Need a US Address for Shopping? Try Package Forwarding

Most online stores in the U.S. do not offer international shipping and they will deliver items only to addresses that are located inside the United States. Thus, if you are living in some other part of the world, how do you buy that Gucci handbag for your wife?

Well there’s an entire industry in the U.S. that exists primarily to solve this very problem of international shoppers who are trying to buy items directly from U.S. online stores that don’t ship overseas. They are primarily referred as “Mail and package forwarding” services.

I recently bought a microphone from Amazon.com but since they won’t ship to India, I used a package forwarding service and the thing got delivered here without any problems. Yes, there were some additional fees involved but that’s probably the quickest option you have if you desperately want to buy something from a US store (see alternatives).

How International Shopping Works?

All international mail forwarding services operate on a similar pattern. Once you’ve registered yourself, they’ll provide you with a unique postal address that you may use at any of the online shopping sites. The address will always include your unique account number so that all your incoming packages can be easily identified at the service’s warehouse.

Shop at your favorite online store and during checkout, simply provide your new U.S. address as the shipping address. The package will then arrive at the warehouse. In some cases, you may have to complete a 1583 form with an identity proof to authorize the forwarding service to act as your agent.

You may now ask the package forwarding company to ship the package to your actual postal address. Once it arrives in your country, depending on the item category and the total value of the shipment, you may have to pay import duties as well. That’s it!

For my Amazon package, which contained this Yeti Microphone, I used the pay-per-use plan of Bongo where you get a US mail address for a one-time fee of $5. The overall shipping costs are higher with this plan but there aren’t any monthly commitments.

I made the order at Amazon and passed on the tracking code to Bongo. Once the Amazon package arrived at their facility, they sent me a photograph of the package to confirm receipt. I then forwarded it to my address in India and the package reached here in the next five days. All in all, an extremely smooth transaction.

Which Package Forwarding Should You Use?

There are actually quite a few package forwarding services for you to choose from. The following table will give you a very rough idea of the costs involved - the actual shipping rates will vary depending on your country, the shipping mode (FedEx, USPS, DHL, etc.) that you've picked and, most importantly, on your package’s dimensional weight.

			Shipping Rates to India*
		Sign-up Fees	1.0 lbs (0.5 kg)	5.0 lbs (2.3 kg)	Warehouse Location
1.	Bongo	$5 (one time)	$55	$91	CT
2.	MyUS	$10 (one time)	$44	$78	FL
3.	Shipito	$8.50 (per package)	$43	$64	CA, OR, NV
4.	USGlobalMail	$10 (per month)	$63	$86	TX
5.	USA2Me	$23 (one time)	$35	$59	TX
6.	VIAddress	-	$35	$55	IN
7.	ShopAndShip	$35 (one time)	$10	$42	NY

Shopping at US Online stores – Things to know

#1. You could be charged based on the size of the package or its actual weight depending on which is greater. Thus, the international shipping charges for importing 5 lbs of cotton would be higher than say 5 lbs of sand even though the physical weight is similar.

#2. The package forwarding services have warehouses in different states and that may be a consideration if your shopping website charges sales tax for certain states.

#3. Some online stores may require that the billing address associated with your credit card / PayPal is also located in the US. Bongo, Shipito and MyUS offer an easy workaround for a fee – if a store doesn’t accept international credit cards, these services can buy the goods on your behalf and also ship it to you.

#4. Aramex’s Shop and Ship and Bongo have warehouses in UK as well thus allowing international shoppers an option to purchase stuff directly from EU based shopping websites.

#5. If you have bought items from multiple stores, you can ask the package forwarding service to club everything in one box so that you have to pay less for international shipping. You may have to pay an additional fee for consolidation.

Please note that you may not be able to buy items from Apple’s Online Store using the above service since Apple is known not to ship goods to any of the parcel forwarding services.

Also, pay special attention to the shipping cost calculators that are available on all websites to ensure that there aren’t any hidden costs like fuel surcharges. The costs do no include import fees or customs duty that may be applicable in your country.

[Black Friday] GoDaddy Special Discount on .Com Domains

This Black Friday, companies around the world offering awesome discounts on their products and services. Yesterday I told you about the biggest discount ever 80 % Off on web hosting from HostGator. GoDaddy, too, has announced a superb offer, you can register 1 year .com domains for just $5. The offers start from today and will be available till Monday.

You can register 1 year .com domains for just $5 during these 4 days that is from 26th November through 29th November. You can buy as many $5.00 .com domains as you want.

Note: You can only take advantage of this great offer by clicking the below banner.

Don’t miss this great offer!! This limited offer is one of the best deal by GoDaddy this Black Friday. Share this post with your friends and let them know about this offer.

Show your love by giving thumbs up.

