Sending presents abroad

I'm not sure it's possible to prepay the duty NotSpaghetti I'll ask around. However it does add to the cost of the gift for the donor.

Hi I’m the same I’ve got 4 grandchildren in Oz from 6 to 21 & over the last 13 years have sent money , posted presents& ordered from Australian shops which is what I did last year but as my daughter is so busy she didn’t have time to wrap them and I’m not sure I bought them what they wanted . So this year I’m going back to sending money and they can choose their own gifts after Xmas . Not idea but the best I can do in the circumstances

yes, i remember my parent saying never to bring different coloured flowers to a sick person,
or was it the opposite, i don't know.
as for the meaning of flowers, that's a minefield.
i'll stick to bears, or generically, soft toys.
(cert not, stuffed animals, one americanism i hate; sounds like taxidermy, hideous).

Ha ha welbeck - flowers are a "typical" style over there it seems!
Also, colours of flowers are awkward as have meanings...

sodapop

That's not really the problem for us though 65KL & NotSpaghetti in France and Spain the recipient also has to pay duty on gifts received from UK.

Can't you pay these in advance?

I have done this to the Philippines.
Just saying.

i'd prefer the bear, not so keen on flowers.
but that's just me.
v enterprising, NS, to find that supplier locally.

Postage to the USA is mostly no problem. Most items arrive in about a week and show up on the US postal tracking system about 24 hours after posting. Even before Brexit posting to some of the more obscure EU countries can be hit and miss. I once had a parcel take 3 weeks to get to Estonia and the buyer left me a 1 star review. Italy can be a bit dodgy too. Parcels to Japan and China take about a week. Taiwan and S Korea are also very good. Australian and Canadian customs are deadly slow.

I've got round the presents to France issue by booking a 36 hour crossing to St. Malo and back next month. (Including dinner!) Friends will meet up with us and we will swap the piles of gifts to distribute amongst friends and family.
Not so easy for Thailand though!
In addition we will buy all our wine and spirits, chocolates, cheeses etc so including the postage, the crossing might even pay for itself.

That's not really the problem for us though 65KL & NotSpaghetti in France and Spain the recipient also has to pay duty on gifts received from UK.

Exactly 65KL

It just feels like a point of contact.

My Son and his family live in Europe ( I'm in New Zealand) Postage is very expensive often more then item I am sending . But I like to send gifts I have made or chosen myself , it's like sending a bit of me .

My daughter lives in Marvao Portugal and i sent her a tin of cookies. They were returned to me 3 months later. By that time she had returned home to me so i took them to her! They didn’t taste very good!

I have a daughter in law whose family lives in Jakarta. She said she gets on a the website of a large wheel-known store in Jakarta and orders online to send to her family. They receive it with no problem.

Yes, Amazon deliver pretty quickly though sometimes what you get is not exactly what you ordered.

One daughter with two children in Australia, my other daughter here does a Christmas and birthday shop between her, myself and my son with Amazon Australia, we all club together to get decent gifts, works well. Assuming there must be something like this in Thailand and must be a cheaper way with the current cost of postage.

Son lives in USA and I send parcels to him and to granddaughter but it is more expensive now.
Every year have sent advent calendars but postage far outweighs cost of calendars. They love to get them though so I carry on doing it!

When we first moved to the US parcels could be sent by boat. It took 6 weeks, but if you had your Christmas presents ready to send it was incredibly cheap. Now the only available method is by air, and I consistently spend more than $100 on postage, a lot more than the gifts themselves. Grandchildren are still young, so I send clothes, which keep the packages light. They love to get parcels from America! But once they reach their teens, I am going to stop, and send gift cards/money instead.

I lived abroad for quite a while and have other friends who live abroad now,. In years past I have often bought subscriptions to magazines that the person likes. dont know if it is still the same now but paperprices were cheaper than letter post and some intenational magazines can be delivered quite easily.

By using Royal Mail I can send up to 2kg for £28 tracked and it arrives in USA approximately 1 week. I make sure it is just a few grams under the 2kg. often packing the space with local brand potato crisps.My kitchen scales are very accurate. Also bear in mind, the box in itself might weigh 350 grams so where possible I wrap the goods in bubble wrap/a bin bag/lots of parcel tape.
USA is Zone 3 for royal Mail postage, only up to 2kg.. Asia is either zone 1 or 2 but there isn't much difference in the cost.

For Lego/toys for my grandson in USA I use Amazon.com. Speedy delivery at reasonable cost. I'd think Amazon deliver worldwide.

My son had several heavy-ish sentimental items still at here home. To get them to him in USA I used DHL which was brilliant although costly but worthwhile. I combined the heavy items with Christmas gifts for 2 adults and one child. DHL works mainly on the size of their DHL box. I sent 19 kg for £110. A lot of money but considering how much content and the weight involved it provided a perfect solution. I'd have been paying £60 for 2x2kg boxes just for Christmas anyway. Also DHL delivered within 3 days tracked service to USA. They are good for large/heavy boxes. But are cost prohibitive for smaller items. Unless needing a priority courier service.

Of course I'm talking here about my experience sending to USA but the information may be useful to someone.

Some places have an option to include taxes when sending overseas from UK (eg Liberty's) mokryna

Or you could buy from a UK company online (or over the phone) if you want to deliver here...

Sending presents from France to the UK is expensive but the tax duty the Uk recipient has to pay is extortionate.

Does Amazon or similar have a service there? We use Amazon for sending stuff to Australia as things used to get lost when we posted them

I used to send something small and relatively light to a niece in the US - e.g. a purse or a thinnish paperback - but I’d put $$$ inside whatever it was. The parcels always arrived safely.

My family lived for many years in the Far East the best co. for sending parcels was Mulberry Hall in York they even gift-wrapped but unfortunately closed down. I then switched to Liberties of London went through their site and phoned them to place the order they would then tell me what was allowed to be sent but unfortunately could not gift wrap, so I bought gift wrap from them and DD wrapped at the other end.
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For food Bettys of York will tell you what a weight will cost and what is allowed I found they had a good selection. For relations in the USA I use Amazon USA which somehow they linked to my Amazon UK account their gift wrapping is a bit expensive.

Since Brexit it has become far too complicated and far too expensive- and relatives had had to pay high import taxes in order to collect parcels.

Just given up. We send money to GCs, and bring nice presents when we visit.