best way to send a package from USA to Thailand?

[mrmicbkktxl]

What is the best way to send a package with new clothes[jeans,shirts,sneakers] a notebook and chocolates from the US to Thailand.I don't need it to get lost also don't want to pay exorbitant custom fees

[mania]

US Postal Priority Flat Rate box with web tracking

Use usps.com to track till out of US then track-trace.com/post

once on shore in Thailand

While not 100% guaranteed to not get hit by customs for import duty I would say

9 out of 10 of mine do not.

Although what you mentioned sending will be a large box & may get noticed

Also the sender should declare it a gift & low value

FedEx,UPS,DHL etc forget it you will pay more & surely get hit for import duty

You can get a possible idea of duty here

http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/

Edited November 25, 2014 by mania

[mrmicbkktxl]

US Postal Priority Flat Rate box with web tracking

Use usps.com to track till out of US then track-trace.com/post

once on shore in Thailand

While not 100% guaranteed to not get hit by customs for import duty I would say

9 out of 10 of mine do not.

Although what you mentioned sending will be a large box & may get noticed

Also the sender should declare it a gift & low value

FedEx,UPS,DHL etc forget it you will pay more & surely get hit for import duty

You can get a possible idea of duty here

http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/

Thanks a lot,exactly what I wanted to know

[55Jay]

I second the post from Mania ^^.

I've sent box loads of food stuff but not chocolate for obvious reasons. Make sure to put it inside a zip lock bag just in case.

Edit to add: Not sure if you are in the US mailing to yourself in LOS or somebody is sending you a box from there to here.

May not be useful to your situation, but at the end of our last US vacation, we had purchased so much stuff that mailing it was shockingly cost prohibitive. We only brought 1 large suitcase each, so it was less expensive to purchase 1 more large, cheap suitcase each from a second hand / consignment "junk" shop (they were quite plentiful where we were) and pay the airline's extra weight fee. Cost me about $30 for the cases and $200 to Korean Air for our extra weight, which was still less than USPS quotes.

Edited November 25, 2014 by 55Jay

[mrmicbkktxl]

I second the post from Mania ^^.

I've sent box loads of food stuff but not chocolate for obvious reasons. Make sure to put it inside a zip lock bag just in case.

Edit to add: Not sure if you are in the US mailing to yourself in LOS or somebody is sending you a box from there to here.

May not be useful to your situation, but at the end of our last US vacation, we had purchased so much stuff that mailing it was shockingly cost prohibitive. We only brought 1 large suitcase each, so it was less expensive to purchase 1 more large, cheap suitcase each from a second hand / consignment "junk" shop (they were quite plentiful where we were) and pay the airline's extra weight fee. Cost me about $30 for the cases and $200 to Korean Air for our extra weight, which was still less than USPS quotes.

Yeah a friend is sending me some stuff,the chocolates are actually for my daughter.I just worry the stuff won't arrive in Thailand out of whatever reason,and worry exorbitant customs fee.I once got some supporting stockings from the US,value 50$ and shipped with fedex,I had to pay about 350bt custom fee.Does it makes a difference if my friend takes of the price tags so shirts and etc. looks used?

[mania]

Yeah a friend is sending me some stuff,the chocolates are actually for my daughter.I just worry the stuff won't arrive in Thailand out of whatever reason,and worry exorbitant customs fee.I once got some supporting stockings from the US,value 50$ and shipped with fedex,I had to pay about 350bt custom fee.Does it makes a difference if my friend takes of the price tags so shirts and etc. looks used?

Yes removing tags does make a difference because the sender can declare a value they want

(keeping it low in case it is picked for duty)

[Suhastar]

I am expecting a gift from Poland. Probably not very large or heavy package(not worth more than $50). It is already shipped by normal shipping way (not by any express shipping). I didn't know Thailand import tariff is applicable on gifts too. Can anyone have any idea if I could get it tariff free and if not how much might it cost.

[mania]

I am expecting a gift from Poland. Probably not very large or heavy package(not worth more than $50). It is already shipped by normal shipping way (not by any express shipping). I didn't know Thailand import tariff is applicable on gifts too. Can anyone have any idea if I could get it tariff free and if not how much might it cost.

You may get a general idea here depending on what has been sent

& value declared by sender

Sadly many senders like to declare a very high value thinking they will do better if lost.

