Buying gear in US

"Walt" wrote in message
...

This is exactly the opposite of my experience. Visa/MC give very
competitive exchange rates, while the banks range from Ok to utterly
lame. The exchange booths at the airport are the worst of all.

I agree with Walt, as if that mattered.

Actual dollars-to-whatever, in several different countires, I consistently
do best with credit cards, if you charge your purchase on the card. Yes,
better than real-honest-to-God banks. Of course, much better than those
change (cambio, whatever) booths near where tourists are. The best approach
seems to be to use your card for all your purchases, which also avoids
carrying around a bunch of currency in a place you don't know well. Of
course, depending on where you are (this should not be the case anywhere in
the US, though), you may need local currency for most everything. For that,
depending on the place, you need to do something else (change some money
before you go, or carry crisp-from-the-vault US hundred-dollar-bills ... you
can use ATMs to get local currency out of your bank account back home some
places, though those are pretty much the same places where everyone takes
credit cards anyway).

As someone else mentioned, in the US, charging a higher price on credit-card
transaction is a violation of the retailer's merchant agreement with the
credit card company, and is also prohibited by statute (at least in some
states).

Herr Adi Das was the German Founder of Adidas

Now weather its still a German Company who know's ? Its probably listed
on both The DAX and Wall street . Its a bit like Burger King being
owned by Grand Met a British Company (last i heard):-)

With Ski Hardware when im in the US I allways ship it with Fed Ex or UPS
back to Europe. Its very cheap & is normally on your doorstep b4 you get
home ! I claim my tax back at the airport . WHen you order from the NET
they dont charge any tax to NON US addreesse only international
shipping . Even with the shipping its WAY WAY cheaper than europe.

Im just ordering a new laptop right now, inccredible savings $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Cheers
Nigel



Plake wrote:
I'm going to Utah for 2wks in March and want to take advantage of the
USD/GBP exchange rate by buying new ski & board gear:

Rossignol B2/Fritschi Diamir £519 at Snow+Rock, £397 at rei.com
K2 Recon/Salomon SP3/Salomon Dialogue £664 at Snow+Rock, £355 at
rei.com!

So I have a couple of questions:

1) I suspect the US stores are pressurised by the European
manufacturers not to sell gear to Europeans. Is this true, and will
paying cash at the store help?

2) If I declare the stuff at customs when I bring it back to the UK,
what will the import duty cost?

3) If I don't declare it, what are the chances of being caught? And
what happens if you are?

Al

"Nigel (Remove NOSPAM)" wrote in
:

I allways ship it with Fed Ex or UPS
back to Europe.

Note if you do this you can get charged VAT, import duty and I once got
charged a "handling tax" by one such large parcel company for paying these
on my behalf!

Regards,

greg

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 12:32:37 +0000, Steve Haigh
wrote:

John Red-Horse wrote:


No and no. In fact, I would suggest that you avoid paying cash just
because, in my experience with travels overseas, the credit card companies
tend not to charge large exhange fees and premium exchange rates.

What? Credit card companies give appaling exchange rates. Granted there
is not up front fee or fixed charges for purchases overseas, but the
rates are a rip off (at least for Visa and MC, not sure about Amex).

You're obviously using the wrong Credit Card companies.

I have ALWAYS got a rate slightly better than I would have been able
to buy the money at, and with no commission.

It's tollerable for small purchases and might be cheaper than exchanging
cash for small amounts, but for a large purchases you are much better
off getting cash (or better still traveller's cheques) from a bank or
the post office before you travel.

Only if you have money to burn. It's over 15 years now since I got
more than just enough to get through the first couple of days.

If you are going places where they tend to use cash, it is still
cheaper (with a decent current account/debit card) to get the money
from foreign ATMs than it is to buy it from a bank/post office/travel
agent in this country.

Many Current accounts will charge a "handling fee" for doing this, so
if you have one of those, it may not be cheaper. But the better
accounts have no such fee, and again their exchange rate will almost
always be better than you could get as an individual.

Also, if you change now you know the
rate you're getting, the dollar may recover in the next few weeks... or
then again it could tumble further...

That is always the gamble you take with exchange rates.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Diplomacy is saying "nice doggy" until you find a rock.

To reply by email, my address is aDOTjDOTheneyATbtinternetDOTcom

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 16:41:16 +0000, Steve Haigh
wrote:

Walt wrote:
Steve Haigh wrote:

John Red-Horse wrote:


No and no. In fact, I would suggest that you avoid paying cash just
because, in my experience with travels overseas, the credit card companies
tend not to charge large exhange fees and premium exchange rates.


What? Credit card companies give appaling exchange rates. Granted there
is not up front fee or fixed charges for purchases overseas, but the
rates are a rip off (at least for Visa and MC, not sure about Amex).


