A Canadian Lolita’s guide to custom fees and self clearance!
***All of this is information is based on my experiences with the subject. I am not an expert and this is just advice.***
I’ve gotten most of my information by just googling “how to self clear a package Canada” and the following article. Please do your own research on addition to this guide!
https://borderbee.com/2014/01/13/how-to-self-clear-your-parcel-with-customs/
What are custom fees?
For most USA based lolitas, they have never faced customs and duties when receiving a package unless it is over 1000$ worth or more (the reasons for this I dont think I could explain very well, so please do us both a favour and if your curious just google it :,) )
Unfortunately for all of us who do not live in the US of A, we have to face taxation and fees on any imported shipment outside of the country. Yes, that means all of your beloved burando is going to cost even MORE! T^T
The price of these fees will be determined by you provinces tax % (in Quebec, taxes are around 15% of the total amount spent) and if you choose to accept the courrier company’s brokerage fees.
What are brokerage fees?
Brokerage fees are a fee imposed onto you by the courrier company for acting as your broker and clearing your shipments customs for you. These fees, like taxes vary with the amount spent and from company to company.
UPS notarially has the most expensive brokerage fees. As an example, I bought a dress from a us seller on lace market for around 285$ and my customs and duties came up to around 90$. They were trying to charge me more brokerage fees than taxes! If I remember correctly, it was around 50$ for the brokerage fees and 40$ of taxes.
I avoided these insanely high and unwanted fees by self clearing my package.
What is self clearance?
You can probably guess that self clearing is not accepting your courrier service to act as you broker and clearing your customs yourself.
This sounds intimidating and like you need a law degree to go through with it but I promise you this is so easy. There’s only 4 steps to this.
Step number one
First step is to find you courrier services email adresse or phone number.
Since I’m a girlypop with phone anxiety, I usually choose to contact them no matter what by email and sometimes that can be hard to find! Because these companies want to make money, they kind of want to make this as hard for you to do as possible! If you’d like to call them, The phone numbers for customer service is usually very clearly displayed on their official websites.
Here are the two email addresses that I’ve successfully self cleared my packages with in Quebec, Canada. I’ll try and add to this post when I have more!
UPS : [email protected]
FedEx : [email protected]
Once you have the email address, you send them a polite email saying
“hello, I would like to self clear my package with the following tracking number : [enter your tracking # here]. Can you please send me the necessary documents to do so?”
If you are uncertain about the email address you can always ask in advance that if they can’t help you to transfer you to someone who can.
Wait for a response with your needed documents, usually you will receive a response within 1 business days depending on the time of day you sent it.
Step number two
Print out ALL of the documents given to you. You are better off being over prepared than underprepared.
Step number three
You need to find your local CBSA office and get your poofy self down there. You can find your nearest cbsa by just googling cbsa [name of your city].
*Most if not all cbsa offices open at 8am and close at 4pm and are NOT open on weekends, so be aware of this if you work a 9-5*
Once you’re there you just need to wait in line, tell the customs officers that you’re there to pay your custom fees on a self cleared package and from there on they will tell you what to do and who to talk to. Make sure to bring ID with picture and corresponding address, just in case.
They might make you fill stuff out, they might not, all depending on how much information your shopping service gave the courrier service. When they’ve confirmed everything, they will ask for you to pay the taxes that are due and will give you a receipt. KEEP THE RECEIPT and pay attention to make sure they stamp it!
Step number four (final)
Take a picture or scan receipt and documents given back to you and send a copy back to the email address that sent you your documents (or if they direct you to send the receipt to another address, follow their instructions). Your courrier service needs to have proof that you have paid for your customs and duties.
And there you go! You have successfully self cleared a your package!
Sometimes you will have to pick up your package at l one of your courrier service’s locations but other times they will just proceed with the delivery as usual. They usually tell you in advance if you need to pick it up, but checking your tracking Is a more effective way to determine whether or not you need to do so.
If you do end up picking it up, be sure to bring your receipt and documents when getting it so the employees will have an easier time finding your package. Again, better to be over prepared than under prepared!
Extra tips!
- stick up for yourself! You have every right to self clear and you should not take no for an answer under any circumstances! The delivery people can be at your doorstep and you can and should deny accepting the delivery until they recognize that you self cleared or are self clearing your package.
- you should act as quickly as possible if you want to do this, especially if you have chosen an express delivery.
- usually you should only start this process when your package has entered Canada, but most of the time I have had success self clearing the second I get a customs invoice. I have had some unsuccessful attempts starting this process early with DHL though.
- in my experience, no two self clearances are ever the same. Sometimes it can go extremely smoothly and other times you be scared that they’ll send the package back to the sender. Be calm and always prepare for the worst.
- you should almost always declare your package as a gift, if your package is worth less than or equal to 60$ Canadian, you should not get charged custom fees. If it is more than, they should only charge you [the actual amount] - 60$cad (example 100$ - 60 = you should only pay 40$ worth of customs)
If you have any feedback on this I’d love to hear it! Again I’m just an amateur speaking from experience! :)
how to self-clear your parcel with customs
