Tweet
OK, so you've searched and searched and searrrrched for those 'perfect' aftermarket wheels you've always wanted and now you've found 'em but there's only one tiiiiiny problem: they're outside of the United States and you're gonna have to ship them here.
First, shoot yourself in the head and put yourself out of your misery. :highly_amused:
Actually, it's not that bad, because I'm gonna help you get through the toughest part...shipping and customs. Learn from my weeks of research:
- First thing you want to do is get an account with a shipper like UPS or FedEx. Why? Because it appears that you get cheaper rates if you have an account with them vs. just relying on whoever is in possession of your coveted wheels to send them to you. Every time I crunched the shipping cost it would come out cheaper after I set up an account with them. A LOT cheaper. Who knows, maybe I wasn't entering all the info right, but you'll need an account for later on. Keep reading.
- Most likely you'll pay for your wheels with a credit card (though you could send a money order...if you do send a money order, ensure you ask your bank or post office for an international money order or your out-of-country retailer can't cash your money order)
****Special Note: If your wheels were made in America and were shipped to an outlet in Canada like mine were, suprisingly, those crazy Canadians will NOT charge you any sales tax. That saves you a whopping 13%. Yes, 13%. Now you know how those Canooks pay for their socialized healthcare.
- If you use a credit card, the credit card company will then 'graciously' charge you a fee for 'converting' the currency (big friggin' whoop.....yes, this is just another way for your credit card company to steal your money); my Visa card charged me 3.5% of the entire wheel purchase price, ie, not including the added cost of what comes next
- Then there's a "Duties" fee charged by U.S. Customs (mine is estimated to be only $13.75 [NAFTA])
- *****Special Note: if the wheels you want were made in the U.S., Canada or (never heard of it but I guess it's possible) Mexico, your wheels will be virtually duty-free / tax-free due to NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). I'd say Bill Clinton is my hero but he actually just signed it after all the hard work was done by a former American fighter pilot, George Bush '41'. (Yes, George '41' was a U.S. Navy fighter pilot in WWII.) No, I did not know GB did most of the legwork on NAFTA until I read it on Wikipedia.
- Then someone will charge you a "brokerage" fee to help walk your precious wheels through U.S. Customs. UPS will offer to do this service for you but, yes, again, there's a charge: as of 15 September 2013 it was $25.25 if the total cost of your wheels is between $200.01 and $1250.00 USD. If you somehow managed to buy wheels less than $200.01 then UPS performs the brokerage service for free. I had no clue what a broker did in terms of international shipping but now I know and, yes, you MUST have a broker. UPS actually pays the customs fees for you when your wheels clear customs (no, the wheels are NOT yet in your hands) and then afterward, they'll make you reimburse them whatever the brokerage fees/taxes/duties turned out to be before they let you have the wheels.
OK, we're almost done with shipping. You've got a choice: either you can pay/reimburse the shipper the shipping costs (which jacks up your wheel purchase transaction = higher credit card fees) so they can send them to you OR you can tell the company you're buying the wheels from that YOU'LL cover all the shipping costs yourself via the UPS/FedEx/etc account you set up. Once I discovered this it all got easier because.......just about every day I checked the shipping cost, it changed and I never knew for sure how much I would owe the company for shipping me the wheels. (I didn't want to give them my credit card 'cart blanche' and end up being charged some massive shipping fee I wasn't expecting.) UPS, FedEx and every other major shipper has an option on their on-line international forms to have the receiver/importer (that's you) pay the shipping, customs and brokerage fees directly to the shipper which you can now do with your handy-dandy shipping account.
NOTE: For UPS, the "Declared Value" (essentially, 'insurance') is for EACH wheel, NOT all the wheels combined. UPS provides up to $100 of coverage per item free of charge.
First, shoot yourself in the head and put yourself out of your misery. :highly_amused:
Actually, it's not that bad, because I'm gonna help you get through the toughest part...shipping and customs. Learn from my weeks of research:
- First thing you want to do is get an account with a shipper like UPS or FedEx. Why? Because it appears that you get cheaper rates if you have an account with them vs. just relying on whoever is in possession of your coveted wheels to send them to you. Every time I crunched the shipping cost it would come out cheaper after I set up an account with them. A LOT cheaper. Who knows, maybe I wasn't entering all the info right, but you'll need an account for later on. Keep reading.
- Most likely you'll pay for your wheels with a credit card (though you could send a money order...if you do send a money order, ensure you ask your bank or post office for an international money order or your out-of-country retailer can't cash your money order)
****Special Note: If your wheels were made in America and were shipped to an outlet in Canada like mine were, suprisingly, those crazy Canadians will NOT charge you any sales tax. That saves you a whopping 13%. Yes, 13%. Now you know how those Canooks pay for their socialized healthcare.
- If you use a credit card, the credit card company will then 'graciously' charge you a fee for 'converting' the currency (big friggin' whoop.....yes, this is just another way for your credit card company to steal your money); my Visa card charged me 3.5% of the entire wheel purchase price, ie, not including the added cost of what comes next
- Then there's a "Duties" fee charged by U.S. Customs (mine is estimated to be only $13.75 [NAFTA])
- *****Special Note: if the wheels you want were made in the U.S., Canada or (never heard of it but I guess it's possible) Mexico, your wheels will be virtually duty-free / tax-free due to NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). I'd say Bill Clinton is my hero but he actually just signed it after all the hard work was done by a former American fighter pilot, George Bush '41'. (Yes, George '41' was a U.S. Navy fighter pilot in WWII.) No, I did not know GB did most of the legwork on NAFTA until I read it on Wikipedia.
- Then someone will charge you a "brokerage" fee to help walk your precious wheels through U.S. Customs. UPS will offer to do this service for you but, yes, again, there's a charge: as of 15 September 2013 it was $25.25 if the total cost of your wheels is between $200.01 and $1250.00 USD. If you somehow managed to buy wheels less than $200.01 then UPS performs the brokerage service for free. I had no clue what a broker did in terms of international shipping but now I know and, yes, you MUST have a broker. UPS actually pays the customs fees for you when your wheels clear customs (no, the wheels are NOT yet in your hands) and then afterward, they'll make you reimburse them whatever the brokerage fees/taxes/duties turned out to be before they let you have the wheels.
OK, we're almost done with shipping. You've got a choice: either you can pay/reimburse the shipper the shipping costs (which jacks up your wheel purchase transaction = higher credit card fees) so they can send them to you OR you can tell the company you're buying the wheels from that YOU'LL cover all the shipping costs yourself via the UPS/FedEx/etc account you set up. Once I discovered this it all got easier because.......just about every day I checked the shipping cost, it changed and I never knew for sure how much I would owe the company for shipping me the wheels. (I didn't want to give them my credit card 'cart blanche' and end up being charged some massive shipping fee I wasn't expecting.) UPS, FedEx and every other major shipper has an option on their on-line international forms to have the receiver/importer (that's you) pay the shipping, customs and brokerage fees directly to the shipper which you can now do with your handy-dandy shipping account.
NOTE: For UPS, the "Declared Value" (essentially, 'insurance') is for EACH wheel, NOT all the wheels combined. UPS provides up to $100 of coverage per item free of charge.
Comment