Buying from US Websites

hemophobic

Are there any extra charges when buying from the US using a MasterCard?

Spending $128 which google says is around £76

Slayerx

Are we talking digital or physical items?

hemophobic

Physical items - I know there might be some custom charges if I'm unlucky but will MasterCard charge me

Slayerx

Depends on the card provider some do and some don't.

If you are confident that you will get the item and the retailer will send it as a gift marked at I think its $20 that would avoid custom charges.

grumbler

Currency exchange fee is tipically 2.75-3% unless you use some rare card that doesn't charge for it.
What matters is the card provider, not the payment processing company (Mastercard in this case): Your Card's Overseas Charges

hemophobic

Concerning another item -would I be better off paying £70 from a UK site or $75/£45 from US site?

MPH80

Well that depends on a lot of factors.

a) It's possible you'd get hit on import fees
b) It's possible the shipping charges from the US would balance it out
c) How much risk do you want to take on breakage/returns/warrenties? Does the company have a UK arm? Would it do a return on a US bought item?

But on a pure 'how much will my credit card charge me' angle - you're far better off on the US price.

hemophobic

I'm taking the risk, thankyou.

grumbler

Once I've bought computer memory for £66 from USA. It was a false economy as RM charged me £20 for custom duties and their 'services' for collecting them.

WisdomTooth

grumbler wrote: »

Once I've bought computer memory for £66 from USA. It was a false economy as RM charged me £20 for custom duties and their 'services' for collecting them.

Same thing happened to me , back in the day when ram was way over priced , as mentioned its a lottery

Aquamania

hemophobic wrote: »

I'm taking the risk, thankyou.

Good on ya!

I guess you like an odd gamble? :huh:

Nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say.
That's what I always say every time I lose ... which is about 99.999% of the time. I must be world's worst gambler I think.