This is exactly the opposite of my experience. Visa/MC give very
competitive exchange rates, while the banks range from Ok to utterly
lame. The exchange booths at the airport are the worst of all.
Maybe in the past but not recently.

E.g. take a look at
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Betterbanking/P41957.asp


OK. I was talking about from the UK (as was the OP).

Many of the points in that article simply don't apply to the UK
market. Some of those practices would actually be illegal here.

And there are still some cards here which do not add a fee. For those
that do, it is usually shown separately on your bill. And is still
usually lower than the commission charged by most banks. (Typically,
they will charge the same as they would for a cash advance, which is
usually 1.5% - banks and travel agents often charge 2%)

But in the case of the card I use, there is no fee. They show the
charge in the foreign currency (which you can match against your
receipt), and the charge in UKP, so it is quite easy to work out the
rate you actually got.


you'd have to be very keen to spot the rate is not what you
expected, given that the rates change by the minute and would be hard
pressed to find out what the true rate was at the time you bought the
goods anyway.


There is that. I always check the rates from a couple of places (and
the newspapers) before I go, and after I come back, and assume the
rate should have been somewhere in between. I've usually had a rate
which was better than either.



--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
We live in a quiet neighborhood - they all use silencers.

To reply by email, my address is aDOTjDOTheneyATbtinternetDOTcom

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 18:03:17 +0100, Ace wrote:

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 11:53:20 -0500, Dragan Cvetkovic
wrote:

Walt writes:


The advantage of using cash is that some smaller merchants may give
discounts for cash. Visa/MC take a 3 to 5 percent cut of the purchase
from the seller, so obviously the proprietor would prefer cash.
Unfortunately for the merchant, their agreements wih Visa/MC prohibit
them from charging more for credit sales than cash sales.

Interesting. Lot of small shops here in Canada (at least in Toronto) have a
sign "display prices are 3% cash discounted", which means that if you are
paying by Visa/MC/Amex, you need to add 3% on top of it. Plus 15% tax, of
course.

That's illegal in most European countries.

Which ones?

I'm sure that when it was made legal here to add a surcharge for
Credit cards, we were told it was "to bring us in line with the rest
of the EC".

--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Radioactive halibut will make fission chips.

To reply by email, my address is aDOTjDOTheneyATbtinternetDOTcom

Alun Evans wrote in message ...
On Wed 11 Feb '04 at 19:42 (Plake) wrote:

I'm going to Utah for 2wks in March and want to take advantage of the
USD/GBP exchange rate by buying new ski & board gear:

Rossignol B2/Fritschi Diamir £519 at Snow+Rock, £397 at rei.com
K2 Recon/Salomon SP3/Salomon Dialogue £664 at Snow+Rock, £355 at
rei.com!

So I have a couple of questions:

1) I suspect the US stores are pressurised by the European
manufacturers not to sell gear to Europeans. Is this true, and will
paying cash at the store help?

As others have said you wont have a problem giving your cash to an
American retailer, the manufacturers may prefer to to buy in Europe
where thay charge higher prices to the stores but they will not check
on single purchases. (If you went to the States and bought 1000 pairs
of skis for Tesco to sell cheap they may start complaining). One
small risk to remember is that if the ski is faulty it is a lot of
hastle to take it back to the retailer (I once had a ski whose tip
came off after about 10 days use and quickly delaminated if I had
bought it in the US I'd have had problems).


2) If I declare the stuff at customs when I bring it back to the UK,
what will the import duty cost?

Duty is generally 5-10% I'm not sure the rate for skis, VAT is the
larger amount, but you should still save a tidy sum. Also be awear
that the £145 can not be put towards an expensive item. If you spend
£500 on skis and £100 on other stuff you can only have the £100 of
other stuff duty free you have to pay VAT & duty on full price of the
skis. I'm not sure how they would treat skis and bindings, it is
probably worth asking the retailer to put each item seperately on the
receipt.

3) If I don't declare it, what are the chances of being caught? And
what happens if you are?

Customs will pick on you depending on where you have come from, what
you look like and what you are carrying. I have been stopped by
customs twice once from South Africa and once from the US. On the US
trip I was carrying a ski bag, the skis were a couple of years old but
they asked quite a few questions about where and when I had bought
them and how much they cost dispite obviously being used. The one
occassion that I did go through the red channel the customs guy gave
me a good grilling to make sure I wasn't trying to be clever by
declaring £250 of goods while having 5kg of crack in my suitcase but
was then helpful in determining which items to put as duty free in
order to minimise the total cost. I did have to pay the full amount
due however.

