Need Advice On Personal Effects To Thailand From Aust.

[weegee]

This is for a friend......in Aust.

He is to marry a Thai girl next month and will be living in Thailand from then...He needs to know if he can bring his personal effects including furniture and CAR to thailand.....and who to contact to arrange.

I honestly cant tell him much, and would appreciate some input, so I can pass it on to him...

Thanks in Advance

[giddyup]

He can bring personal belongings including furniture, but he'll need to contact a shipping agent in Australia. The Yellow Pages has plenty of them. I think if he's owned the car for more than two years he can bring it to Thailand tax-free but it may depend on what kind of visa he's going to get. I don't know what the shipping costs will be for a car, but they won't be cheap. Probably better to sell in Oz and buy a locally made car here.

[phl]

I would advise NOT to bring anything and sell it all

1. Even if he has owned car more than 2 years, it will still be a huge pain in the butt, not to mention cost a fortune in customs fees, shipping fees and bribing fees and at the end still may not succeed.

2. Furniture, while not same as the car, it can be turned into a pain in the butt by customs here in Thailand.

Also the shipping costs would be pretty high so is the waiting period. While in the mean time can buy brand new bedroom set including the mattress for $1000

3. Things like clothing is ok i guess, just pack what he can and give the rest away to Salvation army, can buy new clothing as needed.

Some people spend thousands of $$$ on shipping their things and then spend some more on getting it out of the customs, only to find they could have all of the same brand new for 1/3 of the price, not to mention they do not really need half of it anyway.

[SteveLynch]

tell him to sell everything ,furniture's cheap in some placees,so bbuy new stuff

the car forgett it ,iim currrently trying to bring a ccar from australlia ,its extremlyy expensivve annd a pain in the ass

he will need to find a shipping agent ,i use one in sydney to import certain things ,but he aint cheap either

tell your mate,new life,new start ,fresh stuff

good luck

[ripstanley]

I would advise NOT to bring anything and sell it all

1. Even if he has owned car more than 2 years, it will still be a huge pain in the butt, not to mention cost a fortune in customs fees, shipping fees and bribing fees and at the end still may not succeed.

2. Furniture, while not same as the car, it can be turned into a pain in the butt by customs here in Thailand.

Also the shipping costs would be pretty high so is the waiting period. While in the mean time can buy brand new bedroom set including the mattress for $1000

3. Things like clothing is ok i guess, just pack what he can and give the rest away to Salvation army, can buy new clothing as needed.

Some people spend thousands of $$$ on shipping their things and then spend some more on getting it out of the customs, only to find they could have all of the same brand new for 1/3 of the price, not to mention they do not really need half of it anyway.

Totally agree. Buy when he gets here. I realise that he will not get much money if he sells to secondhand dealers in Australia. Tell him to have a garage sale.. There is another thread about this subject. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/566305-importing-personal-belongings-and-household-goods/page__hl__+importing%20+personal%20+effects#entry5440630

[WebBangkok]

Its EXPENSIVE.

I moved from Sydney to Bangkok 3 and a half years ago, it was cheaper and better to just sell everything and come buy everything here.

But there is a cheap place in Sydney in Mascot, its on o'riordan st. I cant remember the name, but much cheaper than DHL etc.

Are you in Sydney?

[giddyup]

I priced sending some personal items from Australia before I moved here. A crate about 1.5 metre cubed was around $1000. Big enough for household items like saucepans, cutlery, linen etc, but not big enough for big furniture items. I guess if you have some prized personal posessions that you can't live without, the cost is irrelevant. Mind you, linen and good quality saucepans and cutlery aren't cheap here, so some things may be worth bringing. In the end I flogged everything (at giveaway prices) and bought all new stuff here.

[Ron19]

Take the advice of the other posters.It is just not worth the effort and money to bring it with you.

I looked at bringing the car but when the costs started at $3000 aud without any fees/costs on the

Thai end we decided against that.Sold everything to friends,at garage sales and flea markets.

Apart from clothing we only brought two dvd recorders (on which I had a large amount of music

stored much of which could not be replaced here) and about 200 cd's.

