Cheapest way to send a package from the UK to US?

February 16, 2006 11:01 AM

What's the cheapest possible way to send a package from the UK to the US?

I need to send a box of books from the UK to the US (Texas). The package weights approx. 8kg and Royal Mail estimates that this will cost more than £50/$90. It would be delivered quite quickly, but is there a slower, cheaper way? The person has already paid about that much for the books and she will be paying for the shipping as well so it's turning into quite an expensive purchase for her. Any suggestions would be great!

posted by speranza to travel & transportation (10 comments total)

Is that airmail or surface mail?
posted by mcwetboy at 11:27 AM on February 16, 2006

Where are you getting the £50 number? According to this Royal Mail Surface Mail page, it should cost £23.21 to mail 5kg of printed papers. An additional 3kg would be another £14.01 for a total of £37.22.
posted by blue mustard at 11:28 AM on February 16, 2006

The cheapest possible way would be to contact a UK MeFite who's about to visit the US, have them toss it in their luggage and then post it when they get to the US using book rate.
posted by klangklangston at 11:28 AM on February 16, 2006

That's weird, blue mustard, I was using this page, but £37 sounds more reasonable.
posted by speranza at 11:46 AM on February 16, 2006

Ok. I guess the difference between that page and my link is that the calculator doesn't take into account the discount for printed matter (books). Also, it looks like the printed matter weight limit is 5kg, so she may need to split it into two packages. Not certain about this though.
posted by blue mustard at 12:25 PM on February 16, 2006

An M-bag would be the absolute cheapest, slowest option. There's not much info about them on the Royal Mail site, other than they have a maximum weight of 11kg.
posted by zsazsa at 12:45 PM on February 16, 2006

If you know anyone who works at the U.S. embassy, and is willing to ship it for you he/she can do it for cheap. I don't know how or why (I don't work at an embassy), but they have these privileges.
posted by Packy_1962 at 1:23 PM on February 16, 2006

I recommend DHL via Parcel2Go.com. Their <10kg USA/Canada service will get your parcel there in 4 working days, and cover it for up to £75.
posted by armoured-ant at 1:31 PM on February 16, 2006

(for £35.99)
posted by armoured-ant at 1:32 PM on February 16, 2006

Do you know anyone who works for an airline? My brother-in-law does (in the U.S.) and gets 75% off on FedEx global.
posted by neuron at 10:07 PM on February 16, 2006