A question on international shipping

[estile]

I would like to purchase items from US department stores but most will not ship to the UK.

I read somewhere that you can "buy/rent" a US postal address and have them forward items to you.

I'm not sure how it works. If anyone knows please fill me in.

Thanks in advance

 

[chloe-babe]

Hi Estile, I also looked into this (elux etc has the most devine things), but although you can get a US post address quite easily, you MUST have a US bank account to order anything, so they are quite clever, not really another way around it unfortunately

 

[secret shopaholic]

Estile

Neimann Marcus for example will ship if you call them but not on their website. I think there are a couple of other big department stores that will do that too.

 

[TammyD]

Some of these sites offer to buy the item for you using their US credit card but charge you a percentage for it. I've got friends from overseas who do this. It's worth looking into.

 

[estile]

Thanks for the responses. I was also thinking it may be a way to avoid the dreaded customs charges. I bought a handbag from a US seller once and had to pay almost a quarter of the purchase price in fees! I was not happy.

I guess I'll have to plan a trip to the US. Although didn't Coleen (Wayne Rooney's girl) get booked at Heathrow for not declaring items?

 

[sheherezade]

Estile, are you thinking about something like this?

http://www.parcel2go.com/orderusaddress.asp

 

[estile]

Estile, are you thinking about something like this?

http://www.parcel2go.com/orderusaddress.asp

Great link - that's exactly what I was thinking of. Many thanks

 

[secret shopaholic]

Estile

Are you going to go for this? As Chloe Babe mentioned do you also need a US bank account? Let me know how you get on as I would be interested in doing something similar if it worked. Do you still not get custom charges though when they do ship the item to you?

 

[estile]

Will do secret_shopaholic. I'm stil not sure how it all works but I'll contact them to find out.

 

[curlsaloud]

I have ordered regularly online from Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, using my UK credit card and a US delivery address which I obtained from a service run by http://www.shopthestates.com/ . Unfortunately STS has just closed down *cries* so I am currently looking at an alternative. A lot of the US stores will ship internationally if you call them up.

 

[estile]

Thanks for the info curlsaloud. Did it help with customs fees at all?

 

[curlsaloud]

Thanks for the info curlsaloud. Did it help with customs fees at all?

STS were *ahem* creative with their customs labels. I once bought a pair of Marc Jacobs shoes and a pair of Manolo Blahnik ankle boots and paid about a tenner customs

 

[jlhinbrisvegas]

I have been using myus.com for over a year now and have been very pleased with their service. I can have things shipped to my US address and they also have a personal shopper service. The fees are a bit more than some of the others, but I have never had any issues with them. They will also help with declared value (for customs purposes).

 

[Sternchen]

Estile

Neimann Marcus for example will ship if you call them but not on their website. I think there are a couple of other big department stores that will do that too.

If you use their online chat feature, they will allow you to place your order through there for international people

 

[iamsita]

What about internationalcheckout.com? Has anyone ever used them?