Importing from USA arranging my own postage

aideym900

I'm currently in negotiation with a company in America for one of their products.
The cost of the item is $760 and the postage cost is $200.
Based on the import duty calculator, the import duty is 2.7% + 20% VAT. This comes in at £754.33. Which isn't a deal breaker but they have said that other people have arranged their own postage.
Now crunching the figures on this the import costs drop to £597 and I can arrange through DHL for the collection at £110, thus saving £50.
The question is simply, am I missing something here?

regards
Aid

visidigi

bear in mind, if you are arranging the shipping you are responsible for the item as soon as it is handed over to the courier.

You may find other companies selling the services of DHL/UPS/FedEx etc. please carefully consider these - as you have far less rights that buying from the major companies direct.

You also need to check with the seller if they will do your paperwork - there will need to be Shipper Export Declarations filed etc for exporting from the US.

Also note, DHL no longer have full operations in the US so they will likely use a third party for the pickup and initial handling unless from a major city...

If it was me, considering the item value, I wouldn't do my own shipping for the sake of £50.