Planning to travel to USA - buying advice needed

S

srawat_itpro

Broken In
Hi,

The problem I'm going to state is a typical one and needs first hand perspective. It'll be great if someone can provide the right advice.

I'm traveling to US shortly and I'm in need of the following gadgets:
  • New Smartphone (Replace the age old Moto ROKR with a high end one like Desire S / Motorola D2 / SG II)
  • New Laptop (Have a company provided admin locked one right now, would like to buy a Core i5, 4GB RAM, 1 GB GPU config)
  • New Camera (DSLR for Full HD video recording and occasional photography)

Now my paranoia is that if I buy all these in US then surely one check at the Delhi airport would land me in trouble with the customs. So I plan to buy only one of these OR combo of these in the US for personal usage and buy the rest of the things in India itself. I might purchase smaller things like second hand DVR for my Android tablet and high end earphones as well.. max to the tune of $100 combined. Since I haven't traveled to US before, I'm not aware what is the approx price diff range for the items mentioned would be... Can someone enlighten or share his exp so that I would only buy the item(s) which makes more economical sense and buy the rest with little price difference over here itself?

Specially I'm looking for each of the category:
1. Approx price diff in INR between India and US
2. Warranty considerations
3. India customs prior exp if any

BTW, I would be traveling by June end to NY.

Rgds
Sandy
 
xtremevicky

xtremevicky

Manc
If you have the money then you can buy everything you mentioned . Here is what you should do .

1.Dont carry your mobile to US if you can avoid . Try carring a cheaper mobile phone .

2. Buy the laptop and use it even for a few days . Buy the IEM and put them in that laptop case .

3. Buy the phone and Camera and keep all of this in the laptop bag and tell its for our own use .

This should work fine . Look for more replies.
 
OP
S

srawat_itpro

Broken In
xtremevicky709 said:
If you have the money then you can buy everything you mentioned . Here is what you should do .

1.Dont carry your mobile to US if you can avoid . Try carring a cheaper mobile phone .

2. Buy the laptop and use it even for a few days . Buy the IEM and put them in that laptop case .

3. Buy the phone and Camera and keep all of this in the laptop bag and tell its for our own use .

This should work fine . Look for more replies.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip Vicky.. basically use all the stuff and get them in as items of personal usage. I wonder if the customs guy would buy that argument though since they all would have been bought outside on a visit and would fall under the 25K INR ceiling limit... worth a try I guess!!!

Looking forward to more replies..

Rgds
Sandy
 
reddick

reddick

Mobile Freak
U can buy all d stuff u listed here in US n do d following also :

1. Do gt ur original receipt of all ur products.
2. Prepare a letter pad frm tht shop in which it shud b mentioned tht d bought product(s) r only fr personal use nt fr commercial purpose.Also mention ur Indian add. on it along vid ur Name n Phone no. including tht of shop.
3. Whn u return India just show these documents to airport authorities. Dn't try to fool them as they wr much more experienced guys selected only fr this purpose :!:
4. It wud b better if u knw d custom rates of d products u've owned.Go to Civil Aviation site of GOI or google for it.In dis way they can't fool u n u can save ur extra bucks.
5. If,in rare case,they charge u , demand 4 d receipt of tht which further wud help u.
6. Dn't try to escape frm d customs official w/o checking.Even if u succeeded,they have their guys,inside n outside d airport,hired only to nab d persons trying to become smart. In tht case ur receipts n tht performa is useless to prevent u frm heavy fine. Be true n hv a peaceful journey :)

Hope dis wud help u...Best of Luck for ur trip.
 
Sarath

Sarath

iDota
Hmm as someone who has bought enough gadgets from abroad to just nearly be tried for smuggling I can say this:

You can buy all of them and still not pay duties.

Luckily for you, your requirements very less and not similar. For example two laptops and two cameras is more risky than say a camera, lappy, phone and say a dvd player; all four together.

I will tell you what I do: I have never been asked to pay duties and have carelessly also left the packaging intact but I do not want to be stupid or promote the same and these are the measures I take:

1.First and foremost:
Packaging: I either throw them away (I hate this) but I usually convince my parents into tucking them all away in some unused corner of baggage. I put the smaller boxes in the bigger ones and the rest are clothes. Dont put any electronics in the same bag now since and if it contains only clothes they are unlikely to ask you to open anything.
However families are usually spared while lone travellers get extra love from customs. Hence I suggest you throw away the packaging or stuff it with lot of plastic papers etc.

2. Your devices/electronics should be with you preferable. Since you have a nice combination of gadgets like a laptop and a phone that is seldom even questioned about that shouldn't bother you.

~If you already have a phone no need to leave it in India. Just leave it in the baggage on your return and use the new phone; even if you don't use it it is utmost important that it is in your pocket. My iphone travelled dead in my pocket for 5 days like this. Most business travellers carry more than one or two phones and its normal so no need to keep that crook face while facing customs. Just tell them that its your US phone in the baggage. DO NOT LEAVE THE PHONE AT HOME. A TRAVELER NEEDS A PHONE NO MATTER WHAT.

~Put the laptop in the hand baggage and put away the chargers etc in the checkin baggage. In fact its not important where you keep the accessories but just that the laptop should be in your "hand baggage".

Although I have personally got the laptop many a times in the checked in luggage I would strongly advise you against it. Lone travellers are treated with more attention.

~With the camera again repeat the same procedures. I had my Sony Handycam dangling on my neck (in the camera bag) along with a Sony Cybershot in my bag. Now a DSLR is just a bigger camera so just put it in its camera bag and stuff it inside the "hand baggage" along with the laptop.

NOTE: If you have a laptop bag then it wont fit your camera and other luggage. I left mine at home and used my brothers college backpack since I dont have a laptop backpack.


3. Kindly do not keep the stupid plastic covers that come with every gadget intact. It is something that only we Indians do and an estimate of the dust that that the temporary sticker collects is an indication of how old it is. In short try not making it look like its brand new. I dont mean it needs to look used or should have scratches but should atleast look like it has seen a few days usage. Like removing the labels, wrapping, proctective covers(these are temporary)(again they are meant to be temporary)

There is 0.5% chance that you will end up paying duties if you follow the above but there are 50% chances that you will depending on how you follow the below.

4. POINT NUMBER FOUR: You: You, your face, your body language and your confidence determine whether you will pay customs or not.
Tell them with confidence that they are your work gadgets. Dont get started about the phone at all since they will never ask unless you have it neatly in its packaging inside your luggage. Tell the laptop is your work laptop and that the DSLR is just a camera for regular usage. They dont usually ask but like I said again and again they will if your are travelling alone. All you need to say is that they are just normal gadgets, not a TV or a music system.

I wanted to type what all I have got from abroad but trust me that will double the length of this post.

Good luck.

P.S.- What ever I have written above are for the gadgets mentioned only. Different devices are treated differently. The ones you have chosen fall under the lowest risk category. If you make any additions then let me know.
 
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