Best shipping company to use?

Hmmm,
not so easy to give advice on this one subject at all.
We used a  shipper in Las Vegas who shipped world wide 10 years ago but didn't do allot of shipping to Hungary.
They were super nice, we packed and they came to the house and collected my 12 boxes and I drove over to their office and did the paperwork.
They gave us a good price.
Little did we know or did they know after I called them up from Hungary that the trucking co. from a port in S. Europe, forgot what country, think Serbia or one of those in the S. added a ton of extra charges onto the delivery of our boxes.
They doubled the  price we paid in Vegas .
Took our boxes to a holding place near Budaors which would charge a huge storage rate per day.
Good luck, DHL is super expensive but maybe it is worth it if they deliver to the door and don't have any hidden charges.

To be fair, the shipper we used was also surprised at the extra fees we had to pay with trucking.
Be sure you're not shipping over allot of stuff that you can replace here, not really worth shipping much over here unless you plan to stay for good.
Not sure how DHL does their business but your items must clear customs before you take delivery of them.

As a returning HU citizen my husband was suppose to pay no customs fee on personal items, one time move back home sort of thing.
We didn't pay anything but the run around and hassle customs gave us was just cruel.
The storage place had to have customs papers singed by agents before releasing our boxes.
Back and forth across town, several trips then more hassles with customs, think they were just having a go with us. Finally got my boxes to our flat and customs called on the phone and said we were not allowed to open our boxes until a agent was there in person to witness us opening our boxes. They would be at our place between 1 to 12 days! On the 10th day of staring at my boxes in the middle of the flat unopened with customs tags all over them, they called and said go ahead and open them, no one would be coming to witness the opening. Insane.
I't not like it was free to ship these over, we should of used a pricey shipper who had experience with Hungary.
This was about 10 years ago so I hope they have gotten themselves together at customs during this time.

Marilyn, they are moving back to the USA?

SimCityAT wrote:

Marilyn, they are moving back to the USA?

Oh, excuse me...
Well good luck in any case. Let us know who you settled on using, might be helpful in the future for others.
Not sure but I read awhile back that if you notify the airlines and let them know you have allot of extra baggage, you can bring up to 10 bags extra for a fee.
Not sure though, sounds good if it is true.

It's called Unaccompanied Baggage: you need to take your stuff the day before to the Cargo Department at the airport, and similarly pick it up a day or two later at the Cargo Department of your destination airport, after clearing customs.

It's much much much cheaper than paying excess baggage fees at check-in. But probably quite a bit more than shipping your boxes separately. By paying that quite a bit more, however, you do get your things quickly and without much hassle.

Not all airlines offer this service, and costs and procedures vary, so you'd have to check with your particular airline.

I can't say specifically as to Hungary, but usually the cheapest (and slowest) route is parcel post, though there are size and weight limitations that may give you a problem.

Oh wow Marilyn, I'm so sorry for that nightmarish situation you and your husband went through with customs here!!  The same thing happened to us when we moved here almost 2 years ago... They doubled the cost of our DHL shipping expenses with fees!!  So crazy but luckily a Hungarian friend here helped talk them down.  Anyway, yes - I'm trying to buy another big suitcase and take stuff back that way since it seems much ore reasonable.  I'm also just going to have to give a lot of stuff away unfortunately since many things aren't selling!  Thank you so much for your help!