Bike-Discount Website

ibr17xvii

Can anyone help me make sense of what (if anything) extra fees & charges I would potentially pay ordering from this website & being shipped to the UK?

The prices & stock levels are decent, there is a minimum order of 175 Euros which is fine for what I want but reading the Government website it's confusing the hell out of me.

Anyone ordered anything post Brexit shipped from abroad to the UK that can give me their experience / guidance?

TIA.

wongataa

Here are the import tax and duty rules: https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty.

It is quite simple. Goods under £39 not VAT or duty charged on import. Between £39 and £135 VAT paid by retailer. Purchaser will be charged duty if required. Over £135 purchaser pays VAT and any required duty.

So anything you buy from Bike Discount will require you to pay VAT and any required import duty on import as it is over the £135 threshold.

If you want to look up the import duty for any product look here: https://gov.uk/trade-tariff

ibr17xvii

Thanks for that.

Having Googled it does seem a wee bit hit & miss if you get charged anything at this end so I'll go with worst case scenario & if I manage to avoid it even better.

kingstongraham

wongataa said:

Here are the import tax and duty rules: https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty.

It is quite simple. Goods under £39 not VAT or duty charged on import. Between £39 and £135 VAT paid by retailer. Purchaser will be charged duty if required. Over £135 purchaser pays VAT and any required duty.

So anything you buy from Bike Discount will require you to pay VAT and any required import duty on import as it is over the £135 threshold.

If you want to look up the import duty for any product look here: https://gov.uk/trade-tariff

The £39 limit only applies to gifts sent to you from abroad. There is no low value exemption for purchases from abroad any more.

MattFalle

you gotta love a bit of brexit, eh

#bluepassports

daniel_b

ibr17xvii said:

Thanks for that.

Having Googled it does seem a wee bit hit & miss if you get charged anything at this end so I'll go with worst case scenario & if I manage to avoid it even better.

My not very lengthy research into this suggested I would end up paying an extra 30% of the original purchase price in various fees and charges

ibr17xvii

daniel_b said:

ibr17xvii said:

Thanks for that.

Having Googled it does seem a wee bit hit & miss if you get charged anything at this end so I'll go with worst case scenario & if I manage to avoid it even better.

My not very lengthy research into this suggested I would end up paying an extra 30% of the original purchase price in various fees and charges

Yeah I was thinking about 25% - 30%.

daniel_b

ibr17xvii said:

daniel_b said:

ibr17xvii said:

Thanks for that.

Having Googled it does seem a wee bit hit & miss if you get charged anything at this end so I'll go with worst case scenario & if I manage to avoid it even better.

My not very lengthy research into this suggested I would end up paying an extra 30% of the original purchase price in various fees and charges

Yeah I was thinking about 25% - 30%.

Would have to be something pretty special that you simply can't get here to justify it sadly.
I did it with some ex team kit sourced from the Netherlands.

ibr17xvii

daniel_b said:

ibr17xvii said:

daniel_b said:

ibr17xvii said:

Thanks for that.

Having Googled it does seem a wee bit hit & miss if you get charged anything at this end so I'll go with worst case scenario & if I manage to avoid it even better.

My not very lengthy research into this suggested I would end up paying an extra 30% of the original purchase price in various fees and charges

Yeah I was thinking about 25% - 30%.

Would have to be something pretty special that you simply can't get here to justify it sadly.
I did it with some ex team kit sourced from the Netherlands.

It's a proper pain.

If I thought I'd get away with the extra costs I'd probably chance it but knowing my luck it will end up at 50% extra.

kingstongraham

It's a small price to pay for building a high wage, high skill economy.

daniel_b

kingstongraham said:

It's a small price to pay for building a high wage, high skill economy.

Yep, and the blue passports, and not forgetting sovrinnty by the leaky bucketload.

daniel_b

ibr17xvii said:

daniel_b said:

ibr17xvii said:

daniel_b said:

ibr17xvii said:

Thanks for that.

Having Googled it does seem a wee bit hit & miss if you get charged anything at this end so I'll go with worst case scenario & if I manage to avoid it even better.

My not very lengthy research into this suggested I would end up paying an extra 30% of the original purchase price in various fees and charges

Yeah I was thinking about 25% - 30%.

Would have to be something pretty special that you simply can't get here to justify it sadly.
I did it with some ex team kit sourced from the Netherlands.

It's a proper pain.

If I thought I'd get away with the extra costs I'd probably chance it but knowing my luck it will end up at 50% extra.

I bought a fair bit of kit from them in the past, including a follow me tandem for my daughters bike, Garmin Vector 2 dual sided pedals, and a fair bit of Mavic kit - Could not fault them at all, both in terms of customer service, as well as handling returns etc.

Back then they also generously offered free returns - those were the days

MattFalle

daniel_b said:

kingstongraham said:

It's a small price to pay for building a high wage, high skill economy.

Yep, and the blue passports, and not forgetting sovrinnty by the leaky bucketload.

yeah, all that and the chance to not have food, petrol or any presents or lunch at Christmas.

Its like a winner winner stinging nettle soup for dinner kinda celebratory affair.

#fucktheTories

ibr17xvii

From what I can establish you seem to pay import duty of either 4.7% - 6% (depending on what the item is classified as) on the total including P&P.

Then you pay VAT at 20% on that total (including the duty).

Then you pay the couriers charge which in this case is DHL & looks to be about £12.

