Gettting a US address for shipping using an intermediary

[John McM]

Happy New Year all,

Anybody ever used or heard of a service where a company acts as your shipping address in the states and then forwards the goods to you. ?

like this

http://www.borderlinx.com/?gclid=CJymjs ... EAodGHjJjQ

Cheers

 

[chippy1970]

Looks good

I looked into getting some Makita li_ion drills last year from the US and if you bought the 18v drill you got a voucher to get a free Impact driver.

Also the drill was half the price it was here anyway, only problem you had to have a US address to use the voucher, so this website would have been good for me.

In the end I bought the whole kit here to save messing about and payed £450 ouch...

 

[Losos]

Hi John,

There's been a couple of threads about importing from USA on here recently, the bottom line is that both 'Import Duty' and 'VAT' will be applied on anything over a certain value and almost certainly if it comes from a commercial address in America. When you add postage or freight and the 'commission' (or whatever) that the intermediary will charge it's not worth it.

A lot of people have said correctly that if you can get the sender to put 'Gift' on the green form and a low value you'll likely get it in duty & VAT free but there is no certainty about this, and I suspect that a business intermediary will not do this since it would be a blatant lie wouldn't it :?:

C&E actually have more powers than the Police in UK and even the 'below a certain value' thing is a concession, they can if they are having a bad day :lol: hit you for import duty & VAT on anything :roll:

I do buy books from Amazon USA - In Czechland they have twice charged me duty and three times let it in with no charges :?

 

[Jake]

the bottom line is that both 'Import Duty' and 'VAT' will be applied on anything over a certain value and almost certainly if it comes from a commercial address in America. When you add postage or freight and the 'commission' (or whatever) that the intermediary will charge it's not worth it.

That's a gross oversimplification - what you do have to do is work out whether you will be better off if taxed and VATted. Allowing 25% on top of the purchase price (edit: inc shipping) for FX charges, import and VAT is the rule of thumb I use and it works well enough for me, and very often there are still substantial savings to be made, especially with the current state of the dollar. If you don't get charged, it's a bonus, but you are right that it is rare unless the order is under a hundred dollars or so when they seem to get much more lenient (probably not so much worth the paperwork).

 

[jonny boy]

It has also proved very cheap for me as well. If you try to keep the weight down, it usually helps. It's not the vat and import duty that bumps up the price, it's the shipping in the first place.

jon.

 

[John McM]

Thanks chaps, food for thought.

 

[Losos]

It's not the vat and import duty that bumps up the price, it's the shipping in the first place.
jon.

Yes, that is likely the worst part 'cos it's difficult to know what it will be 'cos the shipper will usually use the service that suits them, if you ask for a different form of shipment you'll likely find that they loose interest.

Using an 'intermmediary' might get around that 'cos you could pre-arrange the shipment method.

But I still think that on top of all the known charges an intermediary will want paying too :!:

 

[lugo35]

got any friends or relitives out there

 

[stuartpaul]

Using their site to work out the cost of a $199 item of 'hardware' weighting 1Kg .

Duty: $29.56 £14.95
Taxes: $40.00 £20.23
Shipping (1kg): $37.40 £18.92
Total shipping charges: $106.96 £54.10
Plus original product value $199 £100.66
Total cost $305.96 £154.76

Based on those numbers over 50% above price paid will make it a close call against UK prices. If you add any warranty and power supply issues on top I think that may make it uneconomical?

Sorry for the formatting but I can't work out how to do it any better than that!!