Anyone bought donor sperm from overseas banks recently? Customs?

[Pandemo]

I spoke to California Cryobank yesterday and they told me that there's 20% customs charges on each vial shipped to the UK! Was not expecting that potential extra charge.

I asked some of the other banks but they didn't have the info about UK customs.

Has anyone used ESB/SellmerDiers since Brexit? Were there customs charges?

I spoke to Cryos and they said they have to ship the vials to a Danish distributor first who then ship to UK. Does this mean 2 sets of customs charges?

Any recent experiences?

Hi!

We recently ordered 3 vials from Cryos International who shipped to the UK via Denmark and we did have to pay two lots of shipping fees (America to Denmark then Denmark to UK). We didn’t have any extra customs fees on top of shipping though.

Hope this helps!

Hi

Wondered if anyone could help. I’ve had a straw reserved with Cryos Denmark for a while. It’s taken me a while to decide if I wanted to go ahead with this route. I have finally decided that it’s now or never.

Cryos Denmark website makes it sound very easy to arrange delivery yourself online to your chosen clinic. However, I tried to do it this evening and an error message came up, and then mentioned calling them. Now I’m panicking that somethings gone wrong. I know that my clinic here in the U.K. need to see the paperwork before accepting the shipment.

Could it be that the clinic need to liaise with Cryos directly to arrange this and need my consent. I’m trying to rationalise it as can’t speak to anyone there until Monday.

If anyone knows, I’d love to hear from you so I can ease my mind this weekend.

Hi @Cleo2016

We didn't order from Cryos in the end, we used a different bank, but when we did order there was a lot of liaison between the banks and we had several forms to complete before it was all confirmed. I think it's likely that UK customers can't order online from Cryos because of all the additional forms for the HFEA etc. I'm sure it'll be fine once you speak to someone.

Hi @Pandemo

Thank you so much for your reply. I couldn’t sleep last night, thinking the worst that there’s been a mix up and the reservation is not there anymore. Surely, that could never be possible and it’s showing under my account.. but the mind can make you think all kinds of things. Just hope my little dream of giving my son a sibling hasn’t been dashed before it’s even started. Thank you so much for explaining the process, I just hope it’s that and nothing else. Wish they’d explain that on their website for U.K. customers 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hi @Cleo2016. I used Cryos Denmark 18 months ago and they did need to liaise with my UK clinic before they would send it. I phoned them a couple of times to ask some questions and they were lovely and very helpful. As long as the donor is suitable for the UK and your clinic accepts Cryos then it all should be fine. Good luck!

Hi @ingkir thank you for your reply, does that mean you couldn’t process the shipment at all yourself online? - fingers crossed you’re right and the error message has just popped up because they need to talk to me first and then liaise with my clinic directly before going ahead with it. Thank you for your advise it’s much appreciated ☺️

Saw this thread on active convos and was a bit at quibbling over a customs fee… the amount you will be forking out in the years to come will make one small customs fee pale into the utmost insignificance… Plus it’s a potential baby, not an imported dvd. When I was on this route if they’d told me the customs charge was a million pounds I’d have robbed a bank.

@DottyHarmer If you know any banks with major security flaws, let me know!

I'm considering the cryos route. What uk clinic did you use if you don't mind me asking - and is there an option to do it at home or can you only have the sperm sent to a clinic / clinic is more reliable?

What's the overall cost likely to be, as a all park figure?

I'm nearly 40, conceived one child naturally at 30 (one ejaculation, morning after pill didn't work, oops). No idea how fertile I might be now.

I ordered from Cryos almost exactly 2 years ago, and defo remember the 20% customs charge. Planning on charging my DD for it!
Didn't query it or ask how it was coming at all. I do remember I had to phone up to finalise everything but wasn't sure why.

We used European sperm bank and don't remember a separate customs charge on top of delivery.
I do remember my clinic, Kings, also charging for receipt of delivery. Go figure!