US ex/rate means massive savings on UK list price

lisyloo

My understanding is that the credit card company is jointly liable.

Being stranded doesn't sound good though - did you mean physically, financially or both?

System

Cruising is for everyone. I sell cruises and cruise myself. Last Nov we took 2 of our children and their partners ages 22 - 28 with us for the first time. They thoroughly enjoyed it and will definately cruise again. Don't forget that the cruise price includes all your food and entertainment and if you have bought it as a package all flights and transfers. There is usually no need to take the excursions, go and investigate each port of call on your own. But be back before the ship sails, it wont wait for you!! With just bar drinks drinks and gratuities to budget for it is the best way to see lots of different countries with our constantly unpacking

Galstonian

"Cruising is for everyone."

unless you suffer from sea-sickness.

blue_bee

I think my Dad was the original money saver. He asked his local travel agent what the price was for a cruise with Royal Caribbean and then went to another and played them off against each other. I looked on the web and got him the same cruise for about £200 less and he's now hanging on watching the dollar fall before he pays - saving even more money!

So he'd better bring me a pressie back from St Petersburg!

System

Hi All,

Can anyone help regarding this subject ie custom and
excise duty?
when is this due and how is it calculated.
i was thinking of getting a bit of electronics kit to value
of 150 usd & shipping 50 usd but am unsure if i will have
to pay duty

cheers all

savvy

Have been checking out prices recently but how does it stand with electricals regarding the different power supplies etc.

Seen some good deals on Apple Powerbooks etc, (boy do we get ripped off??) but do Apple block imports and would it work over here anyway?? What other electricals can we get away with and how???

Tim_L

Seehttp://www.hmce.gov.uk/public/shopping/shopping.htm for details on import duties. I'm sure if the levels of these were more widely known, there'd be an outcry.

There's a small exemption - about £100 a person if I recall correctly - for items personally exported on a visit, but THIS DOES NOT APPLY for mail order.

Electricals are difficult - you need to know what you're doing and be able to read spec sheets. Many items - particularly things like power tools, that sort of thing - have straight 110V inputs, so you will fry them if you connect UK mains. PCs and similar often have switchable inputs, some (e.g laptops) have universal inputs. Smaller electronic items use mains adaptors, so you can bin those and buy a UK equivalent. You do need to bear in mind that things like warranties probably won't apply outside the geographical boundary the item was sold in, and there will be mild irritations such as a US English keyboard.

Also if purchasing on a visit to the US, note that many US sales discounts on electricals and similar are provided as 'mail in rebates', which ties them geographically to the point of origin, and there is a sales tax not on the ticket price which can presumably be refunded, though I've never done this.

Just off to Boston on a business trip on Sunday, as it happens, with a very long shopping list... Been waiting for this sort of exchange rate for a very long time!

System

Hi Miken,

I initially tried to book with Holland America online directly, however I got errors when trying to make my booking and got fed up with that after a few times.

I used a site called
https://www.vacationstogo.com

I have been using their site for a while and they seem to offer great prices.
One thing in particular that I like about them is that they have an 0800 number that you can use so you can speak to someone whether you want free of charge (as a bonus because it's the US they are always there in the evening because of the time difference which is handy if you work).

The first question I asked them was about ABTA and ATOL (most travel agents in the UK are ABTA bonded which means you get your money back if the company goes out of business).
They didn't really know about these schemes (which is not suprising as I think they are a UK thing).
However the answer to the question is that if you purchase anything on a credit card (over £100 I believe) then the consumer credit act makes the credit card company jointly liable.
This means that if Holland America go out of business then the credit card company have to pick up the bill.

I found them helpful and I'm happy that I can speak to someone anytime without having big phone call charges.

The only downside is that you have to pay $15 if you want the tickets sent to you from the US (you can choose to pick them up at the dock if you don't want to pay this fee).

Hope that helps

::)

Galstonian

Me too. Unfortunately since the budget is held in the US the trip is too expensive to justify just now

savvy

Thanks Sanssouci , I've also just heard that you can pretty much buy any electrical item from USA, as long as you use an adaptor/transformer thingy (Maplins around £15) that converts the power for our voltage.