Not sure where to ask this question… so may cross -post.
My daughter is spending her Fall semester studying in London. Want to send a package. Do I need to fill out a Customs form? Want to send USPS vs FedEx or UPS due to cost. Items are mostly clothes, etc. Nothing too valuable. Any experience with sending packages to students in London and the requirements?
Yes, anything over 16 oz requires a customs declaration. It’s a simple form – you simply indicate the contents and their USD value.
But given the cost, maybe DD should simply buy what she needs while in the UK? It might be a better value. The USD to GBP is very strong right now.
When my son was overseas, sending even a small holiday gift package required the forms and was really expensive. I ended up looking for very light-weight items.
Yes, you will fill out customs forms, but they’re easy and the people at the post office/Fed Ex can help you. Be prepared to pay a lot! I agree that it may be more cost effective (and more fun for your daughter) to buy over there.
I sent some candy to my daughter when she was studying in Spain. I put “candy” on the customs form. Well, apparently that’s a red flag, because the package was held and I was asked for more specific information! This was several weeks after I’d sent the package, and I couldn’t remember all the brands I bought. So I just guessed, and my daughter finally got the package. What a pain!
The requirements were onerous enough to prevent us from sending anything other than envelopes to our daughter in France last year. She came home for Christmas, so we gave her gifts then. She spent enough on clothing in France, anyway!
Thank-you all! I agree it would be easier, quicker and less expensive if mydaughter bought some of the items on-line. I was going to send her a couple of clothes items she took out of her suitcase last minute to make the weight requirement and a couple of other small items. May need to rethink!
I think I did an Amazon Prime UK 30 day free trial to send a few things.
I agree with @MaterS…use the countries local amazon…amazon.co.uk , amazon.es for spain…and google will help you translate the page.
I was in the same situation. About to send clothes she took out at last minute. Would have cost $60+. She went shopping!
We just did t send things to the study abroad kid. For one semester, there was just no need.
But we DID send fixed rate priority boxes to the Peace Corps kid…but she was gone for 27 months.
They will give you the documents at the post office. I tried to send a package to a country in Europe through a local Mailboxes Etc. It was a disaster and arrived back at my house with no forms and no postage (even though the guy stole my $122). He would not make it right and I was out that money. I canceled my box and tell everyone not to go there.
Use the post office! (Unless you want to try Amazon in that country - no experience with that).