Philippine Mail Forwarder
I’ve found two services regarding mail that I consider essential for me. One of them, I just hate paying for but I also find it way to convenient and even necessary to give it up.
Earth Class Mail
Earth Class Mail is the service I hate to pay for but can’t do without. The way it works is that I give my us banks and credit card companies this address. They give me an address in Beaverton, Washington. When the mail comes in, I can elect to recycle it, shred it, have the mail piece scanned or gave it shipped to another address.
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The service to scan the mail is the most beneficial part of the service for me. This allows me to get my mail as fast as I would if i was in the States. Most of the time I don’t need to ship it any place. Instead, I read it online and then download it to my PC. After I have it downloaded, I mark it for recycling which has the added benefit of it not going into a landfill. They like to jump on the going green bandwagon in their advertising, that matters but its just not a huge selling point for me. The speed at which I get my mail is what is important.
I get checks from my insurance company sent there too. Those are what I most often need to forward. Thus the term of mail forwarder is what this type of service is called. I send the checks to my mother and she deposits them for me.
But, I also use another service to help me. There is another mail forwarder known as Johnny Air Cargo (JAC). When I need a package sent to me, I send it to JAC’s New York office. They have an account setup for me so they know where to send mail that is meant for me. Johnny Air Cargo will ship the item at about the same speed as UPS for a lot less money. Its not cheap but when compared to UPS or FedEx it is cheap, very cheap. They charge $7.50 a pound. It takes about a week to get to me after they receive the item in New York.
This comes in really handy for things like replacement of credit cards if they are lost or when they expire. UPS and FedEx will charge you $100 or more to get that item to you where JAC will charge you around $20.
Another important feature of Earth Class Mail is that I can have several items sent to them and they will combine the items for me. This helps me avoid JAC’s service charge per item and their 2 pound minimum fee.
For example, I need to order some items from the US that are just not available here. Some are at Amazon. Some are at drugstore.com. I already have a Pay-pal credit card that has been sent to me and is waiting at Earth Class Mail. If I ship that one credit card alone, it will cost me about $25.00 with JAC because of the 2lb minimum. So I’m just leaving the credit card at Earth Class Mail while I get ready to order the things I need from the States next month. Once everything is there, they will combine and ship the items to JAC in one box. That saves me a lot of money.
I have mailed things to the Philippines using regular USPS in the US but that went badly every time. I paid custom duties that I don’t believe were due. Generally, no duties are required for items that total less than $1000. JAC handles all that for you and I’ve never paid any more customs duties since I started using them, which has also saved me a lot of money.
It also took up to four months for my things to arrive via International Express Mail. Not too express. One item didn’t turn up until I filed a claim for it with the USPS.
I’ve not had any problems sending items from the Philippines back to the US using regular PhilPost, the Philippine version of the USPS. Its a bit slow but not too bad. The tracking for Philpost doesn’t work as best as I can find out. When I asked how to track packages, I was referred to the website but the website doesn’t work. Several times I’ve tried to track something, their system always returns an error message. You can also use LBC here in the Philippines. Sending a letter from the Philippines via LBC will cost you P1000 or about $20.00. I’ve never needed to do that but if something was valuable and time sensitive you’d probably want to use that service.
Earth Class Mail will cost you only 10 bucks a month. You do have to pay for three months though. I think they have a setup fee too. I hate to pay setup fees but I couldn’t talk them out of it. Perhaps they have done away with that since people are now required to sign up for three months. They should, if they haven’t dropped the setup fee, they need to.
Now in the interest of full disclosure, if you sign up for Earth Class Mail using the link above, I’ll earn a one time commission. However, I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t think it was a needed service for many expats. Some of you don’t need it. I do and it works very well. If you do sign up, please let me know. I want to give them “what for” if they don’t give me my commission. I have no reason to believe they would do that but some affiliate programs are known to do that. I’ve been cheated by others.
If you do sign up, also let us know how it works out for you. I love it but that doesn’t mean you will. I hate paying for it but then that’s life, huh? To use JAC you need to contact them first. To do that send an email to Jesse at: jessep_johnnyair@yahoo.com. I don’t get anything for you using their service but please let her know I sent you if you contact her.
Someone sent me an email tonight asking a series of question and one included mail service. I realized then it would be useful to others.
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Tagged with: Living In The Phlippines
Filed under: Living In The Philippines
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Hi Rusty, Does JAC have a monthly rate, and is there a minimum of how long you have to use them in a year? Could you clarify for me, if I order something on line from ebay or Amazon or whatever, with a credit card or paypal account, they would provide a stateside address for the items to go, and then JAC would ship them to me? Do they deliver to the province? Thanks for the info
JAC doesn’t have any kind of “monthly rate.” They charge by the pound, don’t see how a monthly rate would work. You can always ask them though. You don’t have to use them for a year or any certain time. Maybe you meant Earth Class Mail, they only have three months plans.
