Buying a computer from USA

[mwellsgarage]

I have found a website which is well reknowned in USA for selling computers and hardware, newegg.com, if i was to buy a pc from this website, the price is good taking into account the exchange rate, will i be liable for taxes or anything when the compuer arrives here in the UK? thanks PH faithfull!!

[headcase]

if customs see it then yes.

[DennisCooper]

Hi there,

Yes, you'll be liable for

VAT
Import Tax/Customs charges
Delivery costs
Potential 'handling' fee from the delivery company - they apparently pay the VAT on your behalf and then charge a fee for doing so!

I can never find the 'actual' customs rates and charges in exact figures. Whenever I do my price comparisons with US suppliers, I always just factor in '10%'. If you ask the US seller before buying, they won't add on the local state sales tax to the price you see on screen.

So if something is say $500 USD to buy on a US website, I firstly convert that to the UK figure by using the exchange rate according to XE.com currency converter which I beleive is almost real time. in this example - $500 USD = about £320 (currently £1= $1.56 USD). Multiply that by 1.175 for the current prevailing VAT rate of 17.5% = £376. I then add on 10% for customs charges/import taxes = £414. I then 'estimate' delivery charges. For a PC tower I'd estimate that'd be around £60 for delivery so I get a final figure of £475.

If I was to 'really' press ahead and go for a purchase, the above rough formula gives me a good indicator of roughly how much it'll cost in sterling.

As the pricing differential for electronics has narrowed in recent years with the US and UK, unless the item is something that just can't be had in the UK, or is very specialist etc, then you'll find it's not really worth it. Only go for it if you are getting a really phenomenal deal, is very cheap compared to the nearest UK product or has a much better spec overall etc.

The only way to really make this sort of worthwhile is to of course buy in bulk.

Hope this helps!

cheers Dennis! West London & Slough UK!

[Engineer1]

Ontop of that remember the voltage it is set to run at will be 110v so will need a new power supply.

[Silver993tt]

Engineer1 said:

Ontop of that remember the voltage it is set to run at will be 110v so will need a new power supply.

no it won't, all laptops in the US come with 110-220v since particularly in business, people tend to travel outside of the US. Even if you did buy a power supply, they are about £20 in the UK.

Edited by Silver993tt on Friday 12th February 20:54

[Deva Link]

DennisCooper said:

So if something is say $500 USD to buy on a US website, I firstly convert that to the UK figure by using the exchange rate according to XE.com currency converter which I beleive is almost real time. in this example - $500 USD = about £320 (currently £1= $1.56 USD). Multiply that by 1.175 for the current prevailing VAT rate of 17.5% = £376. I then add on 10% for customs charges/import taxes = £414. I then 'estimate' delivery charges. For a PC tower I'd estimate that'd be around £60 for delivery so I get a final figure of £475.

+2.75% conversion cost on most credit cards.

The machine will also have a US keyboard. Not a huge issue if it's your only machine as you sonn get used to it, but a pain if you're using othere PCs.

[Holst]

I used to buy components from newegg and then a friend would ship it over to the UK.
Most of it was used in my own PC but some went on ebay at a tidy profit.
I dont think newegg will ship to the UK directly and if things go with DHL or UPS you will get hit with tax and customs.

The difference in price isnt what it once was and the exchange rate is worse so its not as good a deal as it was in the past.
a few years ago a $500 processor would cost almost £500 in the UK, with almost a 2:1 dollar to pound exchange rate things were almost half price.

[Nickyboy]

Problem is that although you pay the VAt on the item itself you also have to pay VAT on the shipping charges, this was brought in by Mr Brown when he was chacellor to stop people charging £1 for an item and £300 shipping.

[-DeaDLocK-]

Another thing to bear in mind is that if you are buying a laptop, it will come with a US keyboard, with the following symbols all in different places from what you are used to:

\ " @

More annoyingly, it won't have the pound character (£) on it, which is a royal pain if you tend to use it a lot. The only ways to input the pound sign on such a keyboard is to copy and paste it or type Alt+0163.

Edited by -DeaDLocK- on Saturday 13th February 06:47

[-DeaDLocK-]

Silver993tt said:

Engineer1 said:

Ontop of that remember the voltage it is set to run at will be 110v so will need a new power supply.

no it won't, all laptops in the US come with 110-220v since particularly in business, people tend to travel outside of the US. Even if you did buy a power supply, they are about £20 in the UK.

And even if it isn't a laptop, most PC power supplies these days are dual-voltage. Just get a new kettle power cable for a quid or two and away you go.