Hi there, I had my US credit card sent to Portugal several months ago, and it never turned up. I know plenty of other people have experienced similar in Portugal. CTT investigated, nothing. I am wondering if anyone can advise best shipment, before I cancel the card and get it reissued in the USA?

DHL or Fedex? I do not mind paying the extra if I can be assured that it will not get delayed in customs and to Portugal fast.

I had mine sent with USPS Priority mail and it arrived in Portugal ok in about 10 days. I was worried about customs too but it cleared them in only 3 days (I ordered a $5 pair of riding goggles for Cecil that took 2+ months to clear customs).

However I was in Italy before that and I had my mail sent there by USPS priority mail and that was a nightmare. I think the flight was redirected due to the Covid airport closures and it landed in Germany and was loaded onto a truck. Then my package stopped getting updates and 3 months later it was declared lost and I was issued a refund for the shipping charges (but all my mail was lost). Then miraculously it was returned back to the US sending address about 5 months after it was originally shipped and then I had to try again.

Good luck!

 

Why would customs care about your credit card?

What options is your bank offering? Aren't they sending it ?

 

The problem is they just leave stuff lying around I think everything goes through Lisbon and they are not very well organized or efficient. It took 2 months for Cecil's doggles to arrive and they were only $5 including shipping with no customs charges. It was a tiny little envelope that sat around in Lisbon for like 60+ days. A small envelope will probably pass through easier, but also a small envelope is easier to lose.

Customs in Italy were much better, I ordered several things that were more valuable than the goggles and they flew through customs in about 2 weeks or less.

 

My US bank no longer remits cards beyond US borders to overseas destinations. Afew days ago, after 3.5 months I cancelled my card and asked them to remit a new one. The day AFTER I did that the card turned up! But cannot be uncancelled, it too came USPS priority. Why it took so long I have no idea.
DHL and UPS do not send debit cards, but I have found Fedex does. I am not going to risk USPS again!

 

With things like USPS the USPS tracking is valid until the item leaves the US. At which point you usually have to switch to the local tracking website.

If you have a tracking number I'd try and see if you could figure out where it spent it's vacation.

 

The tracking number turned up on all websites as arrived in Lisbon, but not on CTT website. To this day, even after investigation, they informed me they did not have a clue. Then it turned up!

 

It sounds like it might have been held up by customs. I have been warned that they sometimes hold onto packages for several months before releasing them, and Lisbon is where the customs office is located.

If you have family or friends in the US maybe you can have the credit card mailed to them, and then have them send it to you.

This is not a cheap option however they have mailing services in the US that will forward your mail to you (or scan so you can download images). The service I use costs about $180 a year for just monthly mail forwarding and about $250 a year for a virtual account where they scan all the envelopes you receive so you can see what arrives and when. They also charge a fee if you want any envelopes opened and have them scan the contents and upload the images, or you can have all your mail shipped to you (you must pay the postage plus a small handling fee). I think you can get a 3 month account for about $80 plus postage and handling and they will forward your mail to you once every month. Perhaps there are others that are cheaper or maybe you can get one with just a 1 month account. Then you can have the credit card mailed to your mailbox in the US and then have it forwarded to you overseas.

 

My friend in the USA will send it via UPS and it will arrive in 2-3 days. It will cost $82US but they have a 50% special at the moment which means it will cost $41, just a few dollars more than the cost of the original envelope via USPS.

 

Often delays like that are because somebody messed up the paperwork. But if it was a simple envelope strange they held it up. It's not like it had white powder or something in it.

 

I think the issue might be that even if it is just an envelope they send it through customs anyway. I know my USPS flat rate envelope was sent through customs in Lisbon. They never even opened it, but perhaps letters get misplaced while they are there. Other packages can take several months to clear so if a letter gets stored with the packages by mistake then you might be in for a very long wait. It appears to be much easier to receive packages overseas in Italy as opposed to Portugal, from my limited experience anyway. I ordered a few items from overseas and Italian customs usually released them in 2 - 3 weeks.

I hope your credit card arrives ok this time. You've been waiting for a replacement for 4 months, that is crazy!

 

DHL or Fedex?

My bank sent the card to my US mailbox company using USPS. I then sent it to Portugal using Fedex. It arrived without problems.

 

If you have a family member in the US activate your card, then register it with Google Pay, then cut it up (if you don't trust them), once it's on Google Pay, just don't forget the 3 digit security code on the back of the card, you just use your phone or computer to pay for stuff without needing a physical card.