I need some help with buying something from the USA!

custardy

JAG wrote: »

It accepted zero for the insurance when I used it. (0.00).

I have just input your figures of $149 and $34.84 shipping, plus $0.00 insurance and it gives VAT payable of £21.91 so you will need to pay this plus £8.00 Royal Mail Handling fee, or another carriers handling fee (Fedex, UPS etc) depending on which carrier they use. The Royal Mail want the fee before you are given the item (usually have to go to the local delivery office) but Fedex and others may invoice you at a later date.

nope https://www.royalmail.com/fee2pay

socks_uk

I placed an order from America through Amazon.com and was charged the import duty at the Amazon checkout.

custardy

socks_uk wrote: »

I placed an order from America through Amazon.com and was charged the import duty at the Amazon checkout.

amazon.com seem to handle the customs duty and clearance at point of sale
many couriers will do the same for a fee

Snapdragon

custardy wrote: »

amazon.com seem to handle the customs duty and clearance at point of sale
many couriers will do the same for a fee

In my case I wasn't buying from Amazon and seller never actually mentioned customs duty or VAT. I don't actually know how its getting here/who is courier, only that I had to pay for international shipping and they said it would take 1 to 3 weeks. Am I right to assume I just sit back and wait for the parcel to arrive and someone will contact me or ask me for the extra money at that point or should I be doing something? Don't want to wait 3 weeks wondering where it is then find out its waiting somewhere for me to pay the extra for VAT or courier handling fee. Its supposed to be a xmas pressie. Any advice?

custardy

Snapdragon wrote: »

In my case I wasn't buying from Amazon and seller never actually mentioned customs duty or VAT. I don't actually know how its getting here/who is courier, only that I had to pay for international shipping and they said it would take 1 to 3 weeks. Am I right to assume I just sit back and wait for the parcel to arrive and someone will contact me or ask me for the extra money at that point or should I be doing something? Don't want to wait 3 weeks wondering where it is then find out its waiting somewhere for me to pay the extra for VAT or courier handling fee. Its supposed to be a xmas pressie. Any advice?

yup,you just need to wait

JAG

socks_uk wrote: »

I placed an order from America through Amazon.com and was charged the import duty at the Amazon checkout.

I was thinking of doing this when an item I wanted was over the £18 import limit, since it would be cheaper than paying the Royal Mail £8 fee on top of the VAT. But on Googling it I found that people reported that they were still charged VAT and collection fee from Fedex even though they paid the tax on Amazon.

Both Amazon and Fedex said it wasn't there problem and they had to pay again.

colmil

I bought three shirts from the US which are not available here, they were half price in the sale by good luck, however the v.a.t. and post office charges came to £18 in total, could have been worse!

Snapdragon

custardy wrote: »

yup,you just need to wait

Just thought I'd update to thank everyone for the advice and to let people know my parcel arrived today (only 10 days) with parcelforce worldwide and I was surprised they asked for nothing extra, just handed it over.:j

Package had customs declaration dispatch note on the front which said postage and fees paid so I'm guessing the shipping fees I paid upfront was to include everything. Don't know whether it was just lucky this experience but perhaps won't be quite so daunted about buying from the states in future, as I'm pleased with this.