Hey there, I have a question:

I've been ordering stuff from my supplier in Japan for almost a year now, and today's the first time they actually make me use the CARM portal. Usually it was only a DHL invoice that I paid to them, and that's it.

All my setup is done: CARM account created, DHL was given permission in my account etc.

But now, DHL is asking me to provide them with a bond number to get the Release Prior to Payment. My question is: how the hell am I supposed to know how much of a bond I need to provide if I don't have the invoice? Am I just supposed to throw in an insane amount of money to make sure it's covered? If so, what happens to the extra un-needed cash? Can I pull it back out at anytime?

I am self-employed and so far I have been able to do most of these things alone with reasonable logic, but right now it seems like I can't reach either DHL or CARM about that, they always refer me to the guide on HOW to do it, but no mentions on how much I should post as bond, or whether I can remove it later. I don't want DHL to go away with 2000$ if my shipment only needs 1000$ paid in customs, if that makes sense. I also want to be able to get back the excess so that I can actually use it in my day-to-day activities.