Shipping to Belize - Life as an Expat
Guest Blog
By Ron Delvalle
Shipping Containers
I mentioned at the close of my last article I would address shipping items and mail forwarding. Shipping personal items takes on many different forms depending on how much you plan to bring, how large and heavy the items are. We only brought things we felt essential other than furniture since we were renting a furnished unit. If you decide to buy or build, you may decide to bring furniture and more. Under the Qualified Retirement Program (QRP) it allows you to bring personal possessions duty free. If that is the case, you will need to look into a shipping container or something similar which is beyond my personal experience. That said, I have used a container shipping company to ship larger purchases that were not practical to bring on a plane since we moved here.
Belize Freight
Belize Freight has a growing reputation and makes regular runs between the US and Belize. I have known friends who shipped sizable things like commercial freezers, ladders, and the like so it would be worth contacting them as you shop around. They have multiple warehouses to suit a variety of locations in the US. Check them out at Belize Freight. You can also partner with other expats to share a container. If you come down and decide to rent before buying a home/condo as I’ve suggested, you’ll likely meet others that have similar needs.
We only brought items like clothing, bedding, linens and small electronics, so we decided to buy and ship a few barrels. We bought three new 75 gallon plastic barrels thinking they would better to protect against moisture and last long enough for us to use on the return trip. They also have smaller barrels and cardboard barrels at lower prices. The cost per barrel for us was $58 each delivered to our door in Georgia. The pickup fee was $35 for all three. We purchased them from Caribbean International Shipping Services in GA. There are other locations in the US. Check them out at Caribbean Shipping. Each barrel was stuffed and padded with bubble wrap or soft items such as clothing, bedding or linens. As we loaded them we recorded what went into each one and built a manifest to affix to the outside of the barrel. We covered the manifests completely in clear packing tape to protect from moisture. Once they were packed we called for pickup and shipment. The cost to ship was $405 for all three barrels. It was supposed to take two to three weeks but they all arrived on the mainland in less than two weeks and we shipped them before our actual travel date so we had them in no time.
Once on the mainland we chose Belize Ship Handlers as our broker to handle the duty and taxes. They also assisted to get the containers through customs and delivered right to our door. You can find them on Facebook. (We’ll discuss more about the need for and use of Facebook in our next article). The cost to the broker was $320 which covered all of the duty and taxes. We had multiple conversations with our broker as they negotiated with customs on our behalf. Since everything we shipped was used there was substantial savings over shipping new purchases. The broker advocated for us and it was not too painful in the end. On top of that, the barrels were delivered indoors to our condo. All we needed to do was unpack them in the comfort of our air conditioned condo. All in all, we brought a substantial amount of items at a reasonable cost and we found the experience rather simple.
Communicating in Belize
There are three components to “keeping in touch”, mail forwarding, phone service and social media. Let’s start with mail forwarding. While most things can be managed electronically today, some things cannot. For example, I had a couple of life insurance policies that would not and could not accept electronic payments. If you are on Social Security and or Medicare, you’ll need a physical US address. Current banking laws also require you to have a physical US address. We accomplished this in two ways. For actual mail service we now use a company called IPostal 1 The cost is $9.99 a month. and we have all of our mail forwarded there. Each piece gets cataloged and put into our slot and we are sent an email notification that it has arrived.
Post Office Box
We can log on and see an image of each piece. From there we can chose to send it to trash for free or store it for up to 30 days at no charge. There are other options as well such as shredding and scanning that carry an additional charge. Once a month we batch up what has accumulated and have it sent to our local PO box on the island that costs us $40BZ, ($20USD) a year. The shipping cost can vary but if it isn’t too large, we can have it on the island in a couple of weeks for about $13USD. There are numerous options and we have many friends using other services that they are equally satisfied with and all pretty much work the same way.
These services contract with UPS stores, copy and print stores, etc. that have a physical street address in the US. They in turn set up a mailbox for you which is typically designated as a suite number appended to their physical address. This will pass muster with most of your needs but not all. If your bank, for example, looks at this address they will deem it a PO box and it will not be acceptable. To combat that, we arranged a lease with a friend in the states that we often stay with on our medical trips home. The lease is for one week a year and the fee is a dinner out at our expense. That allows us to legally use that address for those that require it. It came in particularly handy when I had to renew my GA driver’s license.
There are numerous options for phone service depending on your personal needs. We have friends that continue to maintain service in the states with local carriers for various reasons. Through the magic of the internet, the phone works here without them incurring roaming or travel charges. Since we didn’t want to carry that monthly cost, we terminated our US accounts and brought our unlocked phones to the island. Once here, we set up a Belizean mobile account that provided SIM cards and local Belizean numbers. For keeping in contact with the friends and family in the states, we set up accounts with both Skype and Magic Jack selecting US numbers with the same GA area code that we used to have. Initially we had planned to stay for only 1 year so I wanted to hold on to our US mobile numbers that our contacts had for us. To do this you need to “port” the number to a new service before you terminate it locally. Initially I used Google Voice only to find out that they would not forward internationally. That caused me to port the number for a second time to Magic Jack. Magic Jack, we were able to easily text which with Skype was not as easy. Many people also use WhatsApp for texting and voice, and we use that too, but use it far less since we had trouble getting it to work initially.
Facebook Messenger
When it comes to social media, many of our friends in the states choose not to participate on Facebook for a multitude of reasons. If you live in the country of Belize, you will want to have a Facebook Messenger account. Local businesses typically do not have web pages unless they are trying to reach vacationers and recruit online bookings. The country of Belize seemingly runs on Facebook Messenger. Messenger is used extensively by locals and expats alike instead of texting. More importantly, Facebook is a lifeline to events, want ads and local community happenings. There is a Facebook page for everything you can imagine in this country from buy and sell groups to various community groups on the island and the mainland alike and even takeout menus and prices are found here. Local businesses each have their own page and keep you updated about events and specials. Neighborhood watch groups post information about suspicious activities, to keep you informed of island news. Beyond Facebook, the other typical social media sites are used too, but nothing to the extent that Facebook is.
Next up we’ll look at finances and banking and whatever else we may have room for. Thanks for following along.