how to calculate custom charges for supplements bought from The States?

A question about : how to calculate custom charges for supplements bought from The States?

I am after a supplement that will cost me
Ј25.99 on UK high street,
Ј21.99 online in UK,
or Ј11.37 online from US.

I think I probably have no chance escaping from custom charge since I plan to buy miminum 4 bottles and I wonder if anyone know how the custom charge is calculated? I don't want to end up paying more than UK sale price

PS, 4 bottles will cost Ј45.48 + postage (DHL Ј15.24 or Normal Airmail Ј4.18)

I read it somewhere that royal mail charges Ј8 for custom handling fee and DHL only charge Ј1.50. Can anyone confirm if this is true? if so, I might be better off using DHL anyway because it will reach me much faster?

Best answers:

• The RM charges Ј8+vat so nearly Ј10 to collect any vat+duty. Vat is payable on delivery charges and duty I understand. However you do not have to pay the RM to collect it, if the parcel is marked correctly HMRC will send a letter to you so you can pay directly and then RM cannot make any charges when they deliver. The parcel needs to be declared as **GOODS TO BE CUSTOMS CLEARED BY IMPORTER**. It might be worth getting the forms so you know how to fill in any documentation. Doing it this way will delay the delivery.
  I have not yet tried this myself but I do intend to as I have a few things to order including some supplements from the USA. The problem encountered could be getting the US company to declare it correctly so that RM do not try and collect the payment themselves. I did phone a US company and ask whether they would declare it in the necessary way and the telephone call centre person did not know and did not have any authority to say or knowledge about it. She seemed more concerned about whether it would get there or encounter problems.
  https://www.benchtec.co.uk/forums/thr...rance-fee-quot
  Ј10 is a lot to add to the costs and makes it a lot less worthwhile doing.
• What is the retailer you intend to buy the supplements from? Good retailers for supplements and natural products from the US are iherb and Vitacost. Check if either sell the product you want and they do pretty good prices and if you are new customer often you can get a discount for money off your first order. If you want I could give you my referral code. Do you need all 4 packages at once? If you just get the one at Ј11 then you wouldn't have to pay any import charges as you only have to on goods over the value of Ј15. You don't have to pay on delivery charges, well I haven't in my experience in the past. I have used Iherb and the shipping is cheap and quick. There are 2 shipping options, I chose the more expensive but it was only about Ј6 I think and took 4 days to reach me from the US! The other one was a couple quid cheaper but said 2-4 weeks!
  Amazon.com also do international shipping and they show you how much the customs charges are at the checkout. You pay it included with your order and don't pay anything else when your parcel arrives. I recently did an order on that site with cheaper shipping option to UK and it took 10 days. Just another option