Buying from Amazon-dot-com (USA)

[blacklion1725]

Have an ex-pat Pal in the states who comes home regular and I often get him to bring me goodies that are cheaper over there or maybe not even available here. Most recent was the Roku Ultra which I wanted to try on the 4K telly I have in the kitchen – $112.24 on Amazon.com. Duly obliged, Out of interest I had a nose to see whether I could buy another from the UK (on Amazon.com).

Short answer seems to be that for Amazon purchases below the Import duty level (about £140 I think) you can by (as long as it is direct from Amazon not a Marketplace seller) very cheaply – paying only a very reasonable postage an no import duty or VAT. For example, the Roku Ultra (which btw is a superb bit of kit), you only pay the $6.05 (around £4.65). So (just an example you can import one for total of $118.29 (around £90.85 if you use an FX-friendly payment method).

Hadn’t realised this, and of course north of £140 Import duty kicks in and takes a big bite, but otherwise an economical way to import from the States.

[Ed P]

Its a bit of a gamble whether you get hit with a duty charge, normally HMRC ‘waive’ duty below £50 as the costs of collection start to outweigh the revenue.

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