Can we buy in the US and ship to the UK?

inmypocketnottheirs

HankMcSpank wrote:

Rent a USA postal address from Parcel2go (£10per year), have your US retailer ship your item to your US address (check with them first to establish that they will!)...once they receive it, Parcel2go will then forward your item on to the UK...when working out whether it's worth it, you need to add about 25% for customs/excise.

To give you an example...a home cinema amp I'm after is £499 in the UK...£150 in the US :eek: , so even with shipping/import/VAT at current US/UK exchange rates it comes top about £275 to my door....

http://www.parcel2go.com/mail-forwarding-service.html

Don't forget a 110v step down converter!!! Bang!!!!! :eek:

hilstep2000

I tried to buy 4 jars of Grape Jelly for my mum from Amazon.com. All was fine till we got to the checkout, $10.59 for the jam, and $80 for the postage!! I cancelled the order, and waited till my partner went there on business. He brought her some back!

mclaren_2

even with taxes somethings are cheaper - ive lookeda t buying a Nikon D2xs and its £2000 on ebay, with postage and the tax is going to cost about £350 but its still £650 cheaper than i would pay in the UK (£3k in uk) - so it depends on the price of the items - add on the tax and then see how much it would cost

Butlers1982

how much is import tax on watches from the states??

heard a rumour its 50p??

beadysam

You are looking at VAT at 17.5% PLUS a duty charge of anything from 1% upwards (I usually pay 3-4% but I would guess luxury items could be significantly higher!), PLUS a Royal Mail or Parcel Force handling and repacking charge(or other courier, UPS can be expensive), if the parcel is opened....

pom_2

How are you going to deal with the differences in electrical supply? The majority of things that you need to plug into the mains will simply go bang without a transformer - and they are expensive!

I would dearly love a magimix and they are much cheaper in the US - I could buy and ship one here for around £130 all in. The transformer would cost more than that by itself, though.

Entertainer

beadysam wrote:

I have nothing but good things to say about buying from the US. Yes you sometimes get caught and charged by customs but even so with the items I am buying, it is still so much cheaper to buy from the US. I factor in about 25% on top of everything I buy (varies a little depending on how much I spend) for customs but its not often I end up with a bill.
I bought a kiln in the US recently. It was built to UK electrical specs, and customised to my needs. In the UK the nearest model would have cost me about £1100 and about £30 shipping. In the US I paid the equivalent of £340 for a bigger, custom built kiln, including shipping, and great phone customer care calls. I had a bill from customs of £74.... Bargain, I'd say!
Obviously thats not always the case and you do have to ask questions, and check details with the customs depts, and also be aware that depending on shipping methods, you may have a long wait. Good luck.

PS: I've also bought from Amazon US loads of times, and from Ebay.com too

What percentage of the time do you have to pay the Vat and customs duty would you say?

east2west

I've came into contact with some really inexpensive step-down converters. I use one for the only electronic device I brought from the US with me to china and it was about $20 usd.

beadysam

Entertainer wrote:

What percentage of the time do you have to pay the Vat and customs duty would you say?

Probably around 75-80% of the time on goods over £100. Probably about 20-30% on goods cheaper than this. PLEASE NOTE: When customs charge vat, it is on the TOTAL price inclusive of postage charges!!!!

taabish

With the mail forwarding services, isnt there still the problem that the card that you order the products on must have a US billing address?