Borderlinx and MyUS are both companies that offer US forwarding mailboxes so you can shop online, mail stuff to your US address and then have them forward it to your home in Kuwait. I’ve been using Aramex Shop&Ship since 2001 for my regular day to day shopping but a few years ago I signed up to Borderlinx since sometimes I needed my shipments to get to Kuwait fast and Shop&Ship is just too slow. Everything was fine and dandy until I realized Borderlinx was taking an 8.5% customs clearance fee on top of the 5% customs fee which I thought was absurd. So, I decided to try an alternative and I signed up to MyUS last month. This review is strictly Borderlinx vs MyUS and doesn’t include Shop&Ship because Shop&Ship is a lot cheaper as well as a lot slower (apples vs oranges).
MyUS has been around since 1997, I first heard about them back in 2001 but ended up going with the much more affordable Shop&Ship instead. The reason I never signed up to MyUS even years later was their expensive shipping prices and fees. MyUS have different membership fees, the standard involves paying just $10 to open an account and no annual fee, but you don’t get the best shipping rates and you can’t consolidate your packages. To get the best deal you would have to sign up to their “premium” package but that costs $20 to setup and either $7 a month or $60 a year in membership fees. Recently though I found out that MyUS had special rates for credit card holders (which I posted here) where they not only waved all the setup fees but also offered additional discounts on shipping. I ended up signing up with my AMEX card which entitled me to free membership for 2 years as well as 30% off all my shipments.
Since I’m heading to SoleDXB next weekend I decided to order a backpack for the trip. I couldn’t risk shipping it with Shop&Ship and have it arrive after my trip so I sent it to MyUS mailbox instead. It was a bit risky since I hadn’t used my MyUS account yet but figured this would be the best way to test them out.
MyUS allows you to customize a lot of different account options if you want to, for example they deal with a variety of shipping companies but if you have a preference you can say always use DHL or always use FedEx but by default its set on “Least Expensive Option”. You can also setup your account to ship packages as soon as they arrive or hold them until you choose to ship them. For an extra fee you can have them photograph the item for you, ship same day, add fragile stickers, add extra packing, discard shoe boxes and a bunch of more options. The different settings can be a bit overwhelming but you can not bother with them at all if you don’t want to.
Once my package got delivered to MyUS it popped up in my account on the same day. I then logged into my account and told them to ship it for me and this is where things weren’t as pretty as Borderlinx. With Borderlinx before you give the shipping order you’ll know exactly how much the shipping fee would cost as well as the customs fee, with MyUS you won’t know until your package is already shipped. I found that a bit uncomfortable since I’m not used to saying ship without knowing exactly how much it’s going to cost me. In any case a few hours later I got an email saying my package was shipped with FedEx and my credit card was charged. So I logged into my account to check and see how much it cost me. Based on the size of the package and weight, the package cost $93.74 to ship with insurance. With my 30% AMEX discount the price went down to $67.42. I took the package dimensions and weight and plugged them into the Borderlinx shipping cost calculator and ended up with an $85 shipping fee without insurance. Not a bad amount of savings but I was now worried about the customs fee. Borderlinx quoted me $52 for customs while with MyUS I needed to wait until the package arrived to Kuwait to find out. Three days later my package arrived to Kuwait and the total customs fee was around $30, I was relieved.
I saved around $40 by using MyUS over Borderlinx and the package arrived just as fast. MyUS has now officially become my go to mailbox for when I need my packages ASAP. I still find it uncomfortable to have them charge my credit card without knowing how much it’s going to cost me first but I’m just going to have to get used to it I guess. If you’re interested in signing up, make sure you check my previous post on MyUS to know how much you can save using which credit card. [Link]
19 replies on “Review: Borderlinx vs MyUS”
1. Was the bag released from Kuwait customs only after you paid MyUS the $30?
2. Was it delivered to your Kuwait address or did you have to pick it up yourself?
1) no fedex paid for the customs and then i paid them on delivery
2) delivered
Borderlinx are the worst company I have ever dealt with. They disposed my package without informing me or take my permission which is outrageous, I found out when my package was late and I contacted them.
They say it was a prohibited item though it is clearly mentioned in their website they should take my permission to send it back to the sender or destroy it.
I am currently seriously thinking of filing a lawsuit. I do not recommend them to anyone. It is good that we have other alternatives.
MyUS can be significantly cheaper than shop&ship if you put multiple packages into one box.
I use MyUS because I get like 35% discount and only use them on laptops graphics cards..etc
items that are worth over 100 Bucks I ship them with MyUS
Borderlinx they are ripping you off infront of your eyes with customs and shipping fees.
I worked in 2 shipping companies before and by far Borderlinx is the worst so far.
