Tips for buying lingerie from overseas

As we mentioned with this week’s poll, there are quite a few issues involved with buying online from a different country, and specifically, buying lingerie overseas. Buying from overseas is often essential for lingerie lovers — many Americans can rarely find beautiful British pieces online in the U.S., and everyone is desperate for exclusive French and Italian pieces! We’ve compiled these tips to help guide you through the process, so you can confidently grab that lovely foreign set.

Check the exchange rate

The biggest concern with shopping overseas is often the exchange rate, especially when converting from US dollars to British pounds. The exchange rate differs from day-to-day, and the exact rate you will be charged is dependant on the time your transaction is processed, and how you paid for your order. Here are a few tips for shopping in a foreign currency:

• For a rough idea of the exchange rate, just use Google — you can type a query like “100 USD to GBP” into your search box and Google will automatically convert it for you. For converting into Australian dollars, use the code AUS, and for Euros, use EUR. Note that this exchange rate is only a guideline, and is usually more favourable than the rate you will actually get — most banks will shave a few percentage points off this rate for their internal fees, and Bureu de Changes, et. al. will charge even more. PayPal also operates at a slightly less favourable rate, as they have to buy the exchange from a bank themselves.
• Before you use a credit card to pay, check its policies on purchases made in foreign currencies — many credit card companies will charge up to a 4% fee for foreign transactions (here’s a table to use as a guide). Some companies will even charge this fee when you’ve purchased within your own currency, but outside of your borders. If you find that your credit cards all have ridiculous fees, BankRate.com reports that in the U.S., Capital One, MBNA America, FleetBoston and Wachovia Bank are currently not charging this exchange fee as of January 2005.

Check what tax you should pay

Value Added Tax
Some countries automatically add their sales tax into their prices, which often means you’ll be paying a tax that doesn’t apply to you. For example British prices generally automatically include VAT (Value Added Tax) at 17.5%, which non-EU customers are not required to pay. Wikipedia has an updated table of all EU countries’ VAT rates. Check the website’s sales policies to see if they offer a tax refund for overseas customers, and if there is no mention of an exemption, contact their customer services before you buy. They should be able to guide you in getting the appropriate exemption.

Import Tax
Once you’ve managed to exempt yourself from the foreign country’s tax, you’ll then find that you need to pay import tax once it arrives in the country. The UK has strict import duties for its VAT (I’ve been taxed for samples!), and only exclude a small list of items — for more information on UK import duties, Business Link provides a useful guide. The US has a similarly restricted list of import duties, and while not all packaged will be caught, you shouldn’t be surprised if you are given a tax bill when a package arrives. Trade.gov provides a guide for US import duties, and you can contact a customs office near you to find out exactly how much you should expect to pay.

Check the shipping costs

This one is a no-brainer, but it’s easy to forget about factoring in international shipping costs when buying online. With lingerie this shouldn’t usually be a huge cost, but some retailers will charge unusually high costs for international postage. Also be sure to find out just what type of shipping they will offer — will your parcel be shipped via air-mail or on a boat that will take weeks? Double-check the posted rates for your country, and if you think it’s ridiculously high, don’t be afraid to ask the retailer for more information about their rates.

Check the size

As we’ve touched on before in our Top Five Bra-Sizing Myths, lingerie sizing is by no means standard, and will vary significantly from brand to brand and country to country. Cup sizes will not only vary, but also band sizes — even when reported as the same number. For a rough guide to sizing differences, the handiest tool around is 85b’s Bra Size Converter, which has a comprehensive list of different countries and sizes available. You can also use this rule of thumb: typically, Italian and French lingerie will fit smaller than British and American, Italian generally being the smallest fit. If you’re ordering blind, you might try finding other pieces of the same brand in a local store and seeing how they fit. If that’s impossible, double-check the store’s return policy (especially with international shipping), or alternatively, check how much that brand is going for on eBay in case you need to make your money back.

Contact the merchant!

Finally, we’ve typically found that the best way to avoid headaches when buying overseas is to contact the merchant before purchasing, and asking any questions you might have about shipping, tax, and imports. They’ve undoubtedly dealt with queries like yours before, and are generally lovely people who will be delighted to hear from you. You can often build up a good relationship with a retailer and eventually get preferential rates for shipping, early discounts, etc. It never hurts to be friendly!

Have we missed a tip? Do you have any questions? Just let us know in the comments!