[Black Friday] Flat 80% Off on Hostgator Web Hosting

When I was going to migrate from Blogger to WordPress platform, I asked experts which hosting to choose. They all said me to go for Hostgator. Then I bought Hostgator 1 year hosting for $59. Within few seconds after making the payment, I got a call from Hostgator company for thanking me and telling how to get started. Now you have an idea how fast the support was. Hostgator is going to run away a special discount on this Black Friday. You can get flat 80% off on any Hostgator packages.

A month ago I bought Hostgator 1 year Hatchling plan for $59, that time they were giving 50% off.  80% off is a big discount it means you can get the same hosting for 3 years for just $35.6. Isn’t great?

Black Friday promotion starts at 12:00 AM Friday November 26^th CST (-6 GMT) and will run until 11:59PM CST (-6 GMT) 11/26/2010.

Here is the Black Friday Special Offer:

50% OFF EVERYTHING From 12:00AM CST – 5AM CST

80% OFF EVERYTHING From 5AM – 9AM CST WHILE SUPPLIES LAST (first come, first receive; so definitely don’t miss out!)

From 9AM – 11:59PM CST OR after 80% OFF accounts have sold out, they will continue to offer 50% OFF EVERYTHING.

You will have the opportunity to receive up to 80% off of up to 3 years worth of Hosting! That would come out to $35.64 for 3 FULL YEARS!

A Chance to get:

Shared Hosting – $4.95/month AS LOW AS $0.99/month

Reseller Hosting – $24.95/month AS LOW AS $4.99/month

VPS Hosting – $19.95/month AS LOW AS $3.99 First Month

Dedicated Servers – $174/month AS LOW AS $34.80 First Month

As you can see, this is an absolutely CRAZY DEAL!

Note: Remember this offer is only running for 1 DAY on Black Friday.

Indian Timing for this Offer

50% OFF EVERYTHING From 11:30 AM (26th Nov.) – 4:30 PM (26th Nov.)

80% OFF EVERYTHING From 4:30 PM (26 Nov.) – 8:30 PM (26th Nov.) WHILE SUPPLIES LAST (first come, first receive; so definitely don’t miss out!)

From 8:30 PM (26th Nov.) – 11:30 AM (27th Nov.) OR after 80% OFF accounts have sold out, they will continue to offer 50% OFF EVERYTHING.

First Come First Serve’

Use Coupon Code: BIGBLACKSALE

Offer starts at 12:00 AM Friday November 26^th CST (-6 GMT) and will run until 11:59PM CST (-6 GMT) 11/26/2010. For Indians, Offer starts at 11:30 AM Friday November 26th and will run until 11 :29 AM November 27th. Don’t miss this great offer, click the image above to get 80% off on all web hosting plans.

By the way, if you have any questions about this great offer, drop your comments here.

Show your love by giving thumbs up.

Godaddy Trick: Get Two .INFO Domains For $1 Only

1) First of all you need to login to your Godaddy account. If you don’t have an account over there, you can easily create one just by visiting Godaddy website and clicking ‘Sign Up’ link.

2) Now choose two available .com domain names of your choice. Lets say, if you want moderntattooblog.info and moderntattooshop.info for $1 only, you have to add moderntattooblog.com and moderntattooshop.com to your Godaddy cart. After you’ve chosen two .com domain names, just select 1-year registration for both domain names and add them to your cart. The amount of your order will appear in the cart and it’ll be around $20.

3) Now here’s the trick. When you register a domain name with Godaddy, it always suggests you to register the matching domain names. That’s what you have to do here. There should be a matching .info domain name available that will show up in the ‘Add these matching domains’ area to the right of each item. Take a look at the screenshot below. You have to add both .info domain names separately to the cart.

4) Once you’ve added both .info domains to your cart, the total amount will now be around $22. Now here’s the most important part, delete the .com domains from your cart and continue to checkout with the remaining .info domains for 49 cents each (Plus $0.36 ICANN Fee for two domains). Here’s the screenshot I took when I deleted both .com domains from the cart. You can see the amount is now $1.34 only.

You must be wondering why I’m saying you to buy two .info domains. That’s because if you add a .com domain name that costs $10 and later on, add matching .info domain name that costs $0.49 to your cart and when you delete the .com domain, the total amount left in the cart will be $0.49 (Plus $0.18 ICANN Fee). You won’t be able to check out because Godaddy shopping cart doesn’t process amounts less than $1. 

That’s it! When you’re done with all the steps, congratulations, you have just bought two .info domains of your choice at a cheap price from Godaddy. If you’ve missed the last Godaddy $1 domain coupon code, I’d recommend you to try this trick. If you don’t have any problem with .info domains, this is the best offer. Try it anytime and let me know if it doesn’t work for you. Go to Godaddy website.