You’ll only have to pay for shipping

While it’s a shopping juggernaut in the US, we rarely use Amazon to buy stuff online. One of the reasons for that is the sometimes insane costs that’s required to buy stuff from the site. Aside from regular shipping, you’re also going to have to pay import fees upfront.

But apparently Amazon has gotten the memo about the increased de minimis amount for items for taxes and duties in the Philippines, and no longer collects import fees upon checkout for items under 200$.

That’s great news for shoppers, since there’s a lot of cool and unique brands that’s only available in Amazon that’s not available in the Philippines. And while we absolutely love eBay and Aliexpress, shipping times for Amazon are decidedly faster, with better shipping rates compared to eBay, for example.

And according to RJ David, packages from Amazon also do not go through the local post (which is usually the case for Aliexpress and eBay) and instead arrives straight at your door via DHL. This applies for regular shipping.

Take note that the no import fee rule only applies to items that have regular SRPs under $200. Any item that’s priced over $200 will still have fee attached even if it’s on sale and puts its value under $200.

Hat tip to RJ David!