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

marcos_94

adocholiday wrote: »

You may have me here Colm, this is where my knowledge of all this stuff goes out the window :pac:

Just checked Visa directly they are offering 0.8969, better than BoI's payment page but still a fair difference between that and Revolut

Iv just seen you say you dont have revolut. Check it out as it isnt too difficult to set up. I found it most useful for the quick transfer. I didnt go over to collect my car and had someone collect it for me so I wanted to be able to transfer the cash when my guy was there to collect the car. It was an instat transfer to the sellers UK bank

ustari

Just after purchasing a car through local dealer from BCA and looking at the price paid, I would have been 1350 euro better of with Revolut rates versus the bank he used.

Obviously I can't tell him what bank to use etc but shows that there is a potentially nice savings to be made with different banks/methods like Revolut.

deezell

ustari wrote: »

Just after purchasing a car through local dealer from BCA and looking at the price paid, I would have been 1350 euro better of with Revolut rates versus the bank he used.

Obviously I can't tell him what bank to use etc but shows that there is a potentially nice savings to be made with different banks/methods like Revolut.

Are you saying you let him determine the price in €? Who did he use, PayPal or eBay or some such thief. You should always be in control of the currency exchange. Leave it to the seller and he'll have no trouble adding 2-5% to the exchange. If you were fleeced for €1350 on say a €27,000 transaction, that's a massive 5%.

wassie

Ouch. That would hurt. Hopefully its closer to 2% for a BMW X7 M Sport.....:pac:

deezell

wassie wrote: »

Ouch. That would hurt. Hopefully its closer to 2% for a BMW X7 M Sport.....:pac:

Should have gone to spec... Revolut. Actually. Rereading the post, it seems the dealer engineered the transaction in some way? If the car was priced in sterling, he can't insist you pay to his bank in €, at his crooked rate. Get the cops on him. This transaction fraud is very common abroad, where the foreign charge is not exchanged by your bank, boi or revolut, but by the trader at point of sale into your home currency, at a shocking bad rate. It usually happens with debit card transactions, you have to make sure to pay in the local currency, and watch they don't hit a button that authorised payment in your home currency. It's usually restaurants or tourist shops that pull this one, but a car dealer?

User1998

Sterling at 0.926

ustari

No, nothing at play here just bad exchange rate. Overall, relatively happy with the price and service sourcing car in from the UK for me. Wouldn't have done it cheaper through flipping cars etc most likely even with the better rate I could have used myself.

Was just giving an example of how exchange rate can have a decent impact on cost with amounts over 20/30k.

colonel d

Sorry if this has been asked/covered, what's going to happen after Brexit? I was looking at bringing in a car in February or march but will it subject to EU tax as well as vrt?

bazz26

Nobody knows.

beggars_bush

User1998 wrote: »

Sterling at 0.926

certainly going in the right direction

Hogzy

Whats the story with VRT'ing the car and having an invoice? I am bringing in a car that I bought from a family member. The car is 18 months old and has 12,000 miles on the clock so I wont need to pay VAT.

When I do go over and get the car and bring it back ill obviously have my ferry receipt but im not going to have an invoice so what should I do?

HotDudeLife

Hey folks - Sanity check on this would be much appreciated.

Planning to head to the UK next week to pick up the motor, here's my checklist, please shout me down if I'm ignorant with any of this:

* Flight booked
* Ferry booked for way home
* RAC check completed
* Need to get vehicle reg from owner, V62 form if i am not mistaken ?
* VRT booking to NCT for inspection within 7 days of arrival into state
* Complete full VRT process within 30 days of arrival into state

Am i missing anything? Also, is there flexibility to go beyond the 30 day mark due to Covid eg 40 days or would i be fined?

Cheers!!

Isambard

Hogzy wrote: »

Whats the story with VRT'ing the car and having an invoice? I am bringing in a car that I bought from a family member. The car is 18 months old and has 12,000 miles on the clock so I wont need to pay VAT.

When I do go over and get the car and bring it back ill obviously have my ferry receipt but im not going to have an invoice so what should I do?

handwritten invoice will suffice so long as you have ferry ticket (and the V5C of course)

colm_mcm

HotDudeLife wrote: »

Hey folks - Sanity check on this would be much appreciated.

Planning to head to the UK next week to pick up the motor, here's my checklist, please shout me down if I'm ignorant with any of this:

* Flight booked
* Ferry booked for way home
* RAC check completed
* Need to get vehicle reg from owner, V62 form if i am not mistaken ?
* VRT booking to NCT for inspection within 7 days of arrival into state
* Complete full VRT process within 30 days of arrival into state

Am i missing anything? Also, is there flexibility to go beyond the 30 day mark due to Covid eg 40 days or would i be fined?

Cheers!!

Won’t you need to restrict your movements for 14 days or something?

Isambard

HotDudeLife wrote: »

Hey folks - Sanity check on this would be much appreciated.

Planning to head to the UK next week to pick up the motor, here's my checklist, please shout me down if I'm ignorant with any of this:

* Flight booked
* Ferry booked for way home
* RAC check completed
* Need to get vehicle reg from owner, V62 form if i am not mistaken ?
* VRT booking to NCT for inspection within 7 days of arrival into state
* Complete full VRT process within 30 days of arrival into state

Am i missing anything? Also, is there flexibility to go beyond the 30 day mark due to Covid eg 40 days or would i be fined?

