Ordering kit from the US

[.Woody]

Hi,
I'm about to buy a new camera and some kit, and found a great site in the US that I can save small fortune on compared to the UK. Has anyone ordered stuff from the US before, delivered to the UK? If so what type of UK customs tax have you been stung with, once you have received it? If any?

Cheers

Woody

[sgrimshaw]

.Woody said:

Hi,
I'm about to buy a new camera and some kit, and found a great site in the US that I can save small fortune on compared to the UK. Has anyone ordered stuff from the US before, delivered to the UK? If so what type of UK customs tax have you been stung with, once you have received it? If any?

Cheers

Woody

Woody,

Watch the warranties, US sold goods rarely come with manufacturers Global Warranty.

Duties are:

Digital Still Cameras 0%
Lenses 6.7%

Remember 17.5% VAT will be added to the total of Goods + Carriage + Duty.

There will inevitably be handling fees from the carrier too.

Simon

[.Woody]

Thanks Simon,
Will the 17.5% be added always?

Will it be added if a friend over there buys it for me and posts it over as a gift?

[DanH]

.Woody said:

Thanks Simon,
Will the 17.5% be added always?

Will it be added if a friend over there buys it for me and posts it over as a gift?

Yes if they catch you. Also if he lies about value on the declaration apparently you are liable! You have to be spending a lot to make it worthwhile, especially international warranty is often 1 year rather than 3-5. Makes more sense if you are going out there anyway.

[sgrimshaw]

.Woody said:

Thanks Simon,
Will the 17.5% be added always?

Will it be added if a friend over there buys it for me and posts it over as a gift?

I've never managed to avoide it from the US, HK yes, US nope.

High risk to attempt the "gift" approach, Customs aren't idiots. They'll know the true value of the goods being imported.

Before duty, VAT etc how much would you be saving?

Simon

[.Woody]

Price in the UK is £1500, over there its all £1000 including p&p. Could be tempted to look for a cheap flight just to pickl it up if its a risk, I'll mull over it! But if my friend really wanted to buy it for me as a gift and post me it as a prezzie, surely they couldnt tax on it, could they?
Its not the camera I am saving on the most (Canon G9), its the underwater housing and external underwater flash to take it scuba diving, the NYC co sell all of it (B&H)

Edited by .Woody on Friday 11th January 19:05

[sgrimshaw]

Woody,

How deep are you going ffs?

Ikelite 6147.09 housing and G9 camera £699.99
Ikelite DS51 Strobe full kit £320.

http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk

A lot of money to add onto to a sub £270 compact camera.

Have you considered renting for your trip?

And yes, there are rules as to how generous, tax and duty free, your US friend can be.

Simon

[.Woody]

sgrimshaw said:

Woody,

How deep are you going ffs?

Ikelite 6147.09 housing and G9 camera £699.99
Ikelite DS51 Strobe full kit £320.

http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk

A lot of money to add onto to a sub £270 compact camera.

Have you considered renting for your trip?

And yes, there are rules as to how generous, tax and duty free, your US friend can be.

Simon

Simon




30m deep enough where there is red light does not exist basically
The flash you quote is the smaller one similar to what I have now and would not be big enough for whale sharks and wrecks etc. The one I am after is the DS125 £700 over here.

Yes I know of camerasunderwater, I've used them for over 5 years

That is the best "compact" camera on the market to put in a housing

I was seriously thinking of a digi SLR, the 400D but for one I am told it doesnt have a LCD preview which is important when I am diving, and 2 it costs a lot more for all the different lenses I would need, and you cannot change them on an SLR underwater whereas you can take your wide angle off or on the G9
Compact you may call it but it has all the manual feutures of an SLR such as the shutter speed and aperture adjustment which is important if I want to improve my underwater photos, it also has a histogram and produces RAW photos, hardly a sub compact, the price you quote is the cheapest it is and still retails at around £400 which shows its quality.

If I chose a smaller compact it does not have the above features and they produce too much noise for some of my shots.

I broke my old compact on my last trip and used white balance a lot with some good results before it broke, I then rented the dive shops camera but the white balance results were worse than my own camera. I used their camera to take photos of Manta rays, pretty good results but when I compared them to someone with a double flash & digi SLR (and he spent €10,000 on his kit!), his were miles better, so the package I want is the closest I'll get to his


Can you understand me now!?

Thanks for the tax advice I'm guessing then, I may get chargewd on shipment and at the most it will be 17.5% (£175 basically)and no more, is that correct?

I'll also check if their warranties are valid over here

[sgrimshaw]

Woody,

Sorry wasn't trying to teach you suck eggs

Whilst there is no duty on Digital Still cameras, there is duty on the Flash System and probably the housing too.

I found the flash, but couldn't find the housing here : http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds/cgi-bin/t...

If you allowed say 7.5% in total it would seem to be more than enough, so it shouldn't be more than £1075 + 17.5% + handling fee (which I think is around £15).

Of course, you may just get lucky and avoid it altogether.

Simon

[.Woody]

Thanks Simon.
So at the most, I'll pay £200 and still be saving £300, I'll check with them about the warranties first as I said and go from there
Thanks for your help

[sgrimshaw]

.Woody said:

Thanks Simon.
So at the most, I'll pay £200 and still be saving £300, I'll check with them about the warranties first as I said and go from there
Thanks for your help

If the goods and shipping are £1000, then the worst case should be (but please check with HMCE):

£1000 + Duty = £1075 + VAT = £1263 + Handling Fee.

So at worst it might be just under £300 extra.

[.Woody]

If I bought the camera from the UK whats the cheapest and best plce to buy it?

[sgrimshaw]

.Woody said:

If I bought the camera from the UK whats the cheapest and best plce to buy it?

Digital First have it for £279.99, including 2 year guarantee http://www.digitalfirst.co.uk/product.asp?ProductN...


Cheapest I could see was £268, from a company from BestPricedBrands, but the company doesn't "feel" right to me, think it's a overseas operation.


simon

[.Woody]

Thanks Simon, I've just ordered the camera from there, and a mates picking up the other kit from Chicago this weekend
Can't wait now!

[DanH]

.Woody said:

Thanks Simon, I've just ordered the camera from there, and a mates picking up the other kit from Chicago this weekend
Can't wait now!

Are you ordering from B&H and getting them delivered to Chicago? Thats normally cheapest and since the sale is going out of state, no NY sales tax.

[Podie]

Quinny said:

I looked very carefully into buying from USA

At the end of the day unless you're actually going there and can bring it back as though you've always owned it, I figured it to be more hassle that it was worth.

In the end I delt with Kerso (well known on here) And to be fair on an order worth around £1600, there was less than £150 in it.

Ok it's still £150, but I've got full uk warranty, and I was eligable for the Canon cashback promotion that was on at the time.

Unless you're "really" going to save a small fortune, I'd deal with somone like Kerso in the UK.

I worked out that some of the USA deals were not quite what they seemed when you took "all" of the costs into consideration

If you're actually going there though, thats a whole different ball game

Another happy Kerso customer here.

He (and the cashback) worked out cheaper than buying in the US...