Importing from the UK - definitive guide (Q&A)

extra-ordinary_

zoom_cool wrote: »

VRT light commercial without a vat number do I need tax clearance cert

I didn't in 2010 not sure if it's changed.

zoom_cool

How do they verify you are using the van for commercial use?

extra-ordinary_

zoom_cool wrote: »

How do they verify you are using the van for commercial use?

They don't.

You're liable to the VRT rate applicable to the category of vehicle you're importing.

zoom_cool

So a light commercial vehicle is liable for €200 VRT. I printed off a Tax clearance cert just in case.

893bet

Picked up my new car up in Belfast the weekend.

VRT appointment booked for two weeks time!

Questions.

1) Will they tell me on the spot how much I owe in VRT?
2) If yes, can I pay it on the spot?
2) Assuming all that is done, can I tax it that day also?

Thanks

bazz26

893bet wrote: »

Picked up my new car up in Belfast the weekend.

VRT appointment booked for two weeks time!

Questions.

1) Will they tell me on the spot how much I owe in VRT?
2) If yes, can I pay it on the spot?
2) Assuming all that is done, can I tax it that day also?

Thanks

1. Yes they will unless the car is not on their database and they need to contact Revenue for a figure. This can take upto 2 weeks.
2. Yes but they do not accept cash payments.
3. No, it takes a couple of days for the database in Shannon to be updated with the new Irish registration. Check the motortax.ie website regularly. Once your Irish registration is up there, then you can use the last 6 digits of the car's VIN to tax the car online. You won't receive the log book until you tax the car first.

893bet

Thanks!

For taxing it I assumed I needed to fill in the motor tax form and present in person! From the above it can be taxed online so that's good.

Positive experience so far bringing a car in!

bazz26

As it's the car's first time being registered in Ireland you will not get a tax form, you will either have to tax it online as per what I was saying or you go into the motor tax office with the documents the VRT people give you after you pay them. And you will not receive the log book until after you tax it for the first time.

aujopimur

I got a letter from Revenue today, they reduced the OMSP from €18,000 to €12,285 on my 131 Insignia.
A refund of €1339 is on the way, woohoo.

yannakis

aujopimur wrote: »

I got a letter from Revenue today, they reduced the OMSP from €18,000 to €12,285 on my 131 Insignia.
A refund of €1339 is on the way, woohoo.

Awesome!! How much VRT did you pay initially if I may ask?

grebtol2

Anyone have any experience with Carbase? I'm also curious as to how fixed places like Cargiant and Carbase are on price, even within the UK context?

Carbase set about selling to human beings in the peculiar, slightly alienating way British retailers excel in in that they ask you to place a deposit _before_ coming in for a test drive (ostensibly to "reserve" the car) and they also charge a £149 "admin fee" for selling you a five figure product, bizarre. Why not just roll it into the overall price. There are apparently some add on sales pitches to suffer through too.

It's not as comprehensive as RAC's "basic" used car check but how does this this car check do compared to others? I don't blame the salespeople but Carbase's script is to get you in, after paying a deposit, for a test drive. I don't mind paying a deposit but explaining you'll be coming over from Ireland and you'll need basic information up front and you will also want to have a third party check out the car beforehand - including having your third party test drive the car - is a difficult task. This test is already included with Carbase cars:

http://www.rac.co.uk/buying-a-car/rac-approved-dealers/rac-approved-vehicle-preparation-standard

For the right car I'm happy to suffer through the process. The difference for me between buying from them or not right now is Carbase being even slightly soft on price.

bazz26

You will not get a penny off the sticker price in the likes of cargiant. Their prices are generally very aggressive anyway compared to normal dealer forecourts. As I've said in other threads they are a car supermarket and it's like trying to negotiate a discount off the price of a pint of milk in Tesco. In fact these car supermarkets will also charge you an administration fee in the region of £100 on top of the car's sticker price.

And there is a poster's recent experience from buying from cargiant to back that up:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=102406047&postcount=463

aujopimur

NougatPlease wrote: »

Awesome!! How much VRT did you pay initially if I may ask?

