I am buying a camcorder for my impending trip to Singapore and Australia - to get the best price, should I buy off the internet in the UK, Duty Free on the way out or when I get to Singapore/Australia ?

Assuming you are not emigrating then I would suggest you purchase from the UK and off the Net. Duty Free is crap and the savings are off the RRP., which bascially makes them around about the same price that retail outlets are selling them for anyway. If you purchase in Singapore or Australia then you may have problems with warranty.

Try places like PCR Direct or Camera Centre

[electrolyte]

The best way to buy is to buy from Jessops as they will price match to the cheapest Internet price. When I bought my camera the dozy woman read the print-out I gave her and forgot to add the P&P onto the price the internet retailer was charging!

[the_sanguine]

Do they still do that?

I heard they didn't anymore

[electrolyte]

That would be a shame if they don't as it was an excellent way of buying things safely at a very cheap price.

[snelly]

Well if you have a barclaycard then the best way is to use their price promise. I bought my AE100 this way.

Go into your high street shop, say jessops, buy the cam at full price and see if they will chuck in some accessories for free (DV tapes, strap whatever) that dont go on the receipt (I got a 10m Svid cable this way worth £45).

Then call barclaycard and give them the cheapest internet price and after a couple of faxes they reimburse you the money.

Plus points are you have a high street reatiler to take it back to, get insurance on the card, immediate delivery and can get a price diff of up to £500. If you dont have a card then either get one or see if a relative has...

Hope that helps

Tim

PS it really does work, check the barclaycard.co.uk website for details, I got £300 back on my panny after buying it in a main dealer - handy when it died twice

[electrolyte]

Snelly is right, Barclaycard is the way to go. I have used mine when buying a camcorder, my amp and my speakers. It was hardly any hassle and the money came back onto my account pretty quickly. Only issue is that they will only refund you the money after the purchase has appeared on your statement so that you have to pay for it in full and then you get money off your next statement.

[the_sanguine]

I can't see them keeping it up for long!

[electrolyte]

There is method to their madness - they hope that you buy a £4K plasma screen and can't afford to pay it back so they sting you for 18% interest every month until you have paid it back.....

[snelly]

exactly electrolyte.

Credit cards are a very expensive way of getting credit. I would never, ever leave money on their at the end of the month. If you want that facility then for gods sake get an arranged loan with your bank etc!!!

Barclaycard et al. make loads of money from interest and commission on every sale, I expecrt the number of people who actually use price promise is small and TBH I wouldnt bother for less than a fair few notes.

Tim

[woody67]

A colleague has a credit card from his mortgage bank - I think it's Northern Rock.

IIRC, the interest rate is at about 5.5% which is cheaper than any loan, so he tends to buy things on other cards just to get points and bonuses etc, and then if he needs longer to pay, he balance transfers to this to get the cheaper interest rate.

He is always seeming swopping and applying for new cards, and I doubt if anything actually gets paid off - it just seems to be shifted around the banks!

Seems like a good system to me though.

woody