Buying online from Canada

CR16

Hi
So I am in the middle of building my own pc and as one of my friends regularly travels home to Canada I decided to take advantage of the cheaper overseas prices and get him to bring back many of the components.
I currently have a Halifax Student Current Account with a Visa Debit card and have a couple of questions:
1) If I order the parts online from the UK on my card and get them delivered to my friend's house what sort of bills am I likely to get hit with?
2) If I transfer the money into my friend's account and get him to order them, what sort of conversion fees etc. are there

I just want to minimise any extra fees being inflicted upon my much maligned account

Cheers

geekonthepc

I'm not completely experienced in this area but I believe you'd be better off buying them yourself and getting them delivered to his door. If you buy them on your debit card from home in an international currency, it will just be converted back to GBP by the bank. You'd be even better off if you can pay in GBP from the international site (as that way you'll avoid your banks/card handlers exchange rates which are often slightly unfair).

You'll pay fees for sending money internationally to a person on the other hand, unless you used something like PayPal to do so (and even if you used PayPal, you'd be subject to PayPal's exchange rates which I often find very unjustified).

I'd probably say just buy it yourself using your card and get it delivered to his door. Not 100% sure though.

The_Boss

I'm changing my post, as my advice was based on using the Halifax Clarity card which you do not possess.

grumbler

CR16 wrote: »

1) If I order the parts online from the UK on my card and get them delivered to my friend's house what sort of bills am I likely to get hit with?

Currency conversion will cost you ~3% unless you pay with a right card (0%): Your Card's Overseas Charges

2) If I transfer the money into my friend's account and get him to order them, what sort of conversion fees etc. are there

About the same 3% for the conversion plus a flat fee for the transfer.

Theoretically your friend has to pay import duty (and VAT?) when bringing your stuff to UK.

Also, some companies can refuse sending to an address different from your card billing one.

dzug1

geekonthepc wrote: »

. If you buy them on your debit card from home in an international currency, it will just be converted back to GBP by the bank. You'd be even better off if you can pay in GBP from the international site (as that way you'll avoid your banks/card handlers exchange rates which are often slightly unfair).

.

That assumes the international site doesn't heavily load its conversion rate when determining GBP prices - odds on are that it does

geekonthepc

dzug1 wrote: »

That assumes the international site doesn't heavily load its conversion rate when determining GBP prices - odds on are that it does

True, probably best to check the exchange rate they're applying and work out the cheapest method from that.

zerog

Just pay him GBP at a rate of his choosing, and tell him to buy it in CAD himself

grumbler

zerog wrote: »

Just pay him GBP at a rate of his choosing,

Why on earth would he want GBP? If you mean paying it Canadian $, how can he chose the rate?
And what's the point in paying for international transfer?