Cheers!!

you need the V5C document.

Atlantic Dawn

HotDudeLife wrote: »

Hey folks - Sanity check on this would be much appreciated.

Planning to head to the UK next week to pick up the motor, here's my checklist, please shout me down if I'm ignorant with any of this:

* Flight booked
* Ferry booked for way home
* RAC check completed
* Need to get vehicle reg from owner, V62 form if i am not mistaken ?
* VRT booking to NCT for inspection within 7 days of arrival into state
* Complete full VRT process within 30 days of arrival into state

Am i missing anything? Also, is there flexibility to go beyond the 30 day mark due to Covid eg 40 days or would i be fined?

Cheers!!

Get flexible/premium ferry ticket, will help if you experience a delay.

Id bring some proof of insurance being in place for the car you are getting, will help in unlikely event of being stopped by police, also bring driving licence.

deezell

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Get flexible/premium ferry ticket, will help if you experience a delay.

Id bring some proof of insurance being in place for the car you are getting, will help in unlikely event of being stopped by police, also bring driving licence.

Youll need invoice for the purchase. Delayed inspection over the 30 days is penalised at 0.1% of the VRT per day, e.g, €5 PER day on a €5000 VRT bill.

Vicxas

Will your irish insurance company cover buying a car in the UK and the drive back?

HotDudeLife

Ah yes forgot to add i'll have insurance cover me whilst over there. Good shout on the flexible ferry, any recommendations on who to book with?

Creamy Goodness

Vicxas wrote: »

Will your irish insurance company cover buying a car in the UK and the drive back?

Yes. They’ll cover 30 days but will expect a call back with the Irish reg within those 30 days.

Atlantic Dawn

HotDudeLife wrote: »

Ah yes forgot to add i'll have insurance cover me whilst over there. Good shout on the flexible ferry, any recommendations on who to book with?

I'd have a look at the schedules as to which will have most options back within a few hours of your planned departure.

darragh o meara

Quick question for anyone who used Revolut recently. I’m getting ready to pay for a car which is being picked up later in the week. Have a deal in place where I have the car being inspected by the person collecting it and I was to send payment there and then if he’s happy and he takes it with him.

My issue is, Revolut seems to have dropped the turbo transfer feature they had when I used them earlier in the year.

Anyone who’s used it recently, how long did the transfer take to go through? If the instant transfer is gone I’m gonna have to start getting the cash over to transfermate.

extra-ordinary_

You hardly need a flexible ferry ticket. I missed my planned ferry a few times and there was never a problem with them letting me on the later ferry.

darragh o meara

extra-ordinary_ wrote: »

You hardly need a flexible ferry ticket. I missed my planned ferry a few times and there was never a problem with them letting me on the later ferry.

I find if your really polite they will help you no end, I have got caught out once though. Arrived a few mins late to Holyhead last year and the car check in closed literally 2 mins before I got there, I could even see the last car from where I was, pleaded with the lady and no way was I getting on the ship. So being pretty pissed off I went into the reception area to organise getting the ticket moved to the next sailing and one of the port staff overheard the conversation and enquired what the issue was, within a few seconds she had arranged for me to transfer over to the Stena ferry which left a few mins later than the Irish ferries one I was originally booked for. Got onboard and home on time as originally planned.

Otherwise, I’ve missed numerous ferries over the years and never had hassle getting on the next one. They’re usually not full to capacity all of the time so there is a bit of wiggle room once you don’t take the piss.

HotDudeLife

Which ferry companies or website did yous book through? thanks

darragh o meara

HotDudeLife wrote: »

Which ferry companies or website did yous book through? thanks

Usually have both open and book the cheapest. Any of the price comparison sites usually tend to be more expensive whenever I’ve tried them. Stena and Irish ferries are the main ferry operators and coming from Holyhead they pretty much run the same schedule. P&O do a sailing to Dublin too but it’s an 8hr sailing.

irishgeo

darragh o meara wrote: »

Quick question for anyone who used Revolut recently. I’m getting ready to pay for a car which is being picked up later in the week. Have a deal in place where I have the car being inspected by the person collecting it and I was to send payment there and then if he’s happy and he takes it with him.

My issue is, Revolut seems to have dropped the turbo transfer feature they had when I used them earlier in the year.

Anyone who’s used it recently, how long did the transfer take to go through? If the instant transfer is gone I’m gonna have to start getting the cash over to transfermate.

i used to it for a uk bank transfer and the app gives you an estimate of the when the money will be in the account. An hour later for me. I had the money converted to GBP and was transferring to a UK bank.

Millionaire only not

Can I just ask is it possible to buy private and import or is it complicated without garage paperwork?

User1998

Handwritten invoice is fine

bazz26

The process is the same. However your biggest problem will be convincing a private buyer to hand over the V5c registration cert to you with the car. Most will not know the process for selling to a non UK resident for permanent export and will either send off the new owner section to the DVLA as if you were a UK resident or just shy away from selling to you all together in thinking you are trying to scam them. It can also be more awkward arranging a mechanical inspection of the car with them too.