Balikbayan Boxes

[Curley]

Forgive my ignorance but am I right that Balikbayan boxes are excused customs duties/import duties? I live in the Canary Islands (Spain) but nobody seems to have heard of them here although I do know they're available in mainland Spain. Is there an advantage to Balikbayan compared to a normal shipment?

[scott h]

Curley. I will comment pending correction. Balikbayan is more a reference to Filipinos that live overseas and return home. When they return home they bring HUGE boxes full of goodies for the relitives. Hense the name Balikbayan "boxes". Having said that, i have brought many boxes through Philippine customs and have never had to pay. We have also mailed several through LPG and the recievers have not had to pay either

[Dzighnman]

We use LBC extensively from the USA and there are no customs charges, UNLESS, you declare you are shipping specific electronics, TV's, printers, PC's etc. The advantage for us over conventional shipping is LBC has no weight limits, and we pack those things FULL. You wait 6 weeks or so but the 24"X24"X30" boxes we use, cost 60 usd per box, and as we get a discount to 55 per box due to our frequently shipping things back. Hope that helps!

[Bruce]

Also, as compared to other shipping, it is far less costly althouigh it may take 6 to 10 weeks depending on where you ship from AND (this is a biggie) how long it takes a shipping container to be filled. They do not ship partial containers. So if you have minimal shipping from Spain, it may take longer for the container to be filled and shipped. AND if you are shipping to WAY OUT ISLAND which ever local shipping hub is used in country by the shipper, you box could sit there for a month until they have enough boxes for a load out to that hub, and then sit again until there are enough boxes for WAY OUT ISLAND to make a trip to actually deliver!I am on Samar. Compare a box to Manila or close.... both boxes arrive on the same ship. Both clear and sent to the warehouse. The Manila box is delivered in 24-48 hours. The box for Samar sits until there is a full load for Tacloban. Once in Tacloban, it sits until the local company has delivered Lyte boxes and then WHEN there are enough boxes to come to Catbalogan, then they bring the box.Last 4 boxes I have sent a person to Tacloban via van-van (120p) to get the box and return with it (120p + 120p each box).

[Mike S]

Most items shipped in BB boxes that are used are not taxed ...... even electronics ..... as I said used .... and not like 10 Laptops even used ..... when I moved here I sent 3 huge BB boxes packed full of computer stuff .. tools .. clothes and what not ..... all that was stated was "used personal items" ...... but that was almost 5 years ago before all the crap about cars ... motorcycles and guns being smuggled in BB boxes ..... when in actuality when the people were caught with the cars ... motorcycles and guns they said they were shipped over in BB boxes ...... still want to see that SUV that got shipped over in BB boxes ...... more than likely it came in by container and customs let it through for some reason ..... the owner here not wanting to squeal on his cohorts just said he shipped it over in BB boxes and no one seemed to doubt him ..... and so face was saved all around ..... :hystery: :hystery: problem solved

[Bruce]

Actually, the BB shippers will quote you a price on anything that does not fit in a standard box. You can crate up a Harley and the same BB shippers will take it, load it in their container and deliver it to you as a 'balikbyan box'. Have no idea on the cost!

[Tatoosh]

The balikbayan shippers I've dealt with wanted a declarations of contents for each box. If the items were obviously taxable, they would collect them. They also noted they would not carry or would charge tariffs on items of commercial quantity. The "saving grace" would be their willingness to accept most any declaration of contents without a thorough scrutiny of the box. However, one outfit, my-shoppingbox.com has told me they will not carry commercial quantities or repeatedly ordered items. So best to be aware of the possible limitations. I've never got hit for tariff on any item brought in balikbayan though I've been hit on items shipped via postal service (USPS/PhilPost) or private carrier (DHL-UPS/Air21).