Clearance of overseas shipment from EU

They are a broker pure and simple, they submit your customs paperwork (ie look up relevant Harm codes) on your behave and after the government does confirmation, tell you what you need to pay in duties and taxes. Their service is a flat fee.

Or you can do it yourself, but for $40.00 is it worth it as you need to do the running around.
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
I'm no expert but that is kind of my read as well.

Long time ago I used Coles because they had a particularly good USA flat fee import/export/delivery package & were amenable to small business. Other brokers had different value levels, fee structure & types of businesses they support, so its kind of a shop around thing. But Coles only deal with businesses (read GST# & tax filing, not just a name). They don't deal with individuals, which I think is the majority of brokers. Maybe that is what makes Clearit distinct? Just look for any other fees such as warehousing/storage/?? that may be over & above. The benefit may depend on your item(s) as well. If you purchased something normally via the dreaded couriers, part of their total dinger fees is probably equivalent to the $40 once you have factored out transportation, duty, tax, various other emerging fees... Where we get our knickers in a knot is a 10$ value box of duty free air still requires us to pay $40 for them to assess, but that may be no different vs Clearit charge. Now if its a 2000$ order made up of several of distinct components with different tariff classes & rates, 40$ doesn't seem so bad anymore for them to get it right.
 

gerritv

Gerrit
Thank you.
It's a 700+kg package so the fees will be smallish comparitively speaking :) I was hoping someone had direct experience with them.

I did start a process with them near begin of covid to get a load of parcels out of CBI but each item neaded a commercial invoice from actual seller (eBay stuff) which wasn't doable wihtout seeing the parcels. No fees to try them out before committing which is a good thing.
 
A few years ago I had a large heavy faceplate for my my 15 inch lathe shipped from England. It was an Ebay purchase. Came directly to my door with no extra fees or border hassles. Maybe I was just lucky.
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
700+kg is a different league for sure. You likely checked but also confirm weight related cost factors - storage, handling, inspection... Some have maximums, dimensional weights, same parameters that enter transportation. Which makes sense they don't do that for free. Accurate description of goods is very important, at least at any $ value that will attract the attention of customs. They don't really care about a $10 bar of metal but they get very interested when its $1000 worth of metal.
 

gerritv

Gerrit
The good thing is that this is not the seller's first time shipping to North America. I'm confident that all the appropriate HS numbers will be itemized, etc.. I will find out more about the warehouse closer to commitment time.
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Keep us posted. I have seen some nice stuff from Europe, willing to ship, that would be a bargain once landed. I'm sure if you have a customs workflow figured out, it would be rinse & repeat.
 
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