Originally €4164,00, I sent 10 DD ads of similar cars, and took an average which worked out at €12978,00 there's came in lower at €12285.
I estimated a refund of €1186, so I got an extra €153.

Boradriver

I'm thinking of bringing in an Auris from the north next week. I'm a little nervous of the VRT calculation being wildly off the estimate I received on ros.ie. The car is coming from a large dealer so I'm not sure a mechanical inspection is required in this case.

Is the receipt of purchase sufficient to prove date of entry into ROI? I'm curious because I don't know if I'll use public transport or a family member to get me to the car.

Also, I do have a utility bill and payslips but don't have my last P60 to hand. Would this be a problem?

Thanks in advance for responses.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Boradriver wrote: »

I'm thinking of bringing in an Auris from the north next week. I'm a little nervous of the VRT calculation being wildly off the estimate I received on ros.ie. The car is coming from a large dealer so I'm not sure a mechanical inspection is required in this case.

Is the receipt of purchase sufficient to prove date of entry into ROI? I'm curious because I don't know if I'll use public transport or a family member to get me to the car.

Also, I do have a utility bill and payslips but don't have my last P60 to hand. Would this be a problem?

Thanks in advance for responses.

Receipt is all that's needed when buying car in NI.

You can check the VRT price online before hand, there is no Auris model that won't be on their database so you'll get an accurate figure. I VRT'd my mother in laws 2010 Auris yesterday. The figure I got online was the one I paid in the VRT office.

If you have the previous years P60 I'm sure it'll do. It's only the utility bills that have to be within 6 months (or is it 3 months?)

Unrealistic

Boradriver wrote: »

Also, I do have a utility bill and payslips but don't have my last P60 to hand. Would this be a problem?

I VRT'd my car after moving back to Ireland having been away for two decades. The only paper I had with my PPS number was a P60 from the early 90s. They accepted it without batting an eyelid.

Boradriver

Lovely stuff, thanks Cee-Jay-Cee and Unrealistic.

Jose Maria

I'm thinking of heading over to carbase myself, what is the best way to do the bank transfer/payment to get the best exchange rate, can you put say £10k sterling in your credit card and bring some extra in cash. I've looked at an earlier post about Transfermate but you'd have to time the purchase/travel plans/transfer all in 3 days

slave1

aujopimur wrote: »

Originally €4164,00, I sent 10 DD ads of similar cars, and took an average which worked out at €12978,00 there's came in lower at €12285.
I estimated a refund of €1186, so I got an extra €153.

Well done, I did the same with an average of 4 similar cars and got €749 back from €4,370 paid, certainly worth the effort and got the cheque within 3 weeks of appealing, painless

Pete123456

Jose Maria wrote: »

I'm thinking of heading over to carbase myself, what is the best way to do the bank transfer/payment to get the best exchange rate, can you put say £10k sterling in your credit card and bring some extra in cash. I've looked at an earlier post about Transfermate but you'd have to time the purchase/travel plans/transfer all in 3 days

i checked out the fee on using a credit card an its 3% for Carbase,

so take AIB for example, i think the rate on mastercard purchases within europe is 1.75% plus the 3% carbase want, making it total of 4.75% added on. I put this as the bank rate on the mastercard fx conversion site on yesterdays rates and it comes to €12337.31. (I am open to correction on whether there is a cap on AIBs percentage)

whereas if you were to buy sterling notes at todays rate in AIB (which seems to be the best rate of the major banks for notes) it would cost roughly €11851 plus the 6.35 commission

BOI on the other hand, doesnt seem to have any cross border fees using a credit card (which would save 1.75% but youd still be charged the 3% by Carbase)

in summary, BOI is better if you go the CC route, AIB seems to be the best for cash, or a draft or a debit card is another option, but i think there is a €2500 limit on a debit card transaction, but im hoping someone will tell me otherwise because a debit card is how i would like to pay when i go to the UK again.

feel free to recheck the figures as maths isnt my strongest subject!

aujopimur

slave1 wrote: »

Well done, I did the same with an average of 4 similar cars and got €749 back from €4,370 paid, certainly worth the effort and got the cheque within 3 weeks of appealing, painless