How do u get 35% off?
when I registered they gave me like 3 years for free
they informed that premium got like 10% discount not sure ( Because we are so premium ) and because I am a visa user I get another 20 to 25% discount.
it was 25% to 30% discount that I had once : https://tinyurl.com/kpt93gk
but I am pretty sure I had a 35% discount rate but I lost the post >>.<"
but ya here look : https://www.myus.com/en/visa/ if you register you get 25% off for first month !
then 20% off for future shipping + that 10% discount rate you already get because your premium ? I totally forgot.
Also I tend to use fedex from MyUS they charge less when it arrives to Kuwait like 2 KWD, DHL made me pay more.
Also can't wait to use MyUS while shipping my stuff via UPS.
Welcome to club Mark! I’m using MyUS since I moved to Kuwait and not even one issue.
P.S. Next time try shipping by DHL, same price and much faster. Once they managed to deliver my package in 48 hours from MyUS warehouse to my home.
Im avoiding all these headaches with mrbabu. There a few disadvantages though. Amazon discounts usually don’t effect orders, some items turn out expensive, especially small items, they can be a bit on the slow side and their website could use an update. But hey you’re guaranteed you will get the item you ordered with the listed price, no extras.
MrBabu isn’t even an alternative since they only work with Amazon and are not a shipping service. Plus they’re slow even when compared to Aramex.
Speaking of consolidating packages. Is there a way to consolidate packages with Aramex? and how does that happen?
Nope
Mark, which company you think will be the best if you only expecting mail, such as bank statements and credit cards ?
I guess shop & ship if they don’t throw them away
I use usglobalmail.com for just for mail. You get a US address and can get your mail collected. At your choice, they can ship it to you here, or to wherever you like.
What about shipping electronics like a laptop. Do you think its safe to do so?
I asked this already in your other article, but maybe someone will reply here sooner.
Anyone has experience with https://www.Shipito.com to Kuwait?
It’s very big and successful here in Brazil, but I want to send a package to Kuwait.
For Brazil it is 100% the best option out of all mail forwarders. You don’t pay them any custom clearance fees and they don’t take care of customs at all, so it’s all between you and local authorities. And their shipping prices are low as well
Another downvote for Borderlinx. They used to be OK but now it is consistently bad. The slightest issue and the package will be delayed for weeks. Email support is appalling, phone support means automatic-hangup. Now they have started to randomly refuse to repack goods – leading to higher shipping charges than direct. It’s not worth the risk.
I used their service this couple of days ago to ship 11 books from Amazon & from a friend & discovered the cheating when I wanted to release the shipments as the following:
1- They’ve Automatically estimated my books with more than 50 times of their real value which already were delivered to them with Amazon Invoices and when I asked them to fix the values because it’ll cost me much more money with the duties, they’ve asked for the invoices although they already had them, I’ve sent them & they’ve fixed it on the account panel, so I thought everything was okay till I’ve received the books and found that they’ve attached their wrong estimation invoices to the books & I had to pay to the duties more than %30 of the total payment I’ve already paid to them because the duties have estimated the value of books depending on the wrong invoices with $187 although their real value were about $11.
2- They say no hidden fees & calculate your shipping cost but when it came to pay I found that I’d have to pay %20 more than the actual price which includes what they’ve called “Fuel surcharge”.
3- They have two options of payment called standard, but one says I might pay about $20 more (don’t remember how much more) so I don’t pay duties while the other says I might have to pay for duties, so I’ve asked through live support what’s the real difference & after stalling from them, they’ve said I can pay the duties to the DHL courier at home with the payment option two, Since I know that my books don’t cost much, so i decided to pay the duties at home because I thought they would be much cheaper, BUT when I received the books I found a DHL bill asking me to pay another $35 for duties, So while they could release me from duties if I paid $20, they’ve punished me with $35 because I refused to pay them when they live support insisted & stalled a lot so I pay them.
4- They say they offer discounts, but actually when you apply the discount, you really take almost the real value, since they say they’re much cheaper than SNS Aramex, I’ve already paid $10 more than aramex for the same weight, so when they say the shipoing cost is $105 and we’ll make a discount for you, they’re really cheating & Aramex cost would be $74.
5- They sent me the books on three separate shipments, two of them were in plastic bag & one of those bags was torn & a book with heavily damaged with a liquid (might be water although the pages turned to red).
6- I’ve sent them a claim on 26 December, although they say “We aim to respond to all enquires within 24 hours.” they’ve responded after 48 hours with a disrespectful reply to their client’s complaint saying: “Welcome to Borderlinx. We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused. If we could be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. Best Regards, Soumaya”. instead of offering investigation & a refund.
TOO BAD….
DON’T use their service.
You’ll pay much.
Your shipments will be damaged.
You’ll not have ANY one to complain to.
You’ll not have a refund….