husbands wants this nice electric griddle from usa if i fedex or ups to our cancun condo how much duty do you think??or should i pay to put on checked luggage??will i be able to get through customs
How much is it worth? Is it over the Customs limit (which is $300 USD, I think)? You probably have a better chance of not paying a duty if you fly in with it in your luggage than if you ship it in.
I have a friend that if she she didn't get a 90% discount on Fed Ex, would have paid $250 USD to ship a Toaster/Roatiserie Oven. It wasn't all the large, or heavy. A first class ticket for it would have been cheaper.
Definitely bring it with you, and don't ship it!!! I just shipped a computer cord/battery from Canada that weighed in under 2 pounds, and paid $90. We shipped using fed-ex, and were charged no duty. Just wouldn't do it again, unless absolutely necessary!
I have shipped things from the US to Cancun using FEDEX. The shipping costs were expensive even using highly discounted corporate rate(not 90%). I used my international shipping department to create commercial invoices and duty taxes were non-existent as these were perpared documents from a company that ships a significant amount of product worldwide. One time I prepared the document myself and got hit with duty on what should have been under the limit. The shipping costs alone can be significant even for what could be considered small items. All this said I would bring it down with you as long as you can put it in a suitcase.
Just bring the receipt in case you are questioned. I just brought a juicer on Monday, one of the not so cheap ones. I had it apart and therefore out of the box with part in my carry on and part in a checked bag. Of course I had no problem with the juicer but they wondered about the few cans of organic soup I had. I told them I had my tonsils out and could not eat anything but liquids and organic soup. No problem then. Only thing was I did not mention that it was a month and a half ago. One of my strangest adventures was bringing in an expensive Sony flat panel monitor for a buddy a couple of years ago. I had it packed in a checked bag and it was wrapped in bubble wrap. On top of the monitor was a partially stripped out laptop that the same friend was going to use for parts, having taken it there a few weeks before for a repair that turned out to be too costly. I had my own laptop in my backpack. Well, they thought they had me for over the limit computers when they saw it on the scanner but it was fine when I showed them it was in pieces and of no value. I think they saw the monitor and the laptop as one image. The big problem if you get nabbed over the $300 allowance (which increases to $1,000 during the Christmas and Easter seasons, is just the time involved. The duties are only 15% on the amount over the allowance but the time is just draining.
