Cheapest Package Forwarding Services: A Real Cost Comparison

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“Cheapest” rarely means the lowest number on a homepage. Most package forwarding services advertise a low starting fee, but your actual total cost is built from several separate charges: the forwarding fee itself, international postage, storage, consolidation, repackaging, and sometimes customs duties on top. A service that looks cheapest at a glance can end up more expensive than one with a higher headline fee, once everything’s added up, and a handful of companies in this space have real track records of surprise charges once your package has already arrived.

Here’s a quick look at the top 3 cheapest package forwarding services:

1. Atvido: Best all-round value, consolidation savings do more for your total cost than any single low fee.
2. Send2Hub: Best for clear, published pricing, no surprises after your package arrives.
3. PostUK: Best if you order regularly, the membership model can beat per-shipment pricing over time.

Cheapest Package Forwarding Services: Quick Comparison

Cheapest Package Forwarding Service Providers

1. Atvido

Atvido gives you a free UK, German, and US address, so you can shop UK, EU, and US retailers as if you lived there. What makes it genuinely cost-effective isn’t the sign-up, that’s free everywhere in this space, it’s consolidation: combining multiple orders into a single shipment for £2+VAT can cut your total shipping cost by up to 80% compared to shipping everything separately. Storage is free for 30 days, then £1/day, standard for this industry.

Pros:

• Consolidation is built into the core service, not sold as an upsell
• Every package is inspected and photographed before shipping, so you’re not paying to forward something damaged or wrong
• Personal shopper service for retailers that won’t take your card, avoiding the cost of a failed order entirely
• Free UK, German, and US addresses cover UK-only, EU-only, and US-only retailers all in one place

Cons:

• As with most forwarders, storage beyond the free period adds daily charges

Rating: 3.5 stars (190 reviews)

Best for: shoppers who want their overall total cost minimized through consolidation, not just a low headline fee.

Get your free UK, German, or US address with Atvido →

2. Send2Hub

A small UK forwarder that stands out specifically for publishing its pricing clearly, rather than making you wait for a quote after your package has already arrived.

Pros:

• Published pricing: 3% of item price plus a flat £5 fee for Shop & Ship
• Free storage of 30-60 days depending on plan tier
• Ships via Royal Mail, Parcelforce, UPS, DHL, FedEx, and DPD, not locked to one courier

Cons:

• Very small review base, less independent track record to judge long-term reliability against

Rating: ~20 reviews on Trustpilot, consistently positive

Best for: shoppers who want to know their exact cost before ordering, not after.

3. PostUK

Worth including specifically for its membership model, from £7.99/month with free handling included on every parcel, or pay-per-shipment if you’d rather skip membership.

Pros:

• Can work out cheaper than per-shipment pricing if you order from UK retailers regularly
• No setup fees, deposit, or contract either way
• Full shipping price shown before you pay, not calculated after the fact

Cons:

• Less relevant if you only order occasionally, the membership fee only pays off with regular use
• No independent Trustpilot rating found during this research

Best for: regular shoppers, where the monthly fee beats paying per shipment over time.

4. Low Cost Letterbox

A London-based mail and parcel forwarding service with published pricing: mailbox rental starts from £3.60/week, and mail forwarding from £9/week. It holds a 4-star Trustpilot rating from around 200 reviews.

Pros:

• Real published pricing, unlike several others on this list
• Repeat customers mentioned using it “for several years,” a decent trust signal

Cons:

• One credible recent negative review alleges misleading pricing on their company formation service specifically, “Save £79! From £68/month” but asked to pay £150 upfront, worth reading before signing up for anything beyond basic parcel forwarding
• The general 4-star rating suggests this is not representative of most customers’ experience, but it’s worth knowing about

Rating: 4.0 stars (~200 reviews on Trustpilot)

Best for: shoppers who want published pricing for straightforward mailbox and parcel forwarding specifically, worth reading the fine print on any add-on services.

5. ForwardVia

A Southampton-based forwarder with clearly published pricing and a strong, well-established reputation. Assisted Purchase (personal shopper) costs £15 or 10% of the item’s price, whichever is higher, plus VAT. Consolidating multiple packages costs £2 per package plus VAT.

