Page 1 of Buying cheap in the US - advice please?

I sometimes go to the US on business and am considering buying some electronic items which are much cheaper there. If you buy online and have it delivered locally, even cheaper.
My question is: if I buy an item (say, a flash memory card) using my UK Mastercard, and have it delivered to my mate in NY, will I be liable (at a later date perhaps) for VAT or customs duties?

Cheers

Tarzan

Customs duties are incurred when you bring the item over the border - if you rip the packaging and leave the memory card alongwith the others you have - no one will ask you. Of course, if you have 6 spanking new Olympus digicams in your handbag, still intact with packaging, then you will be liable for customs duty.

As long as the product is used - or you can prove with sufficient certainty that it is - no duty. basically make them believe that you had it when you went out

And the bargain is where exactly?? >:(

Exactly right, if I was going, I would take the minimum I needed with me.

Buy your memory card, use it in your camera, buy the camera even, case it bag it, you took it with you... didn`t you :-)

Good luck.

Bear in mind that you pay state tax if you live in the US; it`s usually 5% to 7%. And you can bring back goods to the value of £145 and you don`t have to pay duty; but if you have one item worth £146, you end up paying duty on the full amount. This is for things you personally carry, not things you mail order. This figure was supposed to be going up to £1000 but it hasn`t happened yet.

Where`s the bargain? OK try this - you can often find ads in local US papers, usually Sundays which contain vouchers with ridiculous offers. I used to get bargains from Office World, BestBuy and CompUSA. They are all based on rebates - in other words, you pay the full amount, mail in the receipt with the voucher and you get a cheque in the mail - but only if you live in the US. So get your mate to do that for you. If you can`t find vouchers in the papers, go into the store and look for racks of them on the wall just by the exit.

This item was edited on Monday, 5th September 2005, 21:15

I went to the US a few years ago and was advised by a friend who work in customs to destroy all packaging and if you need the reciept for a worldwide warrenty then post it to yourself. The way they catch people out is when you say oh that I`ve had it ages then they find the reciept for it in your bag

If you want to come after me you`ll find me in Newport Pagnell but be warned I know karate, Judo, Kung-fu and several other dangerous words

About 6 years ago I bought an inkjet printer for $1 at Nobody Beats the Wiz in NY.

I then bought it back through customs, got stopped, said I have taken it over with me for use on my laptop and all was fine.

Thing is, I also bought an SLR camera, and various other bits, way over £1,000 worth, retail here would have been almost double that.

Don`t forget the obvious electronic differences too.

If you`re buying electronic items remember that the USA use 110V and we use 240V.

Also the USA use NTSC television signals and we use PAL; so don`t go buying a cheap portable TV (as I did years ago when I bought a Sony Watchman - only to discover that important signal difference!) (:¦

And on a smaller note, DVD players etc play only Region 1 by default (unless it is specifically multi-region, or known hackable).

pianeet

also if you buy anything from walmart and it goes wrong you can take it back to asda in england as long as you have the receipt,done this with portable dvd player that went wrong refunded me no problem

Quote:
also if you buy anything from walmart and it goes wrong you can take it back to asda in england as long as you have the receipt,done this with portable dvd player that went wrong refunded me no problem

That`s worth knowing Didn`t think you could do that! Out of interest, how did they refund you the money, assuming you paid in $ (us dollars) - did they work out current exchange rate and refund you that in UK £`s? Walmart are always doing crazy offers on a first come first serve basis - you can pick up some great bargains :)

I know when I was in the US a few years back and tried to purchase online to be delivered to US address I was staying at, the retailer could only deliver to the address on my Visa card (which of course was UK) - but maybe not all online retailers are like that now.