But they forget some countries use that declared value to determine import duty too

http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/

[Suhastar]

Got my package! Send listed it $20. No tax was required!

[BKKdreaming]

How long does US priority mail take to get to Thailand ?

If you send Thailand to USA they have surface mail which is much cheaper but takes 8-10 weeks

if it is under 2kg ( I think) we send Thailand to USA by "SAL small packet "

it is airmail from Thailand to the first USA stop and then ground from there to the destination. so less cost than normal airmail and only a little slower

[Suhastar]

It took us priority mail to reach Thailand about 25 days in my case. Prior to that they lost my valuable package, which as per tracking number reached to Thailand post from USA. But after that Thai post couldn't track my product.

[mogandave]

Do not send chocolates.

1. Chocolates from the US will melt

2. I think you need a special license to import food products

We always use FedEx or UPS and get stuff in 3-5 days, but we always pay the tax and duty.

[BKKdreaming]

It took us priority mail to reach Thailand about 25 days in my case. Prior to that they lost my valuable package, which as per tracking number reached to Thailand post from USA. But after that Thai post couldn't track my product.

What did Thai Post say ? did it come up on Thai Post website as arrived ?

We had one package they could not find even with a tracking number , at least we had another item to send to replace it....

[Suhastar]

Same here! The seller gave us reference number that we took to post office. They said they can't track it. Didnt gave us any good reply. I reported it to the seller that I never got my package so they sent me another one with US priority this time(had to pay for the shipping again) so yeah.

[h90]

be very carefully.

Shoes have a very high import duty and on small packages EVERYTHING will charged with the highest duty they find inside.

So with 30 % duty on the shoes you may end with paying 50 % (the way it is calculated) for your laptop.

[CangguSurfer]

I order lots of things from USA and I can offer some good advice.  First off, I ONLY use USPS.  If you ship by courier like FedEx or DHL you are certain to get charged highly on duty.  For some reason, items shipped by USPS seem to get less scrutiny from Thai Customs.  At least that has been my experience. 

 

USPS offers same tracking as the couriers, and frankly, shipping time seems pretty fast.  Typically, my packages arrive within the Kingdom within five days using USPS Priority, they clear through Customs in another 3-5 days, and take another couple of days to make it up to Chiang Mai.  So, not really that long.  To date I have not had a package go missing, and even if that happens, I always insure packages.  Personally I think USPS and Thai Post are very good at what they do.

 

What's really curious to me is that often, even when the packages should incur a duty charge, they arrive straight to my door with no duty being charged at all!  Of course that is not always the case, and when I do incur a duty charge, it really is a rip off and a major inconvenience!  They not only charge duty based on value of contents but also include the cost of shipping to compute the duty charge!  And, I have to travel to the post office that handles duty-payable shipments (which is pretty far from where I live).

 

Here is another great tip if you regularly order things from USA.  Use a shipping consolidator in the USA.  You can order things from a variety of sources like Amazon, eBay, and other online stores and have all items sent to your consolidator, and then when yo are ready, they will repack all of you items into one package and ship it to you.

 

The main advantages of using a consolidator are two; first of all, since they ship huge amounts of things they have special arrangements with USPS (and other shippers like UPS, FedEx, DHL) so that their shipping costs are FAR less than you would get (for USPS Priority I pay them about half what it would cost me if I had the item shipped direct by Amazon for example).  

 

The other advantage (OK, maybe not entirely above board) is that they will strip all retail packaging and invoices from the shipment and they also allow you to declare your own estimation of item value).  I usually declare 50-70% of actual value, depending on the item.  Sorry if some of you are offended by this suggestion but I think Thai Customs policies are VERY unfair.  I mean, if an item is ONLY available form USA and does not compete with a Thai-made item, there is no reason I should have to pay upwards of 50% extra in duty, of which part of the value includes the cost of shipping!

 

Anyway, there are numerous consolidators.  Here is a good article that compares them;  https://tech-vise.com/best-parcel-forwarding-services-for-international-shoppers/

 

Personally I use Planet Express.  I tried several others but settled on Planet Express because of their outstanding customer service and the fact that they are one of the few that offer to ship by USPS.

 

Hope this is useful to some of you!

 

Edited January 11, 2019 by CangguSurfer

[GinBoy2]

Ditto'ing USPS.

 

Send it regular first class, rather than the one rate.

 

It'll take a little longer, but it's still trackable and a helluva lot cheaper