International Shipping - Best Rates?

[Matt Hutchinson]

Does anyone have much experience shipping packages internationally? Any recommendations for the cheapest rates?

Thanks,

Hutch

P.S. I am wanting to ship to Singapore.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Matt,

I have shipped gifts to a friend in NZ and USPS has some pretty good rates if it's a small package.

[Scott Shepherd]

You might want to look at more than pricing. I can't speak for Singapore, but I've mentioned this on here before. I have a family member that lives in Malaysia and he repeatedly tells anyone sending him things not to use anything but FedEx for him. He says they are the only ones he knows he'll get. He says that he almost never gets USPS packages people send him.

[Dave Anderson NH]

My international shipments for Chester toolworks go exclusively USPS. Ther are a number of pricing options available depending on how quickly you want to get something somewhere. The prime other advantage other than price and the convenience of going to the local post office is the cost of customs paperwork. As an example, even a package to Canada via UPS can have a $25 to $50 brokerage charge added to the actual shipping cost. I shipped a bowsaw to a customer in Victoria Australia a couple of years ago where he was willing to pay for International Priority mail. I think it was about $40 and he had the saw in 5 days. In 7 years of international shipments via USPS I only had 1 problem and it was with Canada Post on a damage cllaim which I ended up eating.