love that card!

w00t just received my nexus this morning.

Might be a bit offtopic but does anyone recommend a forward shipping service?

Anyone heading down to PR tomorrow/weekend? I have a couple things to pick up and could totally use a favour

Does anybody have any expierence getting a package shipped from europe to point roberts? I'm looking to get something from europe ( no its not drugs ) shipped to pr as its double to ship to canada for some reason. Will the us charge me any tax and duty when the package arrives at pr? Its only around $175

yup they will charge you (both usa and canada side) but what they charge varies on what the item is, where it is made, etc.

Depends on the package if they will charge duty. Technically they can. But for $175, they probably will not. Then again, it was just a pair of shoes for me.

I'm just curious how much the shipping is to Canada vs the US?

I've had this talk with my buddies who ship everything to Point Roberts no matter what to save $10-20 on shipping...

I used to do the same, but I now have a threshold as it makes the most sense. My threshold to send something to Point Roberts is somewhere around $25. If shipping is $25 or less to ship to my Canadian address, i'll just ship it to my Canadian address.

I live in Knight and 41st
- 30-45 min one way (~70km round trip)
- gas
- $3 pick up fee
- time waiting at the border (I even have Nexus)

I just don't think it's worth it. Do you guys have a threshold ?

Go on a empty tank and save yourself $20-30 in gas at the same time to make it worth it? Most people will still go down because Amazon.com

hardly saving 20/30$ in gas now :(

its like 1.2X USD/litre now
couple months ago it was like 1.0X or low 1.1X

It depends. Honestly, NEXUS removes any inconvenience unless you're going down during a long weekend. I've never waited more than 15 mins in a NEXUS lineup, even during the longer Easter weekend. There isn't much of a savings in gas nowadays (unless you fill up at Costco in Bellingham), but if you still need gas it's cheaper there. And in my personal cases, I always make a trip out of picking up parcels. Usually Trader Joes or Bellingham/Blaine for brunch/lunch makes it worthwhile.

Shipping cross-border from the US into Canada will almost always cost you more than just the shipping charge from the retailer. You'd then need to factor in taxes and duties (from the government) and the dreaded "brokerage fee" from the shipping company of choice. That charge alone can be outrageous depending on how they determine the fees. On a $200 inline hockey order from HockeyMonkey, UPS charged me $90 in brokerage fees. Never again did I make that mistake.

So long story short, it's almost always cheaper to ship and pick up in the US, assuming you were getting a really good deal on the item in the first place. My personal cut-off is 25% off from local prices, all-in. Anything less than that, and I just buy locally.

The only times it might be cheaper is if your retailer ships via USPS and marks it as a gift, or if the retailer handles duties, taxes, and fees in the "all-in" price when you check out. I know BHPhoto does this, but I haven't seen it anywhere else.

It's not just the $25 shipping. for a $150 item, tax is $18, and brokerage is $20. Your $150 item is now over $200.

90% of the time, you just get waived off - at least from my experience. All the times I have been charged taxes was for items that I purchased that was greater than $300.

I usually factor in the price of US shipping vs CDN shipping and the cost of time/gas, etc. Having Nexus definately makes it less of a hassle to go pick up from the states, but I usually don't bother if the savings isn't >$20. That said, I usually order several things at once so I can make 1 trip. The savings on shipping on several items usually makes it worth shipping to the US.

When I buy car parts, shipping is usually free within the US. The parts can be heavy, ie: brake rotors, exhaust, intercooler, so shipping to Canada is $$$.

This was meant for packages delivered to Canada. I'm basically saying you'll save $50 by having it delivered to PR as opposed to Canada.

Its a sale for us customers so all together it would be $75 saved if I shipped to pr compared to canada. How would the us customs collect the tax and duty? I'm not a us citizen unless they charge the shipping depot and I pay when I pick up the package.

I've never had brokerage fee's charged to my orders before. The only company I heard that charged these fee's were DHL, but I guess I should add UPS to the list.

I think all my stuff from the states is USPS which I think is the best service and most economical.

But, in the above examples, I guess it's worth the shipping for big orders and .COM orders that won't ship to Canada.

I just know people who buy one or two items that could ship it to Canada for like $15 more and they would still ship to PR.

Whenever customs charges tax/duty - someone needs to prepay it, unless you contact them to clear it yourself. A brokerage company can pay for it - and if you have your own, you can pay lower fees - but generally, UPS/Fedex/Canada Post/Purolator, will all have their internal brokerage company that will clear customs for you and prepay your tax/duty.

They go anywhere from like $7.5 (I think Canada Post has gone up now though), to $25. You'll see this tacked onto your tax/duty form.

The brokerage fee is also generally flat rate - so even if the tax that you pay on the item is only $10, they could still charge you $15 brokerage on it.


Some sites in the states now are precharging duty/tax. If you go onto Ebay and find american sellers that ship to canada, or Amazon.com, and go to the final page for the payment - you'll see that they'll list all the tax/duty - but usually you'll still pay a fee on top of that.

It's all relative. Those people you speak of are akin to the people who drive 20 mins to save 5c/L for gas. Like I said, I need to see substantial savings on top of local pricing for me to think about picking up in the US, and that's taking into account a NEXUS pass. For example, I recently ordered clothes from a company who also has Canadian stores (AE if you're interested). It was much easier (and there were more items, sizes, and different clearance options) to shop online and get it done on the US site. Shipping and duty ended up being 8 bucks on a $120 order. I saved about $30 from the actual order, so net was ~$20. I'm not driving down to Blaine to save $8 so I had it shipped up.

Whether you're shipping something small or large, shipping down to the US is almost always cheaper in terms of monetary value. Factor in your time, effort, consumables, etc, and it's really up to you whether you feel like it's worth it to drive down and pick your stuff up.

Not everyone ships USPS, so while you've had good luck shipping most things from the US without getting dinged with brokerage fees, I along with a number of people I know have had the opposite experience.

I usually bundle my shipments. I may save only $10-20 on one order, but on other orders I may save $50+. The place I use in PR holds packages for 1 month so its much easier to pick up a few things at once. I find that under $350 they will almost always just wave you through without paying GST/PST, so that's a savings of another $40. Then I go on an empty tank, couple jerry cans, and end up saving another $30-40 on gas even factoring gas to drive to PR and back. I can't remember the last time I bought Canadian gas...

So the way I do it its a pretty substantial savings for an hour and a half, 2 hours if there is a line up at the border. Just requires a bit of planning and coordination ahead of time, but hardly an inconvenience.

how many litres do you bring back typically? 40?

Yeah 2 to 3 cans so 40 to 60L. PR gas is only about 20c a litre cheaper. In Bellingham it's usually about 40c a litre cheaper but we only do that trip if we need to do a big grocery run too

best place to order an oversized item to PR?

I only have an account at TLC never used any of the other services, can anyone vouch for one?

TSB shipping.

+1 for TSB as well. I shipped a bed liner for a truck there and had no issues.