Page 1 of Customs Charges

I guess this gets covered fairly often but am I right in assuming that anything to buy from outside the EU with a value of £20 or less is not subject to a customs surcharge?

If I got it right, I would also assume it was the value of contents that the customs charges are based on rather than the total order including postage?

Thinking of buying from the US as the dollar is so weak.

Thanks in advance

customs charges are based on the total cost, otherwise people would just buy, for example. a £2.50 DVD with a postage charge of £20 to escape ever paying any charges.... :/
It is a good time to buy from the US, but remember, just because the xchange rate is good, the one you bank offers when you use your card may not be so hot - they tend to use these xchange rate variations to get extra dough themselves. :(

This item was edited on Sunday, 11th January 2004, 22:54

Uncharged Water - it would appear that you are not quite correct. This discussion was held on Saturday on this very same forum

Here

Bloody well hope shipping ain`t included. I`ve ordered now on above advice :)

Cheers

Si

To reiterate, the £18 limit refers to the value of the item excluding postage. However, if you go above that limit, they use the total cost including postage when calculating the charges.

Mike

I guess it depends on how the `value` is assigned by the sender - i have had this situation before, with goods @ £16 + p+p @ £5, and been charged, because the `value` was given as £21 by the sender..... Mind you , that was an ebay job, it may be okay with regular etailers....