One of the items I've seen is mega cheap but the others are pretty similar to UK prices with all of that added on so not sure whether it's worth the risk as I'm not 100% those percentages are correct, it's just what's been thrown up on Google.

daniel_b

And unless you can guarantee it won't need to be returned, I would imagine some if not all of those charges you wouldn't be able to get back, and there would be the extra customs forms to fill out, and of course the cost of sending it back with sufficient insurance, unless they are still offering free returns, but I doubt it.

MattFalle

You won't get any of the charges back so you'll have spaffed a load of cash away for no reason.

ibr17xvii

daniel_b said:

And unless you can guarantee it won't need to be returned, I would imagine some if not all of those charges you wouldn't be able to get back, and there would be the extra customs forms to fill out, and of course the cost of sending it back with sufficient insurance, unless they are still offering free returns, but I doubt it.

MattFalle said:

You won't get any of the charges back so you'll have spaffed a load of cash away for no reason.

I'm not really worried about the return side of things as I'm 99.9% sure I won't need to it's more the fact I'll get hit with some charge I don't know of.

janwal

https://www.keller-sports.co.uk/faq/is-brexit-affecting-my-purchases-/
Does this German shop have what you want? I’ve just bought a Kask helmet from them cheaper than anywhere in uk. That included joining their premium service for £7.99 as it gave me 10% off and free returns to a uk warehouse if needed.Orders over £150 are free postage even to uk. Delivered within 7 days.

wongataa

ibr17xvii said:

From what I can establish you seem to pay import duty of either 4.7% - 6% (depending on what the item is classified as) on the total including P&P.

Then you pay VAT at 20% on that total (including the duty).

If the goods cost under £630 the max duty payable is 2.5%

andrew_s-2

What ibr17xvii posted is what should happen for purchases over the £135 limit.

However, it is possible for the German retailer to register for UK VAT etc (which costs them in registration fees, setting up their computer systems for dealing with UK bureaucracy & rules etc etc), and for them to charge you UK VAT and other taxes at the point of sale. In that case there are no surprises, or shouldn't be - it's website price plus shipping, as normal.

bikester.co.uk are such a site (in Stuttgart, despite the URL). I ordered a Supernova light from them a few days ago, so I'll see if the theory is correct.

[edit]
Turned up OK, just a simple delivery with no extras.

daniel_b

Yep I have shopped with Bikester and Bergzeit in recent months, and no surprises.
Think the latter bought Wiggle/crc earlier this year?

ibr17xvii

janwal said:

https://www.keller-sports.co.uk/faq/is-brexit-affecting-my-purchases-/
Does this German shop have what you want? I’ve just bought a Kask helmet from them cheaper than anywhere in uk. That included joining their premium service for £7.99 as it gave me 10% off and free returns to a uk warehouse if needed.Orders over £150 are free postage even to uk. Delivered within 7 days.

Thanks but unfortunately not.

Good to know for future though.

ibr17xvii

andrew_s-2 said:

What ibr17xvii posted is what should happen for purchases over the £135 limit.

However, it is possible for the German retailer to register for UK VAT etc (which costs them in registration fees, setting up their computer systems for dealing with UK bureaucracy & rules etc etc), and for them to charge you UK VAT and other taxes at the point of sale. In that case there are no surprises, or shouldn't be - it's website price plus shipping, as normal.

bikester.co.uk are such a site (in Stuttgart, despite the URL). I ordered a Supernova light from them a few days ago, so I'll see if the theory is correct.

I've just got 2 things from Bikester actually & although it took a few days for it to clear through customs I didn't get charged anything extra.

kingstongraham

wongataa said:

ibr17xvii said:

From what I can establish you seem to pay import duty of either 4.7% - 6% (depending on what the item is classified as) on the total including P&P.

Then you pay VAT at 20% on that total (including the duty).

If the goods cost under £630 the max duty payable is 2.5%

Not according to the link you posted before https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

GIFTS between £135 and £630 are 2.5%. GOODS over £135 are subject to duty.

ibr17xvii

I've decided to risk it for a biscuit so I'll update the thread with what I get stung for if / when that happens.

Thanks for the replies.

daniel_b

ibr17xvii said:

I've decided to risk it for a biscuit so I'll update the thread with what I get stung for if / when that happens.

Thanks for the replies.

Good luck, I'm rooting for you

ibr17xvii

daniel_b said:

ibr17xvii said:

I've decided to risk it for a biscuit so I'll update the thread with what I get stung for if / when that happens.

Thanks for the replies.

Good luck, I'm rooting for you

Cheers!

ibr17xvii

Result!

Got the parcel via DHL today with nothing extra to pay.

Quite astounded TBH but I'm certainly not knocking it.

darkhairedlord

At least tell us what it was!

ibr17xvii

darkhairedlord said:

At least tell us what it was!

If you insist..........

Basically some Di2 bits & pieces (cables, internal junction box etc) that would've worked out pretty much the same price as over here if I'd got charged the extra.

What I really wanted though was a R8050 right shifter that was just over £51.

Cheapest I can find it in the UK is nearer £100.

Ben6899

I've ordered something from Belgium to Germany (while sat in the UK) and this link popped up. It's some useful advice put together by the Belgium postal service:

https://www.bpost.be/en/shopping-outside-eu

It looks like you need to make sure VAT is included in the amount that comes out of your credit/debit card. If it does, then the online shop you're using is registered to ship outside the EU and there won't be any surprises.