Cheque arrived today.

theaaao

Jose Maria wrote: »

I'm thinking of heading over to carbase myself, what is the best way to do the bank transfer/payment to get the best exchange rate, can you put say £10k sterling in your credit card and bring some extra in cash. I've looked at an earlier post about Transfermate but you'd have to time the purchase/travel plans/transfer all in 3 days

Id still consider this method. I used currencyfair, more or less the same thing I believe. I was able to send them euros, exchange it into sterling when the rate was best, and hold it in their account until I was ready to make a purchase. Then it was just a bank transfer from english bank to english bank account so was within 1 day. The thing that delayed my purchase was that the dealers accountant was waiting for the funds from an account in my name - never flagged it with them that it would probably be labelled/named currencyfair!

Since using it for the car, ive used it for family member to pay tuituion fees in England. There doesnt seem to be a hold period where you need to move the money out within a week or what not. Ive asked this question too of them and they havent specified that the money must go from A to B to C in X amount of days.
Not at all affiliated with them - was just impressed with the service. Made my life easier and saved me a couple hundred quid on fees!

Kace

I have used TransferMate several times for cars and found it bribe slightly better value than CurrencyFair. The cash normally gets to the sellers account within about an hour or so of me giving the go ahead, even though they say it could take longer.

Kace

Kace wrote: »

I have used TransferMate several times for cars and found it bribe slightly better value than CurrencyFair. The cash normally gets to the sellers account within about an hour or so of me giving the go ahead, even though they say it could take longer.

I have to say that their Irish office staff are great also. They are based locally and are very responsive on phone and email.

mad m

Pete123456 wrote: »

i checked out the fee on using a credit card an its 3% for Carbase,

so take AIB for example, i think the rate on mastercard purchases within europe is 1.75% plus the 3% carbase want, making it total of 4.75% added on. I put this as the bank rate on the mastercard fx conversion site on yesterdays rates and it comes to €12337.31. (I am open to correction on whether there is a cap on AIBs percentage)

whereas if you were to buy sterling notes at todays rate in AIB (which seems to be the best rate of the major banks for notes) it would cost roughly €11851 plus the 6.35 commission

BOI on the other hand, doesnt seem to have any cross border fees using a credit card (which would save 1.75% but youd still be charged the 3% by Carbase)

in summary, BOI is better if you go the CC route, AIB seems to be the best for cash, or a draft or a debit card is another option, but i think there is a €2500 limit on a debit card transaction, but im hoping someone will tell me otherwise because a debit card is how i would like to pay when i go to the UK again.

feel free to recheck the figures as maths isnt my strongest subject!

I hope to be using my Revolut card, 5k sterling in one transaction. My daughter has one also so it will be in two transactions. I've already put a deposit on car over phone using Revoult card. Got exchange rate of 85.30

MissDwow

Porter Few Ram wrote: »

Hey guys,
Anyone here ever use Palmdale motors in the UK to help them find a car to bring over?
Im thinking of using them.

Dominic, did you use Palmdale? How did you get on if so?

MissDwow

Porter Few Ram wrote: »

Hey guys,
Anyone here ever use Palmdale motors in the UK to help them find a car to bring over?
Im thinking of using them.

Dominic, did you use Palmdale? How did you get on if so?

mossy464

Currently looking into importing a new motor from the UK. Are there better deals in general in mainland UK or similar up north?

Any recommended used car dealerships up north? Similar to carbase or cargiant?

rabbitinlights

For people who appealed, did you do it via email or post? Did you get an acknowledgement?

I sent an email 2 days ago.

Kev.

Just a quick question,

I recently bought a 2015 eclass up the north,

I went to pay the VRT today and the lady said as its not 2 years old yet,the revenue search the VIN number and they will get onto me to tell me the amount to pay

She said they look for extras in the car, probably to get more money from me.

The car has everything on it, sunroof, reverse camera, leather seats, cruise control, upgraded wheels etc

Am I going to get hit with a bigger bill that the revenue website?

Anybody any experience with this?

Thanks
Kev