Great 'Buy now from the US' Hunt.

amandada

Art wrote: »

The £18 limit is INCLUDING postage i think

The £18 limit is excluding postage and packing. The VAT man would not know the cost of the latter to arrive at a figure.

regards,
Art.[/QUOTE]

That's incorrect

The £18 threshold is on the value of the goods

HOWEVER, if the £18 is breached, you're liable for charges on the whole value INCLUDING the shipping costs.

It's utterly scandalous.

I buy a lot of crafts items from the USA, and in working out the price in £, I always allow an extra about 20% to take account of customs if I'm spending more than £18

snugglepuss_2

I've not been through this thread completely, so apologies if I am repeating previously mentioned sites.

I've found that www.beverlybeaute.com is very good for spa products, nail varnish and manicure stuff (I'm a sucker for OPI products), and delivery is only £5 to the UK. I've found that nail varnishes I have bought are half the price you would pay in the UK.

http://www.vitaminlife.com/ is good too. I bought some Burts Bees lip balms from them, and they worked out at about $2 each. I bought 15 lip balms in total, and with delivery it came to just over $50, so about £1.66 per lip balm. Not bad considering that they are £3 each over here!

Neither site has charged me import duty either!

alanclose

Its not the site that charges import duty, its the customs here if the value is over £18. They don't always do it though

Art_2

alanclose wrote: »

Its not the site that charges import duty, its the customs here if the value is over £18. They don't always do it though

The £18 is a concession and not a right that we have.

Incoming goods to the UK all go through a central Customs/Royal Mail depot which is somewhere in the Midlands. Before releasing them for delivery Customs take a number of parcels at random for inspection and if tax is required to be paid they instruct Royal Mail to collect it.

I was told by Customs once that they inspect about a third of all parcels.

If you are thinking of importing anything you can find out the duty in advance by phoning Customs & Excise.

Regards,
Art.

AceCobra1

Do they mark the price of the item low and send as gift or do they do mark it at the actual cost making the customs charge extortionate? I once bought a broken laptop for spareparts off ebay for 300 quid and got taxed 75! In the end, i think i still made some profit selling it here even after i got taxed though not as much as i had hoped... just not worth it when there is tax...

scotlass99 wrote: »

Hi

Although i've never used them personally, the web site www.internationalcheckout.com will order the products on your behalf from any US online retailer and forward them to you for a fee..perhaps if you were considering a purchase they would be worth a look..

barmonkey

just had a look at playusa.com and i thought they were a bit expensive at about £17 for a new release.

calisto

AceCobra1 wrote: »

Do they mark the price of the item low and send as gift or do they do mark it at the actual cost making the customs charge extortionate? I once bought a broken laptop for spareparts off ebay for 300 quid and got taxed 75! In the end, i think i still made some profit selling it here even after i got taxed though not as much as i had hoped... just not worth it when there is tax...

Surely this is wrong. As after all there are specific rules in force that old cars (only 6 months old or over) are not subject to Duty and VAT. I can't see why any old junk or spares can be charged VAT and Duty on import.

Make a claim against it. I did years ago on a brand new SupraFAX 288 Modem that I got for $199 when in the UK they sold for £250!!! (and this was back in the last economic cycle when $2 = £1, also the height of "Rip Off Britain")

The customs bill came in at an extortionate amount. I objected to the Duty, etc, and got a £20 odd cheque back in return. Computer parts have always carried a 0% duty, but they charged the maximum allowed by default 15% or something, + 17.5% VAT on top). Grrrr... Petty !!!!!!!s. I know for a fact that the cost of the gummint employee enforcing his role, etc, and getting it wrong, and correcting it, etc, is FAR MORE than the ridiculously low amount they let through customs.

Still, it keeps Public Sector Busy Bodies in jobs... Thats what HMRC is all about after all....

fama

A mention again for Amazon.com if you look at the front page
and hit International it brings up a list of countries but down the bottom
left is AMAZON INTERNATIONAL DIRECT .They have expanded slightly the range of stuff they sell and vat duty is prepaid.

stephen25uk

SayaF wrote: »

p.s. i know the clothes aren't exactly a bargain, but abercrombie have recently started mail order to the uk for their clothes - they're so lovely :-)

thats not new....i have been ordering stuff from abercrombie and having it shipped here from 2004.....

barmonkey

the boxset dvds on amazon.com are good value, just pre ordered heroes for about £23 delivered.
ive ordered lots from them and ive never been caught for import duty.