obviously there are lots of you on site who have moved to the US. how best/cheapest to transport all your stuff??

price? good companies? air or sea? door to door? good/bad experiences?

share them

I used two companies :-

Airfreight :-
Excess Baggage to airfrieght 26kgs of things I needed almost straight away, from St Albans, Herts to Columbus Ohio. This cost me £300 all in all - £230 from Excess Baggage, and the other £70 in additional costs such as US customs fees, handling and storage. The US handling agent had issues reading the faxed copies of the forms from Excess Baggage, but never bothered to call me for a couple of days. It was only upon me calling them that things got put into action.

Unfortunately, I also fell foul of a Federal holiday, thus Customs couldn't check and clear it for another day. Despite putting exactly what it was on the forms, they still had to check it; standard procedure according to the handling agent. Still, I think from collection to delivery, it took just under two weeks. THis was a house to house service.

Sea Freight :-
And for the rest of my things, I used a company called 1st Move International - www.shipit.co.uk. As the rest of my things were in 'storage' at my parents house, it made sense to use a local company, even though still charged £70 for the collection of the goods.
Still, this was better than Excess Baggage, who were going to charge an absolute fortune for collection, despite saying they would beat any quote.

To ship just under 1 cubic metre of goods from Bristol to their warehouse in Columbus cost me £750, which included insurance, any US customs charges, and a credit card surcharge. I wish I had more things to ship, as the minimum charge was for 2 cubic metres. As I had very heavy goods, which included books and hifi speakers, airfreighting was completely out of the question.
The boat is due to sail at the end of this month, and is scheduled to arrive mid April, with my goods being available for collection from their Columbus depot soon afterwards. As we have a gas guzzling SUV, local pickup shouldn't be an issue.

All in all, both experiences have been good; both companies have been quick to respond to email and phone queries.

I hope this helps !

Regards,
Martin

yeh thats great

thank you very much

its likely my stuff would be shipped from bristol also

26kilos isnt very heavy..and it cost £300? Jeez
I was hoping to use them (excessbaggage) to ship my books but Im pretty sure I have more than 26 kilos worth - got about 800 paperbacks and thats AFTER getting rid of the ones I could bear to be without - the rest are keeprs,lol I have a few other 'bits' but those are the heaviest.
Gonna be taking extra suitcases for all our clothes (and just pay excess on the flight)

Jaylen, remember, that was a door to door airfreight service which also included insurance. If you're within the M25 area, then Excess Baggage do not charge for UK collection and delivery services to their warehouse - they subcontract this to DHL or similar. The delivery to the USA destination address is included in the price.
I had an additional $120 to pay, which was due to unforeseen customs and storage charges.



That's what I did. I flew out on Continental with two large rucksacs, and a bike. The bike was in a bike bag, but I called ahead to check the policies; I was going to get charged a flat fee of £60 one way, so I packed as much additional clothes and things into the bike bag as it could hold - I figured it would be extra protection for an expensive bike.

Hope that helps..

Martin

I used a shipping company based in Enfield, Middlesex and they were awesome....I shipped 24 very, very heavy boxes, including a large wooden chest (heavy again) and it cost me 1,100 pounds...that was door to door and the delivery guys even put the boxes in the right room....it was shipped from UK to Los Angeles and then by road to Colorado (1,100 miles) ....they dealt with all the customs forms etc., it was very painless.

So it might be worth getting a quote from a local shipping company.


Jen

Mark,

Take a look at this thread which was started a few days ago. In it I have given some info regarding using the excess baggage services provided by most airlines. If you're not shipping a huge amount of stuff, this might be an option worth considering.

I shipped 3 extra bags each weighing 32kg (the max allowed for checked luggage on American Airlines) and it only cost me 170GBP all the way from Heathrow to St. Louis via Chicago.

Mark

Thanks
I am actually within the M25 area - at least i think I am! lol I live in Beckenham in Kent which is in a London Borough.
The main issue for me is weighing the damn stuff.. I know people have said stand on bathroom scales holding the stuff (minus your own weight) and I can't say I'm looking forward to doing that but really there seems no easier way
As it is Ive decided that some of our items I can leave here and just re-buy Stateside - I figure its probably cheaper than freighting them, and then if they get damaged, having to replace them anyway.

[/quote]

Thanks
I am actually within the M25 area - at least i think I am! lol I live in Beckenham in Kent which is in a London Borough.
The main issue for me is weighing the damn stuff.. I know people have said stand on bathroom scales holding the stuff (minus your own weight) and I can't say I'm looking forward to doing that but really there seems no easier way
As it is Ive decided that some of our items I can leave here and just re-buy Stateside - I figure its probably cheaper than freighting them, and then if they get damaged, having to replace them anyway.
[/quote]

We're practically neighbours Jaylen, i'm in Bromley... for the next 24 hours

I'm using Excess International Movers for my stuff (tel. 0208 324 2057) they are charging me £737 for 100 cubic feet, including wrapping, packing, port and terminal handling charges, customs clearance, delivery to residence and unpacking. The cost for 125 cubic feet is £834. They've been very helpful so far, I've dealt with a guy called Peter Hatt.

lol man! Small world!!
100 cubic feet..you now I have no clue how big that is..compare it something for me..size of a car? fridge? Small mammal? ( )

That sounds like a comparable price to excess baggage..I take it its door-to-door? Whats the ETA at your US address?

Very small world, I've actually been staying in Beckenham!

OK 100 cubic feet is something like this 5 x 5 x 4 = 100 basically it's the same size as a pallet and about 5ft high so like a big fridge freezer i suppose. Mine's all different shapes and sizes so god knows how they worked it all out.

That price was from the M25 area too.

If you do call them mention me, I might get a discount!

ETA is 4-7 weeks from collection

1000 thanks
I will check them out - its hard to gt an idea of how BIG a packing box/crate is when people mention weights - I know they say 'stand on scales with items in hand then minus your own weight' but I have books all over the house - and right now nothing to put them in other than the bookshelves they are on - so its a reall FAFF to try and do that. Also it gives me no idea - I'm very spatially-awareness challenged!

sanita used global link....sent all her china..6 crates...no brokage..delivered from almaty kazakhstan to our door..