Now for the stuff I have heard and is not from personnal experiance.
Customs will give you a chance to come clean. If they ask where did
you get yours skis and you say while in Utah ("What does that mean I
have to pay duty I thought that was just on cigerettes and drink"),
they will probably make sure you then declare everything (this may
take a while) charge you the duty and put your name on a list so if
you try the same trick again they will come down hard. If you say you
bought them at snow and rock 6 months ago for £450 and when told that
snow and rock don't sell them you "remember" that it was really Ellis
Brigham then they will come down on you like a ton of bricks and may
end up in court.

If you decide to risk the green channel (I don't recommend it) and get
stopped do not lie accept that you will be there a while and have to
pay the full duty.

Walt wrote:
Plake wrote:

1) I suspect the US stores are pressurised by the European
manufacturers not to sell gear to Europeans. Is this true, and will
paying cash at the store help?


Yes, this is absolutely true.

Not only that, but they won't sell you beer either. Sure, they'll sell
you this stuff that looks like beer and has kind of a hint of beer
flavour, but it's definitely not real beer. The real beer is reserved
for real Americans; once they hear your accent, it's all ersatz beer for
you. Try it, you'll see.




bugger, that must be the problem i have in utah...must be my wisconsin
accent that gives me away.

Steve Haigh wrote in message ...
John Red-Horse wrote:


No and no. In fact, I would suggest that you avoid paying cash just
because, in my experience with travels overseas, the credit card companies
tend not to charge large exhange fees and premium exchange rates.
What? Credit card companies give appaling exchange rates. Granted there
is not up front fee or fixed charges for purchases overseas, but the
rates are a rip off (at least for Visa and MC, not sure about Amex).
It's tollerable for small purchases and might be cheaper than exchanging
cash for small amounts, but for a large purchases you are much better
off getting cash (or better still traveller's cheques) from a bank or
the post office before you travel. Also, if you change now you know the
rate you're getting, the dollar may recover in the next few weeks... or
then again it could tumble further...

In my experience, I have found that the ATM's give the best exchange
rates. Of course there are lots of variables so YMMV.

snoig

Alex Heney wrote:
On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 16:41:16 +0000, Steve Haigh
wrote:


What? Credit card companies give appaling exchange rates. Granted there
is not up front fee or fixed charges for purchases overseas, but the
rates are a rip off (at least for Visa and MC, not sure about Amex).


This is exactly the opposite of my experience. Visa/MC give very
competitive exchange rates, while the banks range from Ok to utterly
lame. The exchange booths at the airport are the worst of all.

Maybe in the past but not recently.

E.g. take a look at
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Betterbanking/P41957.asp


OK. I was talking about from the UK (as was the OP).
And so was I in the other reference I gave (which you snipped):
http://money.guardian.co.uk/travel/money/story/0,1456,964303,00.html
This referes to similar practises in the UK. Specificaly it mentions
"hidden charges being incorporated into your transactions" for foreign use.


Many of the points in that article simply don't apply to the UK
market. Some of those practices would actually be illegal here.
But the point about ripping of on foreign exchange transactions does
apply I'm afraid.


And there are still some cards here which do not add a fee. For those
that do, it is usually shown separately on your bill.
No they don't show it separately (they may show a fee for cash
withdrawal on top of the "built-in" fee), the article above listed about
4 issuers which don't charge the fee, but all the main ones do (apart
from Nationwide who were one fo the 4 listed).

And is still
usually lower than the commission charged by most banks. (Typically,
they will charge the same as they would for a cash advance, which is
usually 1.5% - banks and travel agents often charge 2%)
2.75% is the norm. It's a rip off, that's all there is to it.


But in the case of the card I use, there is no fee. They show the
charge in the foreign currency (which you can match against your
receipt), and the charge in UKP, so it is quite easy to work out the
rate you actually got.
Are you sure? They don't show the fee on a separate line, they build it
into the "exchange rate". If they say there is no fee in the small print
then you should be OK, but if not then you may find the fee was hidden
in there all along.


you'd have to be very keen to spot the rate is not what you
expected, given that the rates change by the minute and would be hard
pressed to find out what the true rate was at the time you bought the
goods anyway.



There is that. I always check the rates from a couple of places (and
the newspapers) before I go, and after I come back, and assume the
rate should have been somewhere in between. I've usually had a rate
which was better than either.
This has never been my experience over the past few years (so I really
must change my card issuer). But if you have a decent card then you
should see this. Afterall Visa & M/C don't have to pay the tourist rate
so they should be able to give their customers excellent exchange rates.
I recal they did in the past, to the point where even paying the
interest on a cash withdrawal was worth while because it was stil
cheaper than exchanging cash at a bank.

Unless you can prove otherwise it is safe to assume that any financial
institution will take money off you whenever they can, and they are not
going to advertise the fact until they are forced to:-)