Greetings,
I shipped my car form LA to Pusan and just got an email from person who is going to help me to clear the custom. She mentions that I need to pay 120% of car value as deposit.
is this tru? if it is my cost will go up to $14,000 for deposit just to drive to Ferry in Sokcho and then to Vlad.
any information please?
Thanks
arun

If it came from Wendy C, its true. I had the same issue in August 2007.
You get the money back when you leave Korea...you can post the deposit with the shipper and they will put it down for you for customs.

Phil Flanagan on the HUBB wrote about his experience with handling Korean customs on a HUBB post, if you to look that up:type "Phil Flanagan" and HUBB into google or some combination of that.

Another option to get around the deposit issue, is to have the vehicle shipped from Busan to Zurubina, bonded. You take a train/bus from Incheon Airport to Sochko, and take the ferry from there...the car will be put on the ferry by Wendy C, and arranged with the Dong Chung Ferry people. This doesn't prevent you rom seeing korea, only by car...their mass transit is exceptional.

You simply have to pull it out of customs in Zurubina(south of Vladivostok). Ask Hook about that

__________________
edde
93 BMW K75s
www.motoedde.com

Thanks Edde,
But $14,000.00???
I got a email form Phil. He got away with mere $1000.00 and I bet his truck was more expensive than mine.
Thanks for the quick response.
Best
arun

Last year in july, I had the same problem but from the opposite direction.
I had to pay $ 2000 in deposit for my bike - Suzuki dl 650, so I shipped it to Busan with a truck.
Good luck
Randa

South Korea is a wonderful country to visit.
The people are friendly, curteous, and always helpful.

They operate their lives and consequently their business in an efficient, honest and professional manner.
the deposit is a pain to have to pay out, but it is only a deposit guaranteeing you take the vehicle from the country as you leave. It's not a 'cost', just a loan ! Have no fear about the refund of the money. Not exactly sure how they repay it but I know full well that it will get repaid in full.

We used Wendy Choi at 'aerokorea' for handling our shipping arrangements from Korea. Wendy is excellent. I highly recommend using their services it made the whole process of dealing with customs etc easier and the deposit refund was handled by Wendy who just deducted from our final bill.

The 'deposit' is based on replacement value of vehicle, if your vehicle is slightly unusual or slightly older (as mine is) then it is impossible to just look up a value. Therefore, 'replacement value' is based then upon the value declared for your vehicle. We deliberately keep our vehicle valuation on the low side.
Consequently it was relatively easy to negotiate at the customs that I only deposit $1000 as opposed to the $2000 they requested.

Phil.

Hi Phil

Did you pay the customs deposit in cash or will they accept a credit card? If you did use cash, which currency did you pay in?

Thanks

__________________
www.seeyouwhenwegetthere.com

You should be able to buy bond insurance at Pusan, ask for it.

I just finished riding in Korea for two weeks and must admit country is fantastic place for bikes. Beemer arrived from San Francisco to Pusan in a consolidated container and i cleared it in on June 16th within 45 mins. Wendy, the agent in Seoul, prepared all the paperwork before hand and customs officers made no drama at all.
Only thing not planned was paying one time processing / guarantee fee instead of deposit. They said leaving a deposit was not possible and also arranged insurance by fax from Seoul in the tiny vechile temporary import office next to the ferry terminal in Pusan port.
Every single instance dealing with people, wether at fuel station, goverment officials, BMW service manager in Seoul, Dong Chun Ferry company staff or anybody anywhere was a pleasure. Still hope for at least 50 % of the same good thing happening next two months across Russia

Hope to see more of you HUBBers on russian roads soon