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

deezell

brimeh wrote: »

I have done so with half of what I'm guessing I'll need so made a bit of a saving - hoping that it'll continue in the same direction and I'll get a bit more of a discount on the second half.

Basing this off exactly zero knowledge of currency markets though.

You're doing right to grab some at least, watch the graph on the app or on the net, make a call for the other half later. This is the buzz that currency traders live off I guess. If Boris Fs up his virus strategy, or is seen to mess it up in his desire to be seen to be Winston Churchill, the £ could take yet another small dive, but I'd be surprised if there was more than another couple of pence in it. These are strange times.
I pushed the button around last August, at just 93 pence, I'm still smiling on that one.

brimeh

deezell wrote: »

You're doing right to grab some at least, watch the graph on the app or on the net, make a call for the other half later. This is the buzz that currency traders live off I guess. If Boris Fs up his virus strategy, or is seen to mess it up in his desire to be seen to be Winston Churchill, the £ could take yet another small dive, but I'd be surprised if there was more than another couple of pence in it. These are strange times.
I pushed the button around last August, at just 93 pence, I'm still smiling on that one.

Have the XE app set up to give me alerts when it hits certain rates. Just hit 92p a while ago and Revolut are currently at £92.15 for €100 so just going to keep an eye on it for the next week or so. If it hits 93/94 might just go ahead with it.

deezell

brimeh wrote: »

Have the XE app set up to give me alerts when it hits certain rates. Just hit 92p a while ago and Revolut are currently at £92.15 for €100 so just going to keep an eye on it for the next week or so. If it hits 93/94 might just go ahead with it.

You can watch the instantaneous fluctuations on Revolut. Its 92.27-92.31 as I type, you can hit exchange and catch it there and then

deezell

94.23 this minute.

brimeh

deezell wrote: »

94.23 this minute.

Still hanging around there. If it hits 95 I'll just finish it there. The savings are nearly half the VRT at that point.

monseiur

Hi folks,
Not being very knowledgeable on currencies, can I ask where is the best place to buy Sterling at the moment and where should one save it short term for future use
(O/H plans to buy a used car in UK when/if things return to normal, she's with Bank of Ireland and I hear their exchange rates are not great)

Thanks, M.

Creamy Goodness

monseiur wrote: »

Hi folks,
Not being very knowledgeable on currencies, can I ask where is the best place to buy Sterling at the moment and where should one save it short term for future use
(O/H plans to buy a used car in UK when/if things return to normal, she's with Bank of Ireland and I hear their exchange rates are not great)

Thanks, M.

Revolut

mickdw

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Revolut

Revolut is excellent for buying at the true rate.
Depends how much you want to hold but i dont trust it to hold.a large sum long term. I trust it even less in these times.
Most will say im mad but a far better solution would be to use revolut to swap over money and send it to a sterling holding account in normal bank.

landmarkjohn

mickdw wrote: »

sterling holding account in normal bank.

Can I ask who offers this type account? Sounds like a good idea.

deezell

mickdw wrote: »

Revolut is excellent for buying at the true rate.
Depends how much you want to hold but i dont trust it to hold.a large sum long term. I trust it even less in these times.
Most will say im mad but a far better solution would be to use revolut to swap over money and send it to a sterling holding account in normal bank.

Revolut are licensed ans regulated, and certainly more efficient than any of the traditional banks. Here's a list of 'normal' banking giants.
Merrill Lynch, AIG, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland,
They all collapsed and required rescuing. Throw our own big three into that mix, and take your pick.

Creamy Goodness

yes I agree I was a little tetchy having such a large sum in Revolut. I stuck mine in a vault so at least it couldn't be got at from my card (i.e. someone couldn't steal my card and then have access to £25k~). Due to the limitation of KBC (my bank in Ireland) I transferred €15k one day, transferred to £ then transferred to my vault. Did the same the next day until I had the amount I needed in my vault for the car purchase. The minute I got to the dealership I withdrew from the Revolut vault which placed the money in my £ account in Revolut and then paid via chip and pin. The money was "in" Revolut for less than 48 hours, small price to pay for not getting shafted on local banks exchange rates and commission fees. I saved about €250 alone in exchange rate/commission fees.

mickdw

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

yes I agree I was a little tetchy having such a large sum in Revolut. I stuck mine in a vault so at least it couldn't be got at from my card (i.e. someone couldn't steal my card and then have access to £25k~). Due to the limitation of KBC (my bank in Ireland) I transferred €15k one day, transferred to £ then transferred to my vault. Did the same the next day until I had the amount I needed in my vault for the car purchase. The minute I got to the dealership I withdrew from the Revolut vault which placed the money in my £ account in Revolut and then paid via chip and pin. The money was "in" Revolut for less than 48 hours, small price to pay for not getting shafted on local banks exchange rates and commission fees. I saved about €250 alone in exchange rate/commission fees.