JAC does provide a State side address. Sometimes I order things and send them direct to JAC.. You wouldn’t want to use JAC as your billing address though, Earth Class would be fine for that though. Using JAC for your billing address would mean your statements were mailed to JAC and you’d pay about $20 to get them.
Many eBay sellers will only ship to your billing address. If you buy more than one item a month, you’ll save money by sending to Earth Class first and consolidating.
Yes, JAC will deliver to the province, there’s an extra fee so we usually go pick it up since we usually go once a month anyway. Well, Jessie does. I’m lazy.
I try to get her to send a yaya to do it for her. I think she likes to go though. Shopping…ewwwww 
Hi Rusty,
Good article, very helpfull for a lot, I think.
This is an amazing service. I wish we had something like that in Europe.
So if anybody knows about such service in Europe I’ll be happy to hear from them.
So it’s a service you can use you on and off again as desired. Right now seeing we go back and forth through the year, I gauge everything by can it fit in my suitcase or fit in an on-going balik-bayan box. I’ve lost count how many of those we’ve filled and sent over the past couple of years! When we settle in Cebu for good, these services would be handy for things like you said, that you can only to get from the states.I’m still kind of confused about the Earthmail though, I’m hoping to kind of fall off the face of the earth eventually, and get rid of the mostly junk mail we get now!
Duh, now I get it. I just clicked on the link you provided–that’s pretty cool, some mail you just need to know about and deal with. Now isn’t that something that you’d be using on-going? What, do you pay every three months to keep it going through the year? I’m just so dumb about all this on line stuff. Sorry to be so slow about it.
There are two services I’m talking about. JAC is a service that I use as needed. I use it when I need something shipped here.
Earth Class Mail is another service that I pay for quarterly. The main purpose for them is that they scan my mail. which means I get it at normal time instead of several months it may take for things to arrive via the regular mail process. At times they ship items for me but only within the US. They will ship to the PHilippines but they use FedEx and that will cost over $100 for letter.
I was afraid I might have over complicated things when I wrote the story. It may not be you but the writer.
No Rusty, It’s me, not the way you explained it. Now when it says Earth class mail will forward something that you want forwarded to you, will they send it air snail mail? I”m not trying to torture you here, that’s my last question. I now truly think that this would be really necessary in the long term for everybody. Really interesting post.
your question are helpful. Really, they are.
You can have Earth Class Mail forward your mail piece via Overnight, 2 day service or USPS. The USPS doesn’t use tracking. I wish they would offer priority mail so that I could use the lower rates and still insure packages.
I’m kind of surprised more people don’t sign up for this when they find out about it. It is a good service, makes life much less complicated.
Earth Class Mail is like having a mail box at a UPS store but instead of having to go to the store to pick up your mail, you can look at it from any place in the world.
Most of your delay was probably when it reached the Philippines. They seem to be slow passing through international mail.
That can also be useful because some credit cards will cancel you if you do not have a US address.
Also for US Military retirees there is a mail service available through local RAO’s this mail comes thorugh the military FPO service and not through the Phil Post. You can’t receive packages but you can receive Magazines, Letters, and Mail Order prescriptions.
The delay was in the Philippines, no doubt about that. Its not uncommon, happens all t he time.
A lot of credit cards will cancel you if you don’t have a US address.
I wish they’d make the FPO extend to civil service.
What is an RAO?
Retired Affairs Office, The main ones are in Subic and Angeles. There are branches in other cities. Contact the main offices to find out where they are.
Well how in the heck would a civilian know that?
Sometimes I know the answer when i ask things like that and just busting chops for being lazy but this time I didn’t know.
Odd they would put them so close together. I know lot of of military in that area because of the base that use to be in Subic. Still….
Can civilians use a VA hospital but just pay for it?
One is an Air Force RAO because of the former base at Clark. The other one is a Navy RAO because of the base at Subic. They both have satelite offices in various other places if there are retiree’s there.
The only VA clinic is in Manila they only see veterans for service connected illnesses.
I thought there was still a hospital in Subic. That would be a hard benefit to give up if I had earned it. Do retired military loose coverage when they go over seas?
Now it makes sense why they two offices are so close together.
Filipino rallied to get the bases out of the country. I wonder if they are better off for it?
Tri Care is usable by military retirees in the Philippines. There was a large hospital at Subic. The buildings are still there I don’t know what they are doing with them now.
They claim there are more people employed at the economic zones than when the bases were there. I am not sure if I believe that. Even if they are their wages are certainly lower than when the bases were there.
Remember the old saying “Careful what you wish for.”