Buying In The US Discussion Area

nfarrington

I am travelling to the US for Christmas and want to buy some presents whilst there. Does anyone know if a Nintendo Wii bought in the US will work in the UK? Are there any issues with the power cable, voltage etc?? Same question for a Kodak digital photo frame. Thanks!!

carrie891

hi, i am new to the website so bear with me if i'm doing this wrong.
i am currently in the process of gathering a list of people wanting uggs from amrica. i have foung a company who will ship and they have given me a price for postage. i have been reading this site and i am now concerned about extra cost. as this parcel will have multiple items in it will i be charged per item or for the overall parcel weight in vat, duty,etc? i am also cncerned about the charge from the royal mail, is there a ay to ind out the costs so i can weigh it up before i order? once again i aologise if i'm being a thick. thanks in advance carrie

Lizzie_B_4

I bought some perfume from the USA & accepted their rather high P&P charge of £7.50. Expected a customs charge and got it - £4.09. However I was shocked at the Royal Mail handling fee of £8.00 On a £23 bottle of perfume!! Have contacted the Royal Mail and got nowhere! They say it's to fund a whole Dept to handle goods on behalf of HM Customs and Excise! Upshot, I have saved nothing - won't be buying from the USA again!
Lizzie. B.

teddyco

twist3d,

If you are going to be shipping an item as large as a motorbike, you may want to seek the guidance of a freight forwarding company.

A freight forwarder will obviously charge you a fee to handle your item, but they will also inform you of the taxes and customs that you can expect when it reaches the port of your choice.

Also, they will handle all the paperwork and make the whole process a lot easier than going it alone.

Here is one just for example:

http://www.sbsworldwide.com/contact/contact1.html

teddyco

nfarrington,

I have a Canon Digital camera that I purchased in the USA and brought back through customs since it was under the allowance.

The only thing that you'll have to look out for is the battery charger on the Kodak camera. If you look on the specs and see '110 - 115 V' this means that it will only handle US Voltage.

My battery charger has 110 - 240V printed on the bottom in tiny letters.
All I need is a universal plug adapter to plug into our configuration and it automatically recognizes the higher voltage and switches the charger accordingly.

You could still use the 110 - 115 V charger here as long as you plug it first into a transformer that steps our Voltage down to the lower Volts they use in the USA. They sell them on Ebay for a few quid.

teddyco

nfarrington,

I did a quick search to find out if a Nintendo Wii purchased in the USA will work here in the UK, and the answer is no.

It's the same answer for the Xbox 360 too.

In the USA, their games play on the NTSC format while our games use the PAL format. I have an Xbox 360 console, and have tried to purchase the games in the USA on a business trip, but the NTSC format stopped me in my tracks.

Here is a link that gives you some information on NTSC vs. PAL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL

mal79

Can someone confirm whether the duty is calculated on the GBP value after conversion? For example $700 USD = £350 GBP (ish) = VAT =£61.25. So the better the exchange rate, the lower the duty too?

Or is it calculated on what you actually pay, including foreign transaction fees from you card provider?

Thanks

Malcolm

welcometomylair

I am going to New York for a spot of sight-seeing and maybe some Christmas shopping and I've been told that if you take the labels off any clothes you've bought then you won't pay any VAT or Customs Duty on them on your return to the UK. Has anyone heard anything like this? Presumably you could buy a watch/jeans etc in the US and wear them home on the plane?! Sounds highly illegal to me!

liamsquire

HI guys and gals,

I purchased two item from the Disney Shop in the US (weren't available in UK shop) to be delivered to the UK. Both items along with International delivery came to just over $160, roughly £83. When the items arrived I had to pay about £40 in cash to UPS. I can only assume the £40 (£22 for one item and £18 for the other) was for import tax. I thought that this was very expensive seeing that I had already paid for International delivery from the Disney site.

Does this fee of £40 sound about right for something costing £83? Any advice is grately appreciated.

eggspert

alfie74 wrote: »

I was looking at this article today and spotted something wrong. Oi! are you there!

It says that goods over £7 are liable for customs duty. The HMRC site says that is the amount of DUTY is less than £7 then they'll waive it.

Let's say I'm looking at a strobe light. Customs duty is 2.6% on this item. If the item is say £50 then the duty would be less than £7 so this would be waived and only VAT @17.5% is charged and £8 by the Royal Mail.

Do I understand it correctly that the percentages are added on the total cost (including delivery)?

Yes, You are right, absolutely right.
So, if you brought back two thousand dollars worth of goods back from the United States, that the duty would only be the threshold figure of one hundred and forty pounds; that being fourteen percent of the gross.
Is that what you also calculated?

Please let me know.

eggspert.