PayPal buying from USA

[chippy1970]

Anyone know what fees if any you have to pay to buy stuff on US eBay with PayPal. I'm looking at phone cases that are $27 plus $8 shipping.

 

[flh801978]

Which fees do you mean?
import dutys and vat?

i'd be suprised if you got caught for those values you quoted

but the duty and vat isnt much but the Post office charges for handling them are

Ian

 

[chippy1970]

No I think it's below that

I was talking about PayPal fees for converting . The seller has replied and said there's no fees for me.

 

[tekno.mage]

Aside from the import duty and VAT (which you may not have to pay on low value items), the only other catch is the exchange rate between sterling and US dollars which Paypal uses. As I recall when I was buying stuff from the US (a few years back when the exchange rates made buying from the States very attractive indeed!), the rate used by Paypal was nothing like as good as that available from the Post Office in the UK. For low value items, I often took the risk and sent cash payment in US dollars - and none ever got lost in the post!

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

correct...no additional fees levied by paypal except for an extortionate FX GBP to USD

 

[petermillard]

PayPal has a currency converter that shows the cost of a transaction based on the current exchange rate. Log in to your PayPal account, then > Profile > My Money. In the 'PayPal balance' section, click ’Currencies’ and you’ll see a ‘Currency Exchange’ box where you can enter the cost and the currency, and see what the actual cost will be. Yeah, they make it really easy to find, don't they..?

Also, I wouldn't be too sure about anything slipping through these days without getting attention from Customs & Excise; my wife had a poster sent from the US recently that was caught by customs - we were charged £3-odd in duty, plus Royal Mail slapped on an £8 ’handling fee’. Poster was $25 originally :roll:

 

[John51]

I recently ordered 6 packages from the US, only one escaped VAT (plus the post office rip) and that was sent International letter post.

 

[MIGNAL]

I'm not so sure that it won't come in duty and VAT free. You might be in for a not so pleasant surprise, especially if there is the handling fee on top. At that amount ($27 + $8) I think you are on the cusp. I've read that anything below £18 comes in untouched but I'm not sure if that includes or excludes the postage.
Occasionally I've had much higher value packages come in without additional charges. Rare though.
Anyway, it's nothing to do with the PO, Royal Mail. Parcel Force, DHL, Fedex etc. They all just act as agents in collecting the fees.

 

[Steve Maskery]

All correct.
Paypal fees are paid by the seller, all other costs relating to importing it are the responsibility of the buyer.
S

 

[JakeS]

I've read that anything below £18 comes in untouched but I'm not sure if that includes or excludes the postage.

It used to be £18 for merchandise and £28 for gifts; I believe it's recently been reduced to £15 for merchandise and £20 for gifts, meaning that anything with a declared value of $23.57 US (as of right now) or more will be subject to import VAT. You get let off anything under that simply because it's not worth HMRC's time to collect it. (Similarly you get let off import duties under a much higher threshold, something like £100 value, IIRC.)

Confusingly, only the declared value of the item itself is considered when checking the threshold, but if the value exceeds the threshold then VAT is charged not just on the item, but on any displayed postage charges as well.

By far the biggest charge, however, every single time I've paid import VAT on anything delivered from overseas, has been the 'handling charge' (which sometimes reaches £20!) that the scumbag courier slaps on top for the service of lending you the money to pay the parcel's way through customs.