[giddyup]

Take the advice of the other posters.It is just not worth the effort and money to bring it with you.

I looked at bringing the car but when the costs started at $3000 aud without any fees/costs on the

Thai end we decided against that.Sold everything to friends,at garage sales and flea markets.

Apart from clothing we only brought two dvd recorders (on which I had a large amount of music

stored much of which could not be replaced here) and about 200 cd's.

I copied all my CD's onto DVD discs in MP3 format. I think around 200 CD's fitted onto 4 DVD discs. 200 CD's weigh a lot. Now I just download all my music for free and either put onto CD's for playing in the car or onto a 16GB flash drive for playing on my home player.

[Ron19]

Take the advice of the other posters.It is just not worth the effort and money to bring it with you.

I looked at bringing the car but when the costs started at $3000 aud without any fees/costs on the

Thai end we decided against that.Sold everything to friends,at garage sales and flea markets.

Apart from clothing we only brought two dvd recorders (on which I had a large amount of music

stored much of which could not be replaced here) and about 200 cd's.

I copied all my CD's onto DVD discs in MP3 format. I think around 200 CD's fitted onto 4 DVD discs. 200 CD's weigh a lot. Now I just download all my music for free and either put onto CD's for playing in the car or onto a 16GB flash drive for playing on my home player.

Now that I am here I do much the same as yourself and have around 10,000 tunes on two computers,Laptop in AAC audio file and Desktop in MP3 format.I mainly listen to music direct from computer through a sound system.

[giddyup]

Take the advice of the other posters.It is just not worth the effort and money to bring it with you.

I looked at bringing the car but when the costs started at $3000 aud without any fees/costs on the

Thai end we decided against that.Sold everything to friends,at garage sales and flea markets.

Apart from clothing we only brought two dvd recorders (on which I had a large amount of music

stored much of which could not be replaced here) and about 200 cd's.

I copied all my CD's onto DVD discs in MP3 format. I think around 200 CD's fitted onto 4 DVD discs. 200 CD's weigh a lot. Now I just download all my music for free and either put onto CD's for playing in the car or onto a 16GB flash drive for playing on my home player.

Now that I am here I do much the same as yourself and have around 10,000 tunes on two computers,Laptop in AAC audio file and Desktop in MP3 format.I mainly listen to music direct from computer through a sound system.

I've downloaded so much music in the last 12 months that it's almost impossible to get around to playing it all.

[Rsquared]

Forget the car also, I wanted to bring mine that was 4 years old and was told by the removals company that I would be up for added expenses.

We shipped all our furniture and clothes and "stuff" in one 20 foot container using Wridgeways and total cost door to door was $7000 Aussie dollars.

I have good quality furniture and there was no way I could sell it and buy similar quality over here without it costing me heaps.

I can thoroughly recommend Wridgeways, our move was hassle free and they advise you what you can and cannot bring.

[tim armstrong]

Agree with others - buy new here, and sell the rest. One point to consider, if you have good furniture particularly in wood, it may not like the climate, or the ants. Same is true for heavy fabrics and mould. Car - good cars secondhand for 2-300,000 baht everywhere. This is also a good opportunity to get rid of stuff. Somehow you can live more simply here. But I agree about the kitchen stuff if you are a cook. On the other hand will your thai wife even let you cook ? Good luck.

[giddyup]

Agree with others - buy new here, and sell the rest. One point to consider, if you have good furniture particularly in wood, it may not like the climate, or the ants. Same is true for heavy fabrics and mould. Car - good cars secondhand for 2-300,000 baht everywhere. This is also a good opportunity to get rid of stuff. Somehow you can live more simply here. But I agree about the kitchen stuff if you are a cook. On the other hand will your thai wife even let you cook ? Good luck.

it was actually quite a relief to dispose of nearly everything before I left Australia. I did have some nice wood carvings that are in the care of a friend back home, but arriving in Thailand pretty much with the clothes on my back, was like a new life beginning. That old adage about things owning you, not the reverse, is true.