Need a US address for postal or shopping delivery when international shopping? We’ve taken a good look at some of the main providers and compared services, fees and reviews. There are many of them and each seems to provide a good service depending upon what level of service you require. Shipping fees vary considerably between companies and service levels, some focus on shipping to certain regions such as Asia, others have a more all round service and can ship to 200 countries, so there should be something for everyone. Our pick as the best all rounder is USGoBuy.com. You may or may not find them to be the best for you, but for most people with an average amount of yearly international shopping they should provide you with a service at prices you will be happy with.
Top Pick
Our top pick for US address providers is USGoBuy.com. Why? Because they provide the best service that most people will need. They deliver to a large number of countries, all over the world, and their charges are reasonable. They have a good approval rating from many customers.
US Addresses
If you are going to shop in the USA from overseas there is a good chance you might need a US shopping address. This is especially true for shops that don’t offer international shipping, but also when you wish to buy from many different shops as it is a way of consolidating your shopping into one package, and this might save you money. When looking for a forwarder you will need to consider many factors, such as are they reliable, what are their fees, can they purchase the shopping on my behalf (if you don’t have a US credit card), and what other services do they provide?
Think carefully about what services you do need, and check that they will deliver to your country. Most will deliver all over the world, but some are a little more niche and will only ship to, say, The Middle East for example.
Research
We have taken a good look at as many of the US address companies as we can find, and compared their services, fees and reviews to attempt to come up with an unbiased recommendation of the best place to get a US shopping address. The companies we have looked at are: ShopandShip.com, vPost.com, Borderlinx.com, MyUS.com, USGoBuy.com, comGateway.com, Viabox.com, Shipito.com, Stackry.com, Bongous.com (now called crossborder.fedex.com), Reship.com, Opas.com. We have tried to make this quite comprehensive, and there are other providers. If you know of any that you think should be considered we are happy to take a look and include them in this comparison of Forwarders, so please get in touch.
Some of the companies specialise in their own territories, for example, ShopandShip is located in Dubai and ships primarily to Asia and Africa, vPost is operated by Singapore Mail and ships primarily to Singapore, India and Australia. Most of the others will ship to about 200 countries, or so, and some will provide more than just US addresses, so if you are looking for UK, European and even Japanese shopping addresses, these are possible too.
Services
Consider which services you will need. You will probably want to have your parcels repackaged to reduce their size and therefore shipping cost. If you are buying more than one item, you might need the packages consolidated into one, this too will decrease your delivery prices.
Will you want photos of the packages to confirm they are right and in good condition before posting? And do you want to make sure that you pay any import duty and taxes before you take delivery, otherwise you may have to pay something afterwards and the package be held up at customs.
Some US address companies will provide some of these services for free and others will charge, and the amounts vary from one to another.
Sales tax is another consideration, some of the US based shopping addresses are based in no sales tax states such as Oregon, where USGoBuy.com and OPAS.com have their warehouses, they claim a saving of 7-10% on your shopping. MyUs.com offer a tax free zip or post code. They claim that none of your purchases will have sales tax levied if you use their postal code.
Fees
These are not services that come for free, unfortunately! There is a cost, some will charge a joining or monthly fee and for others, it is pay as you go. If you pay a fee you generally get cheaper shipping rates, so it depends upon how often you shop and how many packages you want shipped. Fees vary considerably depending upon the destination country and size, weight of the package. Shipping companies use dimensional or volumetric weight to calculate the cost, this involves measure the size of the parcel to be delivered.
MyUS.com offer a free 30 day trial and then $7 a month for their premium package. Shipito.com’s premium package is $10 a month. These accounts are really for the more serious shopper. When comparing for yourself, be sure to look at package consolidation, repackaging, storage, photos; do they calculate import duty and allow you to pay upfront?
For some providers these services will be included and for others there is an extra fee. For instance Borderlinx.com offers 30 days free storage and their repackaging service used to cost $10 and is now free. USGoBuy.com will repackage and consolidate the first 10 items and charge $0.99 for every package over 10, Stackry.com charge $5 per package for repackaging. Repackaging means unpacking the shopping and repacking it into smaller parcels to save money on the shipping costs.
If you are unable to pay for the shopping, if you don’t have a US credit or debit card, and that is all the shop will accept, then you may need to look at using their personal shopper services. Fees vary from company to company for this services and is generally in the 5-10% range. Borderlinx.com calls it their concierge service and charges 5%, minimum order $10. USGoBuy.com charges 10%. I don’t think that ShopandShip.com offers the services and MyUS.com vaies between 3-0% depending upon your package and how you pay bank transfer is cheaper than credit card.
Shipping rates. These vary considerably according to your country and which package you have signed up for. Most shipping companies use a variety of shippers including DHL, FedEX, Aramex and many others. This generally means that you can choose a delivery service and transit time to suit. Fancy express? Then it is possible or you want to save on cost and don’t mind waiting a little longer, then you can choose a slower delivery service.
Most companies have a shipping calculator on their website, so it is relatively easy to compare shipping prices. A quick comparison at the ones that we could get quotes from show that, at the time of writing this, shipping cost for a 2kg package from the USA to Australia, MyUS.com offered a budget Economy service for $39.99, it will take 7-14 days though, expedited shipping is a bit more. USGoBuy.com offered an express service, no budget economy, for $57. Borderlinx.com charges $98 USD.
Reviews
We have a reviews section on this website which we have consulted when writing this article. As well as this we have used Google and other review website to compare reviews and get a feel for the satisfaction levels of the customers of each of these companies. We have looked at unbiased reviews from reputable sources to find the one that ranks the best. Stackry seems to have consistently good reviews although there weren’t as many of them as for some others. ShopandShip.com and Borderlinx.com have many complaints and USGoBuy.com reviews are mostly very good.
There are bound to be times when things go wrong and these companies will all have bad reviews, but in our research we have not found anything that means we could definitely say do not use this company. In terms of customer satisfaction, they all seem to be doing a good job most of the time.
Conclusion
Whilst we are going to pick one to recommend for a USA address. They all differ in many ways and the one you will want to choose for yourself will depend upon many factors including where you live, and what services you need. We would recommend looking and comparing a few of them before signing up to use. If you are a frequent shopper you could test out 3 or 4 yourself before deciding upon the one you want to use longer term.
Our decision is not based upon any other factor than it being a good allrounder, nothing in the reviews to suggest sloppy or bad service, it doesn’t have unnecessarily high fees and it has a good number of counties it will deliver to, so that almost anyone can use them. Our pick is USGoBuy.com.
* Some of the companies on this site and in this article may offer a commission to use when people sign up to their service. Our picks, advice and recommendations are made inspite of this. We aim to be unbiased and informative and not influenced by financial compensation. We use the commission to operate this site and pay professional writers and experts to create useful, informative content, to help others make good decisions. By using the links on this website you are helping to support our work. Thank you.
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