How to send stuff abroad for reasonable price?!

[yummymumtobe]

I want to send a small box to Canada which weighs nearly 6 kg. The Post Office quoted me £86!!! Surely there is a better way? Any ideas? The value of the package is about £100 and contains books.

I would buy from Amazon Canada to avoid posting from UK. Too late for your current parcel!

Hi there, you may be better off separating the package into smaller. I seem to recall that the price really hikes when you are in excess of 2kg. Ask at your local post office. Amazon Canada is not as good as UK Amazon. I sometimes use www.chapters.indigo.ca/home/?s_campaign=goo-Corporate-E&gclid=CLHFk_vs3rgCFe4-MgodkVEAhA - not amazingly cheap but sometimes they have sales.

Definitely split the package up. I expect you have been quoted for Parcelforce instead of Royal Mail as maximum weight for printed papers is 5kg. If you can get it to 2 x 3kg for example, that reduces the price to about £68 for airmail or about £29 for surface mail.

Or book a courier through a comparison site like interparcel or parcel2go. Depends on the size of the box and pickup/destination addresses, but I would guess about £45. Parcel2go used to be on topcashback.

But books are bloody heavy . Hope this is not too late for you OP!

I find DHL cheaper than Royal Mail for overseas parcels.

there are good links on moneysavingexpert, I'll put one on here in a sec but for me to send a 10kg parcel to DD in New York is about £35

\link{http://www.transglobal.org.uk/get_quote.asp\transglobal} quotes £29 for 6kg to Canada

\link{http://www.worldwide-parcelservices.co.uk/\worldwide} quotes about £48

I think dimensions make a difference so if it's something light but large it costs more. small & heavy is cheapest!

It's the other way round usually with books - small but heavy boxes incur "dimensional surcharge" as they are heavier than average. They will try and get you either way...

Transglobal look a good bet though, especially if only sending occassionally. And if only books in the box, you can usually use a "documents" service instead of "parcels" which is often cheaper.

Have a look on Parcel2Go, I use them a lot and send massive 30kg boxes from UK to Europe for about £18. They compare and you can pick the option you want, I always pick UPS and have never had a problem.

For the future try the Book Depository, free postage worldwide.

Can you send vouchers or money next time ? Therefore saving huge postage fee