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- Jul 12, 2020
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Hi PCF,
Being an "International" chipper the choice of whether or not to insure my parcels is always is a constant one. Because I usually purchase from mulitple members and have them all sent to a US address to consolidate my parcels before reshipping home the value of a single parcel can well exceed my country's limits of when customs duties and sales tax are applicable, which becomes an extra expense for us internationals. Are options currently are to under-declare and under insure and take the risk, Ship and insure according to value to be under the threshold and pay the extra shipping or declare and insure for the actual value and pay hope customs miss it.
All three options aren't without their risks. So I got thinking, what if there was another way to have you cake and eat it to? From quickly browsing the internet there is a whole host of companies that offering shipping insurance. Effectively this will allow you to "declare" whatever value you want to the shipping provider to mitigate the risk of customs duties and sales tax in the receiving country but also insure the parcel with the 3rd party insurer for "replacement" cost in the event there is damage or loss.
Has anyone ever done this before or had similar thoughts or can see any pitfalls with what I'm suggesting?
Here is an example third-party provider.
https://u-pic.com/ .
(I'm currently waiting to hear back if poker chips are insurable under their policy as coins and currency are excluded)
There are more is one cares to look. Maybe we can "Group Buy" a policy discount for the forum. Anyone work in insurance and have some insight into this? A cheaper and more reliable insurance policy would also benefit local chippers in the event something got lost in the US.
Thank for taking the time to read through this and I look forward to hearing your respective thoughts.
Being an "International" chipper the choice of whether or not to insure my parcels is always is a constant one. Because I usually purchase from mulitple members and have them all sent to a US address to consolidate my parcels before reshipping home the value of a single parcel can well exceed my country's limits of when customs duties and sales tax are applicable, which becomes an extra expense for us internationals. Are options currently are to under-declare and under insure and take the risk, Ship and insure according to value to be under the threshold and pay the extra shipping or declare and insure for the actual value and pay hope customs miss it.
All three options aren't without their risks. So I got thinking, what if there was another way to have you cake and eat it to? From quickly browsing the internet there is a whole host of companies that offering shipping insurance. Effectively this will allow you to "declare" whatever value you want to the shipping provider to mitigate the risk of customs duties and sales tax in the receiving country but also insure the parcel with the 3rd party insurer for "replacement" cost in the event there is damage or loss.
Has anyone ever done this before or had similar thoughts or can see any pitfalls with what I'm suggesting?
Here is an example third-party provider.
https://u-pic.com/ .
(I'm currently waiting to hear back if poker chips are insurable under their policy as coins and currency are excluded)
There are more is one cares to look. Maybe we can "Group Buy" a policy discount for the forum. Anyone work in insurance and have some insight into this? A cheaper and more reliable insurance policy would also benefit local chippers in the event something got lost in the US.
Thank for taking the time to read through this and I look forward to hearing your respective thoughts.
