Online shopping (US) and low cost package forwarding to Switzerland

Online shopping (US) and low cost package forwarding to Switzerland

  June 30, 2018    Destination Leman - sejour tourisme, affaires

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Are you struggling to find resellers for products you used to buy before moving to Geneva ? I am an international shopper, especially for products I regularly buy in the USA. So I have been using several services of package forwarding or "réexpédition de colis". Today, I am trying a new one, VIABOX. So let me tell you about the international parcel shipping service in general and its advantages, what Via services offered by this provider.

Package forwarding services: how you can save money

First things first: why use a package forwarding service when you buy online shops registered in the USA ?
Well, because of the savings you can make, both on the taxes and on the international shipping costs. If you buy online and ship to California, or New York, you will be charged an additional 7% or 8% for added value tax.
Second thing is, to ship internationally to Europe with reasonable time frame (5 business days) will cost you a minimum $80 for ~1lb or 450g.
Now, when using a package forwarding companies, there are 2 advantages:

1st advantage of using a package forwarding company:

You will be given a US address in a tax free state: Delaware, or Oregon for instance. That way, you will only pay the custom taxes of your country of residence. For more information on the custom taxes you will pay in Switzerland, please read my article on the subject.

2nd advantage of using an international parcel forwarding service:

Secondly, these international shipping companies allow you to group several packages in one shipment to save a bit of money.

Forward your purchases with VIABOX

VIABOX is the company I am testing right now. I used to have an account with a competitor that closed down. Viabox offers:
- a free account,
- storage for free during 6 months,
- modern payment methods that include Paypal and Bitcoin
- international shipment to 220 countries
- a free assisted purchase service, in case your credit card is not accepted in the US.

After conducting a benchmark, I noticed that some freight forwarding companies where located in different states: New York, California, Florida, Delaware or Oregon.
My understanding is that in California or Florida, there are some specific post codes for tax-free zones. You have to make sure the online vendors have included that information in their online shopping application. The safest in my view is to pick one located in a tax-free state, so Delaware and Oregon are good examples.
In addition, I noticed the number of days you can store the parcel for free varies significantly depending on the company you choose: most of the time 30 days, but Viabox allows 180 days.

How to choose your freight forwarding service

These criteria will guide your choice of international package forwarding service:

• countries the freight company works with, depending on where you live
• the cost of holding an account with the parcel forwarding company, most offered at least a free plan
• the number of days your item is stored before you start paying storage fees: that counts if you are tight on money and can only shop once and have to wait for your next salary to buy again.
• the shipping companies they work with (USPS is generally the cheapest), because if they only work with expensive partners, you will save less overall
• the price to forward they charge by lb (=pounds =453 grammes = ~0.5 kg), as they need to make their own money
• the processing fee by parcel: some charge a flat rate of $3, $5 or $7 by parcel, depending on the performance of their warehouse systems

I will let you know soon about Viabox, once they forward the shipping of my first parcel to me.