Yes but for someone wanting to grab sterling now and maybe wait out the virus etc, it would be a long hold in the revolut account.

mickdw

deezell wrote: »

Revolut are licensed ans regulated, and certainly more efficient than any of the traditional banks. Here's a list of 'normal' banking giants.
Merrill Lynch, AIG, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland,
They all collapsed and required rescuing. Throw our own big three into that mix, and take your pick.

Revolut is not part of the bank guarantee scheme last i checked. That being the case and specially looking at the situation we are in right now, i think it would be foolish to leave funds with them for any extended length of time.

deezell

mickdw wrote: »

Revolut is not part of the bank guarantee scheme last i checked. That being the case and specially looking at the situation we are in right now, i think it would be foolish to leave funds with them for any extended length of time.

Covered by Llyods bank as long as they are still in Eu, but at the end of the day they are not a lending institution, they won't exposed unless they farm out deposits to non guaranteed entities. This is s good read.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/what-protections-are-in-place-for-customers-at-digital-banks-1.3847362

bazz26

I'm using Revolut for ages now for the likes of Netflix, etc but it's only nominal amounts. I would use it to buy something like a car in the UK, however only if I was doing the deal in a short time period as I wouldn't chance letting a large amount of money sit in Revolut for an extended period of time. For all I know they could be one of the first to fold after this crisis and there is no guarantee your money would still be there.

mickdw

deezell wrote: »

Covered by Llyods bank as long as they are still in Eu, but at the end of the day they are not a lending institution, they won't exposed unless they farm out deposits to non guaranteed entities. This is s good read.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/what-protections-are-in-place-for-customers-at-digital-banks-1.3847362

Thats actually what i read previously.
A few too many ifs buts and maybes that make me think the ordinary deposit holder would likely get screwed.

User1998

Got £7.4k from €8k today (0.925) Not bad, the fee was only £9 or something

deezell

Just received this email from Revolut, must have been reading this thread.

Revolut

A message from our Founder & CEO
Hey Deezell

The last weeks have been tough everywhere so I’d like to start this message by sending my best wishes to you and your family. You have my word that we are doing everything we can to support our customers at this challenging time.

The Coronavirus pandemic is causing unprecedented movement in financial markets. Naturally this can be alarming and can allow rumours and false information to spread quickly. To put your mind at ease, I’d like to make Revolut’s position super clear.

We raised $500 million last month
Last month, we raised $500 million from investors. We were delighted with that vote of confidence in our revenue generating business and its ability to deliver transformative services for our customers. So I want to make clear that for Revolut it’s business as usual.

Supporting our teams
Revolut is a digital, cloud-based company. So it’s fairly easy for us to arrange for our people to work from home. That means that our 2,000+ staff can and will continue to support you wherever they are and wherever you are.

Supporting you
As always, our customer support agents are online 24/7 to help you. Our dedicated teams are reviewing the situation every day so that we can adapt to any sudden changes and we’re monitoring your Coronavirus questions to help improve the quality and speed of our service.

Thanks again for choosing Revolut, and stay safe out there.

Nik

© 2020 Revolut Ltd

If you would like to find out more about which Revolut entity you receive services from, or if you have any other questions, please reach out to us via the in-app chat in the Revolut app. Revolut Ltd (No. 08804411) is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (Firm Reference 900562). Registered address: 7 Westferry Circus, Canary Wharf, London, England, E14 4HD. Insurance related-products are provided by Revolut Travel Ltd which is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to undertake insurance mediation services (FCA No: 780586) and by Revolut Ltd, an Appointed Representative of Revolut Travel Ltd in relation to insurance mediation services. Revolut Ltd is an Appointed Representative of Lending Works Ltd for the activity of “operating an electronic system for lending”. Trading and investment products are provided by Revolut Trading Ltd (No. 832790) is wholly owned subsidiary of Revolut Ltd and is an appointed representative of Sapia Partners LLP which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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mickdw

Ya got the same.

chabsey

Does anyone know if the Nox charge applies to a 2018 car? I had thought it was only for cars 4 years and older but when I do the VRT calc on the Citroen Grand Picasso I'm looking at it's now gone from ~3k to 9k!

Also, the VRT site is all over the place in terms of details, when I look for the model I see there's a Grand C4 picass, Grand c4 and a Grand c4picasso....some of which have further details and others don't. I had factored in roughly 3K VRT on a 2018 but 9K knocks it right out of contention.

bazz26

Nox charges apply to all passenger vehicles.

chabsey

bazz26 wrote: »

Nox charges apply to all passenger vehicles.

