not did you pay online sites to gain info to contact au pairs directly? If so then who pays for travel and visa's? Tips on this topic would be great!

Thank you Saffron, had not even thought of that, do you know what site she used for info as most don't seem to show the full names that I have seen. It seems like such a mission.....

We have an au pair who has lived with us since July, she is fantastic and it works really really well for us. She is our second, the first stayed for 4 months but never really clicked with us, so becuase we were with an agency they replaced her.
We are very pleased we chose to go through an agency, it works well for us the the au pairs, they are also ministry registered in our area so an educator comes once a month and does the learning stuff with Talina and the kids and when Lachie turns 3 we will qualify for the 20 hours free. They also have regular training and get togethers, and play groups (not so usuful to us since there is no other au pairs near us). Our agency educator, is great and she calls every week or two to see how things are going.
We have gone through au pair link.
If you have any questions at all please get in touch, it has worked out better than I ever hoped.