Shipping Personal Effects To Thailand

[JonoM]

Hi Folks

I'm moving to Thailand with my Thai wife in February. I am a British citizen and my wife has been living in the UK for the last few years. We will be shipping some of our personal bits and pieces to Thailand under my wife's name. I will be entering Thailand under a visa waiver or tourist visa.

I wish to send some of my personal effects such as a PC, books, clothes and a telescope in the same shipment. I'm assuming we can say that the PC belongs to my wife, but it may be obvious if they check, that some of the other items do not belong to my wife. Does anyone know how strict customs are and whether doing this is likely to present problems??

Thanks for your advice.

Jono

[Eff1n2ret]

Just ship the lot in your wife's name. You'll probably end up paying a few thousand baht to get it through Customs anyway. We had a deal which included delivery to our house, all duty and fees paid, but got a bill from the Thai agents for about 5000baht, which included a 2000baht "inspection fee" and a further 2000baht "Duty", although on what was never specified. They hit us with it at short notice, with the threat of a daily charge for storage if we didn't pay up, so we did just to get sorted. In the great scheme of things it was no big deal.

Ship as much as you can. I regretted some of the things I gave away or sold for peanuts on the assumption that I wouldn't need them any more.

Door to door the shipment took about 2.1/2 months.

[JonoM]

OK. Think I will ship it it my wifes name and hope for the best at customs. Is there any particular shipping agent you would recommend?

Thanks again.

[katabeachbum]

OK. Think I will ship it it my wifes name and hope for the best at customs. Is there any particular shipping agent you would recommend?

Thanks again.

shouldnt be any problem shipping it all in your wifes name, as long as only one of each item. One dishwasher, one washingmachine, one computer etc

I shipped a 30 foot container 7-8 years ago from Scandinavia, 3 weeks to bkk and one day to Phuket

[phatmax]

OK. Think I will ship it it my wifes name and hope for the best at customs. Is there any particular shipping agent you would recommend?

Thanks again.

I shipped a 20' container from the States to BKK. I was very happy with the Shipping Agent I used - Jula at Intermover Thailand her email address is [email protected]

[ableguy]

OK. Think I will ship it it my wifes name and hope for the best at customs. Is there any particular shipping agent you would recommend?

Thanks again.

shouldnt be any problem shipping it all in your wifes name, as long as only one of each item. One dishwasher, one washingmachine, one computer etc

I shipped a 30 foot container 7-8 years ago from Scandinavia, 3 weeks to bkk and one day to Phuket

When I moved here first i shipped 4 decent sized boxes by sea cost 100 pounds, no problem at customs no money to pay, after getting settled went back to move all my things in a 20 container from Hull, inc coming to my house and loading total cost 1100 pounds, took 4 weeks when it arrived here Thai agent total cost was 30,000 baht inc delivery to my second floor condo, bring everything you can however be aware not too easy to rent unfurnished decent condo in BKK, good luck

[CWMcMurray]

As others have said, the shipment should be in your wife's name. As long as she has been living in the country of origin for at least one year she will qualify for duty privilege.

Your customs agent in Thailand will need an itemized invoice with value of all items, so be sure to do this in the UK when you are packing things up otherwise it may be more difficult for you to remember all the items a month later when the container arrives in Thailand.

Also I always see a lot of folks complain about the "inspection fee" that customs request, but have never seen any one explain a bit more about why this is incurred.

Basically, as per Thai customs regulations ever single item in the shipment must be noted on the invoice and import entry for customs. This is even needed if the import duty is 0% or exempt under Duty privilege for house hold goods. The reality of the situation is that if you are importing a 20ft or 40ft container of household goods into Thailand it is a near certainty that every item is not going to be on the invoice (and Thai Customs officers know this)

When ever this issue comes up, my comments are always the same... if you are sure that every item in the container is on the invoice that you provided to us, then do not pay a single cent and let customs open the container and inspect the goods if they want to.

If on the other hand, every item is not on the invoice provided then better to pay the "inspection fee" as if the customs officer is in a bad mood he could legally by law seize the entire shipment if they inspect the goods and find any items that were not declared on the invoice in the container.

So whether or not you end up paying this charge is completely up to you....

Also the storage charges are charged by the liner and port, the agent does not have any control over these charges. The best way to prevent storage charges is to contact a customs broker in Thailand well before your container arrives and ensure that they register you with Thai customs and prepare the import entry before the vessel arrives.

Edited March 12, 2011 by CWMcMurray