Crap. That means it's out of my price range now...although I can't tell for sure because the damn VRT site is so bad. Pity you can't get a decent automatic grand picasso (flair trim) in Ireland at all. Annoying.


And NOx applies to cars bought here or imported, is that correct?

User1998

The nox is not going to be €6,000. Your not correctly inputting how much nox the car produces so its giving you the maximum figure. The most you can be charged for Nox on that car is €600, because it has a Euro 6 engine which only produces a small amount of Nox, most likely it will be less than €600

Nox is charged on imports

chabsey

User1998 wrote: »

The nox is not going to be €6,000. Your not correctly inputting how much nox the car produces so its giving you the maximum figure. The most you can be charged for Nox on that car is €600, because it has a Euro 6 engine which only produces a small amount of Nox, most likely it will be less than €600

Nox is charged on imports

Ok thanks, that's much more palatable. So, here's the car I was thinking about.

I've used the nox charge calculator here:
https://www.cartell.ie/nox/

Based on this level of emissions .114g it's telling me €1450

Good to know about imports only being affected by this charge although I wish it was easier to know exactly what I'll be hit with in terms of VRT and Nox, the VRT particularly seems all over the place.

User1998

Where did you get .114 from? I think thats the co2

Edit: Your definitely looking at CO2.

Creamy Goodness

Have a look here for similar specced cars. They break down the vrt and NOx separate.

https://ukcarimports.ie/used-cars/

From a quick search based on 2018 Citroen Picasso diesel it’s looking like roughly €290.

chabsey

User1998 wrote: »

Where did you get .114 from? I think thats the co2

Edit: Your definitely looking at CO2.

Sounds like I'm getting the wrong info alright (thankfully!) but have a look at this page which is where I got it:

http://www.fuelscandal.com/emissions-data/citroen/c4-picasso/e-hdi-115-225

Emissions NOx (mg/km) 114

It's wrong or I'm doing something wrong so ignore but that's where I got it.

User1998

Thats not an official website so I wouldn’t trust that. The only way to find out the true Nox emissions is by seeing whats wrote on the v5 logbook of the car.

Find an exact car that your interested in and ask the dealer/seller to tell you the exact make and model and the nox emissions thats wrote on the logbook and then you will be able to get an exact VRT quote. Most likely only going to be a couple of hundred in Nox anyway so don’t worry about it but do check whats on the v5 before you commit to purchasing

Creamy Goodness

User1998 wrote: »

Thats not an official website so I wouldn’t trust that. The only way to find out the true Nox emissions is by seeing whats wrote on the v5 logbook of the car.

Find an exact car that your interested in and ask the dealer/seller to tell you the exact make and model and the nox emissions thats wrote on the logbook and then you will be able to get an exact VRT quote. Most likely only going to be a couple of hundred in Nox anyway so don’t worry about it but do check whats on the v5 before you commit to purchasing

Yup this the only way to know for sure. Everything else is just a ballpark or a guesstimate, however it does hopefully put to bed that it won’t be a €6000 NOx charge.

deezell

chabsey wrote: »

Ok thanks, that's much more palatable. So, here's the car I was thinking about.

I've used the nox charge calculator here:
https://www.cartell.ie/nox/

Based on this level of emissions .114g it's telling me €1450

Good to know about imports only being affected by this charge although I wish it was easier to know exactly what I'll be hit with in terms of VRT and Nox, the VRT particularly seems all over the place.

Here's the revenue entry line 3706 for this car
CITROEN GRAND C4PICASSO Diesel Automatic 1560 1.6BLUE HDI (120) FLAIR EAT6 106 20160601 72 €480

Nox only 72, so Nox charge €480

VRT stat code is 40186845, VRT is €3261, total tax €3741

Vehicle Registration Tax
(payable on enquiry)
€3,741
Vehicle Details
Statistical Code
40186845
Make
CITROEN
Model
GRAND C4PICASSO
Version
1.6BLUE HDI (120) FLAIR EAT6
Breakdown of VRT Calculation
Open Market Selling Price (OMSP) determined by Revenue
€32,956
Monthly Adjustment
+103%
Depreciation Code Allocated by Revenue
F1
Odometer Reading
41921 Miles
Date of First Registration
July 2018
Mileage/Kilometre Reduction
€1000
Rate of Depreciation for this Vehicle
37%
Current OMSP determined by Revenue
€20,385
Revenue CO2 Estimate
CO2 Emissions
106
Rate of VRT
16%
CO2 VRT Charges
(payable on enquiry)
€3,261
Revenue NOx Estimate
NOx Emissions
72
NOx Units
mg/km
NOx VRT Charge
(payable on enquiry)
€480
Registration Tax Total
CO2 VRT Charges
€3,261
NOx VRT Charge
€480

Vehicle Registration Tax
(payable on enquiry)
€3,741