Should I buy a wedding ring from the US?

Ruthie5

Hi, I've seen a lovely Ungar floral band, which I would like for my wedding ring. I'm waiting for the price to be confirmed, but looking on other forums it is likely to be around £900. Browsing on US websites, I've found a very similar ring for £700. Just wondered if anyone has ordered a ring from the US and whether there have been any pitfalls?

Presumably there would be import tax to pay too?

Thanks in advance.

lindsey_toffee_girl

you may have to pay import tax though you may get away with it!
Double check the carrot as they tend to have lighter carrots than us they dont have 18k gold they have something else and I cant remember it off the top of my head, sorry!

Horace

Why not see if you can get it made over here, I am sure that a good jeweller of the manufacturing kind will be able to copy it or at least make something similar. It will be cheaper too and certainly not subject to import duty - which you are likely to have to pay as it is an item of value that would be coming from the US. A reputable dealer would send it via Fedex or UPS from the States and therefore it will have to come through customs and you will be charged import duty.

stumpjumper

some things to think about.

If the ring is made from a precious metal - Silver, Gold (white or yellow) Platinum, Palladium (not sure about titanium) then the item is subject to a 2.5% import duty + 15% VAT rate on top. so if the US price converts to £700 ATM then your looking close to around £825 once all the tax has been added (not forgetting that the shipping company charges about £10 for paying the custom charges for you, plus thier shipping cost which could be about £20-50 depending on who the package is shipped with)

there isnt really any problem with Whitegold - both 14k and 18k gold jewellery is available in the UK and US. sometimes a jeweller/designer will recommend lowering the karat of the jewellery, either for cost or durability reasons, or just how easy the material is to work into the required design (and has a different answer depending weither we're talking about white or yellow gold due to the differing alloys between the 2)

and with platinum - the pretty universal platinum alloy used in jewellery is 950plat. (occasionally 900plat is used)

the main thing would be to get your finger size double checked, and then use a size converter to translate your UK finger size to the US finger sizing (like dress sizes, shoes sizes everyone has a different system UK, US, Europe...)
this is a chart that i have used and found useful.