Customs charges,Ebay - Help!!!!

bigmomma051204

Hi - i have been using ebay for a long time now but i have NEVER bought from any international sellers as i have been scared off by people talking about getting stung by extra charges (on top of the actual price and the p&p, i mean)

I totally have no clue about this - i read somewhere the other day that you may not get charged anything extra if the value (item price plus p&p inclusive) is under a certain amount??

Sorry to be so vague, i just get cold feet thinking that i may pay X amount for the item and p&p but then somehow get stung by a massive extra charge! And who gets the money off you when you receive the item - royal mail????????

I am probably mainly looking at buying from USA (i love "shabby chic" homeware and there is loads of lovely stuff from America, not very moneysaving i know i know lol!!!!)

Thanks for any help!

xxxxxxxxxxx

StaffsSW

Try this thread - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=929949

Tirian

I have tended to find that most items I receive from abroad incur no customs charges - even if they should do. It's a bit of a gamble though, so you shouldn't count on it. And it probably has something to do with the fact that most of the shipments I get are sub £100 in value, so there's not much incentive for customs to go to the effort of collecting the levy.

I've recently had packages from Australia, USA, Japan and Hong Kong that should all technically have had customs to pay, but I wasn't charged for any of them. On the other hand, I have been charged in the past - and one particular thing to bear in mind is that the customs charge is levied not just on the value of the contents, but on the postage as well! So if you bought something cheap (say $5) but heavy (say the postage was $200) then you would be charged VAT on $205. And on top of that you can generally add a 'processing fee' from the delivery company, who pay the customs fee for you at the point of entry to the country - £8 - £15 in my experience.

It's best to assume that these kinds of costs may apply, ask yourself if you are willing to pay the complete price including all of this, and bid on that basis.

Or wait until October when the value of goods you can import without incurring a charge will go up from c. £35 to c. £180

custardy

oh thats good news on the customs levy
i want to order a few things and ive held off as the vat would have been a pain
i'll just stick to my small orders for now

as for sub £100 orders,i see loads with just a few £ vat so its just luck of the draw.im sure more get through than are charged in reality