Getting an iPhone 5s from America - Question

[Mr Pants]

Hey all,

This might be a silly question but it's Friday after a long week at work.

I'm looking to buy an iPhone 5s outright as I've been on sim-free for ages now and plan on staying that way. I shifted to Android to try out the Nexus 5 and despite being a good phone I just find myself wanting to go back to Apple.

Anyway... looking at the US price the 16GB version is $649 which = £385. In the UK it is £549.

We have a guy from our American office heading over next week and I'm wondering if I could ask him to buy it and bring it over for me. Is there anything else I need to factor in? Maybe silly question, but will the sim-free American version be compatible with sim-free over here? (GiffGaff)

Essentially just trying to work out if there's some sort of catch given it's a £165 saving.

Thanks.

 

[Connor19]

I think you can save some money and buy the IPhone in the US, can't see any catches to it IMO. One thing to keep in mind is that the Apple warranty is only valid inside the country of purchase, so you will not have any warranty for the phone here in the UK even if you unbox it here and set it up.

 

[rdoxenham]

Also, if you're bringing something into the UK that exceeds a certain limit, your potential new phone included, would be subject to import VAT. Which means that your phone would cost almost 100 quid more in tax if you were caught. Also - the LTE bands are different between the US and the UK; if you wanted to use LTE/4G then it probably wouldn't work.

See: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/why-you-shouldnt-buy-us-iphone-uk-3481491/

 

[Mr Pants]

Yep I've just been reading up on the LTE/4G stuff. I use GiffGaff (aka O2) and I believe that the network they use for 4G is fully supported, but something like EE (uses other networks) wouldn't have full support.

Also have issue of a non-US charger and apparently the warranty would only be valid in US.

Sounds like it might be more hassle than it's worth.

 

[Ricardinho]

You will need to add sales tax wherever you buy it from so I'd look that up too. Give or take probably about 10% I think

 

[...]

You will need to add sales tax wherever you buy it from so I'd look that up too. Give or take probably about 10% I think

get his american collegue to order it online to the office , no sales tax in many many states if online order .

 

[bertieg]

I had a US iPod touch years ago, and had no warranty issues a talk with that when it went wrong. Was replaced on the spot, no questions asked

 

[...]

I though apple warranties worked to the registered itunes account and age determined by serial number, however that is only true on wifi only devices cellular devices are country of origin only

 

[drsmith]

get his american collegue to order it online to the office , no sales tax in many many states if online order .

Apple usually charges the rate of tax at your location even if it is technically shipped from out of state. They determine that it is sent from a local source and thus is required to charge tax. It's a way of making customers have no real benefit of buying online as opposed to the store.

 

[Mr Pants]

Thanks for feedback guys. I'm just gonna order from the UK to avoid any hassle.

 

[Martin J]

are you really worried about tax this tax that warranty etc etc... arent all you worried about is if it works in the uk, because i think thats what your question was about and no one really answered that.. all they talked about was warranty and tax

 

[Tom]

It wont work fully. As someone mentioned, LTE bands differ.

 

[Deeg]

It wont work fully. As someone mentioned, LTE bands differ.

I mentioned this in another thread about buying phones from abroad.

What's the issue?

 

[Tom]

https://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

 

[Mr Pants]

My understanding (perhaps wrong) was that 4G would be fine via GiffGaff (O2) given the band/frequency they use. However, there would be issues if trying to use EE for 4G.

Several potential issues though, so I've just ordered the standard UK model.