Buying kit from RC Mart, & customs.......

[Sheriff 36]

Thinking of buying a kit from RC Mart, due to good deal. Deal may not be so good if customs take a big wedge.

So, any UK buyers, bought kits from RC Mart, did you get big customs fees?

I never used to get charged when buying from Stella, but they never seem to have stock anymore.

 

Cheers

[Superluminal 3750]

Ive used RC Mart lots of times (im in the UK) and never had a customs charge. Having said that I have an order from them currentlt on its way. I have probably cursed it now.

[moffman 5748]

I used to always buy from stella and never got caught and considering it's practically on the other side of the world it was quick delivery! But like you say everything is always out of stock now so I used rc mart the first and last time was when the Honda city turbo was released and i got caught for the custom charges and it would have worked out cheaper if I had just bought it in the UK🤔,  I was told if you get caught with the custom charges your details get kept on record for a period of time so your details flag up if anything else land in there radar (don't know how true that actually is?) Just what I was reliably told🤷‍♂️

[TurnipJF 9190]

I think it depends on country of origin. I have to pay whenever I get anything from Canada, but I have yet to pay any charges on things from the Far East. So if details are kept on record, they appear to be on a per country basis. 

[Wongataa 42]

17 hours ago, Sheriff said:

Thinking of buying a kit from RC Mart, due to good deal. Deal may not be so good if customs take a big wedge.

So, any UK buyers, bought kits from RC Mart, did you get big customs fees?

I never used to get charged when buying from Stella, but they never seem to have stock anymore.

 

Cheers

What you need to do is work out the possible customs charges and VAT and add it to the price.  Then if you get charged you have budgeted for it and if you don't get charged or get charged less than you could be it is a bonus.

Customs duty for models is 4.7%. VAT is 20%.  VAT is applied on the price after the duty is added.

I have bought a r/c kit from Rcmart.  I had to pay some customs charges but it was less that it could of been so I was happy.  How much you get charged will partly be down to how much the supplier declares the cost of the item is.  They maybe naughty and not declare the full price.  Then it will depend on how much customs check into the item.  Don't forget to add on the fees from the delivery company if you need to pay customs charges.

[Sheriff 36]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Will let you know what happens!!

[Juggernut 120]

2 hours ago, Wongataa said:

VAT is 20%.

Holy Moly!  That seems insane!

[Superluminal 3750]

Welcome to Britain!!!

Where it really stings is Royal Mail will not realease the item to you until the duty is paid in addition to their owm handling fee (ransom) of an additional £13

I have had this on orders from Japan twice now - fortunately never had any trouble with orders from China / Hong Kong / Taiwan / USA and OZ so far.

[WillyChang 1814]

What is the go with Stella these days anyway...? Are they selling out everything due to crazy high demand or getting squeezed on stock supply? Are their wholesalers been instructed to stop selling to reExporters?  either way yeah pretty impossible to buy there anyone