Pros:

• Transparent, published pricing across services
• Strong reputation: reviewers consistently highlight careful packaging and responsive support
• Responds to the large majority of negative reviews rather than ignoring them

Cons:

• A larger, more established operation than some other names here, less of an underdog pick if you specifically want a very small company

Rating: 4.7-4.8 stars (roughly 300-1,100 reviews depending on the platform)

Best for: shoppers who want clear, published pricing from an operator with a genuinely strong track record.

6. My UK Buys

The cheapest-sounding option on paper, positioning itself as one of the lowest-cost forwarders around, but there’s a catch worth knowing.

Pros:

• Positions itself as one of the cheapest options in this space
• Wider service list than most smaller names here: standard forwarding, eBay buying/bidding, a “buy for you” option, and consolidation

Cons:

• No fixed published pricing, every order requires emailing for a quote before you know the real cost
• No visible Trustpilot presence, relying instead on Facebook reviews, a thinner layer of independent verification

Best for: budget-conscious shoppers comfortable with a smaller, less formal operation, particularly those buying through eBay UK.

7. Global Parcel Forward

A small UK forwarder claiming savings of up to 80% on shipping and access to 150+ UK stores. It’s genuinely small, only around 10 reviews found across review platforms, not yet enough for a reliable independent track record, but no documented complaints or red flags turned up during this research either.

Pros:

• Claims broad retailer access including well-known UK stores
• No negative review pattern found

Cons:

• Too small a review base to properly verify reliability, treat this as one to research further yourself before committing, not a confirmed recommendation
• Pricing not clearly published, confirm directly before ordering

Best for: shoppers willing to do their own extra due diligence in exchange for potentially lower prices from a smaller operator.

Cheapest Package Forwarding Services by Situation

There’s no single “cheapest” answer that applies to everyone:

• Ordering from one retailer, one time? A pay-per-shipment service with a low flat fee (like Send2Hub) is usually more cost-effective than a monthly membership.
• Ordering regularly? A membership model (like PostUK) can work out cheaper over time, even if the per-shipment cost looks higher upfront.
• Buying from multiple retailers at once? Consolidation matters more than the base fee, this is where a service like Atvido typically saves the most, since you’re paying for one international shipment instead of several.
• Ordering something high-value? Check whether package inspection or insurance is included or an extra charge, a cheap forwarding fee doesn’t help if a damaged item costs you more than you saved.

Our Methodology When Picking The List

Every service above was checked directly against its own site and independent review platforms, mainly Trustpilot, before being included, and specifically for this list, we prioritized services with actual published pricing wherever possible, rather than including a company just because it markets itself as cheap. A few companies that came up in our research aren’t listed here because of documented trust issues: unresolved complaints about held packages, disconnected contact numbers, or hidden fees layered on top of quoted prices once the package had already arrived. Where a company’s pricing or rating couldn’t be confirmed, that’s stated directly rather than guessed at.

How Much Does Package Forwarding Really Cost?

Before assuming any service is “the cheapest,” work out what you’d actually pay using these components:

• Base forwarding or membership fee — flat monthly cost or per-shipment charge
• International shipping cost — usually scales with weight and dimensions; as a real example, a 5kg UK-to-US parcel through Atvido runs roughly £46-£73 depending on courier
• Storage fees — typically free for 30 days across this industry, then often charged daily (£1/day is a common rate)
• Consolidation savings — if you’re ordering from more than one retailer, this is usually where the biggest cost reduction actually comes from
• Customs duties and import tax — separate from the forwarding company’s fees entirely, and dependent on your country’s current thresholds
• Repackaging or photo verification fees — some services include this, others charge extra

Add these up for your actual order, not the service’s advertised minimum, before deciding which is genuinely cheapest for you.

How Do Package Forwarding Services Work?

