When shopping online, it is important to know some terms that will make your shopping easier. It is important to understand all the terms and costs associated with your packages. One of these terms is the CIF value, familiar to many but still raises some doubts among people who have made online purchases part of their lives.

First it is important to understand that CIF stands for “Cost, Insurance and Freight” which means package’s invoice total + transportation cost + insurance. The invoice total should not only include the cost of the item but should also include the shipping cost within the United States and taxes.

Why is important to know the CIF value? Well, it is very important because it is used by Customs to calculate duties and Aeropost uses it to calculate customs handling costs. Even in countries where tax exemption is allowed for for personal goods this value tells the client whether or not to use this benefit (the maximum value for tax exemption is $500 CIF).

Remember, if you need help to calculate the CIF value for a shipment, we offer you several alternatives. You can call customer service, visit one of our counters or even better you can access from your home or work our website and use the online calculator. This easy tool lets you know the CIF value and the estimated costs of shipping and duties by simply entering data such as weight, value and cost of the item.

Stay tunned and we will continue to explain more tips to help you through the entire process of your online purchases.

Tags: aerocasillas, aeropost, calculator, cif value, customs, duties, online shopping

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 at 17:47 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.