If you’ve never used one before, the concept is simpler than it sounds: you get a real address in another country, shop as if you lived there, and the service sends your order on to your actual address once it arrives. Here’s what that looks like in practice, step by step:

1. Sign up for a free account and get your forwarding address.
2. Shop as normal, using your forwarding address at checkout instead of your own.
3. Your package arrives at the forwarder’s warehouse, and you get a notification, often with a photo.
4. Decide what to do with it, ship immediately, hold it in storage if you’re waiting on other orders to consolidate, or request repackaging.
5. Choose your courier and shipping speed, this is where most of the real cost is calculated, based on weight, dimensions, and destination.
6. Your package clears customs in your destination country, where any applicable duties are collected.
7. Delivery to your door, with tracking the whole way.

What Items Can’t Be Forwarded?

Every parcel forwarding service has restrictions, and running into one after you’ve already bought something is a frustrating way to find out. Common categories that are restricted or outright banned across most forwarders include:

• Lithium batteries and battery-powered devices (loose batteries especially, though devices with batteries already installed, like phones or laptops, can often still ship under specific packaging rules)
• Aerosols and pressurized containers
• Flammable, corrosive, or hazardous liquids and chemicals
• Perishable food and some cosmetics, particularly anything liquid, gel, or aerosol-based
• Weapons, replica weapons, and certain knives
• Counterfeit goods, which forwarders can refuse to ship and customs can seize regardless

Restrictions vary by company and by destination country, so it’s worth checking directly with your chosen forwarder before you buy something borderline, not after.

How to Spot a Genuinely Cheap Package Forwarding Service?

• Real, verifiable reviews. Look for independently-hosted reviews (Trustpilot, not just testimonials on a company’s own site), and read the negative ones specifically, they tell you more about hidden costs than the 5-star reviews do.
• Published pricing over quote-only systems. A recurring complaint pattern in this industry is a low initial estimate followed by a much higher final charge once the package is actually weighed, sometimes justified by volumetric weight calculations, sometimes not. Get a firm quote in writing before committing.
• Check for a real business address, phone number, and VAT registration. A profile with nothing but generic “great service” reviews and no verifiable business details is worth extra caution, regardless of how cheap it claims to be.
• Read reviews about add-on or adjacent services too, not just the core one you want. As with Low Cost Letterbox above, a company can be reliable for parcel forwarding specifically while having genuine complaints about a different service line, worth checking both.

If you want the lowest total cost rather than just the lowest advertised fee, Atvido’s consolidation feature typically does more for your final bill than any single company’s base rate, especially if you’re ordering from more than one retailer. If published, no-surprises pricing matters more to you than anything else, Send2Hub or ForwardVia are both worth a look for that reason. If you order regularly, PostUK’s membership model can beat per-shipment pricing over time. And if budget is genuinely the only thing that matters and you’re comfortable doing extra homework yourself, My UK Buys, Low Cost Letterbox, and Global Parcel Forward are all worth a direct pricing check, just get that quote in writing before committing.

Whichever service you land on, the same rule applies: check independent reviews before you commit, get pricing in writing, and don’t judge a company only by its cheapest advertised rate, the real cost usually shows up once your first package actually needs shipping.

Get your free UK, German, or US address with Atvido →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the cheapest package forwarding service always the best choice?

Not necessarily. A very low advertised fee sometimes comes with hidden costs elsewhere, higher per-kilo shipping rates, paid storage after a short free period, or extra charges for consolidation and inspection. It’s worth checking the full cost breakdown, not just the headline number.

What’s the cheapest way to ship multiple packages internationally?

Consolidation, combining several packages into a single international shipment, is usually the biggest lever for reducing cost, since you’re paying for one shipment’s international leg instead of several. This matters more than which service has the lowest base fee.

Do cheaper forwarding services take longer to deliver?

Not necessarily, delivery speed is usually a separate choice at checkout (standard vs. express courier) rather than something tied to how cheap the service’s base fee is.

Are there hidden fees I should watch for when choosing a cheaper package forwarding service?

Yes, common ones include charges for storage beyond the free period, repackaging or photo verification, and customs handling. Reading a service’s full fee schedule, not just its homepage headline, before signing up is the best way to avoid a surprise final cost.