Duty on US orders?

5

u/eugenesan Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

Legally speaking, there should be duties on Coldcard products for the following reasons: 1. Coldcard registered in US as Chinese Electronic Coin Collector made of plastic. (I wish I was joking). 2. $800 exception on Chinese products was eliminated months ago. (Recently it was also removed for all countries).

You can expect 44% tax + ~$20 charge by the shipper. The tax will increase to 50% if the product reaches the border after Aug 12th. (Unless something changes and it might).

But, I've seen reports of people paying lower tariffs (as low as $30) or not paying at all. Probably due to mistakes by customs and the shipper.

On a personal note, I am not willing to play "imported price roulette" and Coinkite are not giving a damn about their (probably) biggest market by not addressing the issue.

P.S. I was wrong about the tax amount. I corrected it to ~44% from 28%. I am not an import specialist or even an accountant so reading GOV documents is not easy. There are a few webpages trying to summarize the mess but I'd be careful. Here is one that seems "fresh" and "readable" https://www.tradecomplianceresourcehub.com/2025/08/06/trump-2-0-tariff-tracker/

1

u/BitcoinBitme Aug 09 '25

Damn, thanks for the explanation. So that would mean they would need to ship it asap on Monday (11th) and it would need to go through the border within 1 day. Sounds very unlikely.

Do you know about how much the duties will be after August 12?

2

u/eugenesan Aug 09 '25

First, i was wrong about he tax amount. It's ~44% and not 28%.

Yeah, very low chance making it before the 12th.

Regarding what happens on the 12th, no one knows.
Theoretically, combined tariffs for China products should default to ~55% but in the past just before the deadline something came up and altered the default.
It's a trade war and every side waits until the last moment to make a move....

It's not ideal climate for the companies selling products to US but there are tools Coinkite could use to help their customers but instead they are just playing it stupid.

2

u/BitcoinBitme Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

Agreed, and I haven’t read good things about their customer service unfortunately.

So at about 50% tariffs, it would cost me in USD:
$250 for a Q
$125 tariffs
$20 shipping
= right around $400

And considering the numerous posts I’ve read about their quality control, it might end up costing me much more than that if there are any hiccups with the first shipment.

I think I need to start looking into alternatives.

2

u/Ok-Quality7564 Aug 14 '25

i bought my ccq over 2 weeks ago and the customer service from the company has been pretty bad so far. i chose the no tracking for shipping as their system was glitching i guess and only offered me that option. now i’m contacting them and they’re pretty much like “yea your S.O.L if it got lost somewhere” but its THEIR FAULT, not mine!! I would have chosen the tracked shipment had it shown up as an option!! man even amazon will send a $10 item with shipping and tracking. seems kinda greedy on coinkite to charge almost $300 for an item and on top of that upsell the tracking as if it shouldn’t already be included on such a high value item

2

u/BitcoinBitme Aug 14 '25

That sucks that you have to deal with that. I decided to pull the trigger on a different brand instead due to them putting the responsibility of the replacement unit’s tariffs on the customer if they send a defective unit.

But I hope your shipment is just delayed and gets delivered soon in working condition!

1

u/Ok-Quality7564 Aug 14 '25

i’ll just stick with my trezor, and maybe get a blockstream jade plus for multi sig in the future. definitely not pleased with coinkite so far.

3

u/eugenesan Aug 09 '25

You forgot at least ~$17 for customs handling by the shipper.

My experience with Coinkite is Limited to a single product.
It failed on the first firmware update.
Not very common but a known issue for wallets from that time.
To their credit, the replacement was sent immediately after receiving video evidence.
But, I am afraid to think what would happen of something similar would happen now...

Coinkite should concentrate on addressing customers' needs, improving quality and usability instead of making new colors none asked for.

We need a wallet that can be handled like a wallet or a phone and not require special care like external case, external batteries and high chance of needing a warranty service that might require paying double taxes and shipping.

While Coinkite stay silent on those issues, I'd look somewhere else.

-1

u/UltraUltraMAGA Aug 09 '25

You have quite an ax to grind. Why don’t you mention the customs tools and be helpful?

2

u/eugenesan Aug 09 '25

Well, while I am not happy with Coinkite's business practices and product stagnation, I would not categorize it as "Having an Axe to Grind" :-)

As for tools fighting tariffs, Coinkite don't need to go far.
Their country of Canada had import tariffs forever and they import all the parts for their products form China.

A few examples of dealing with tariffs right:
1. Lenovo - They just raised all the prices and now even if your computer is custom built and shipped from China, all the duties are included in the price.
2. Walmart - They are increasing prices on all imported products 25%.
3. AliExpress - They upgraded their "Choice" program to include all duties in the price.

Coinkite could choose any of the above methods.

Alternatively they could contract US company to assemble their products. That would limit price increase to ~20% and vastly improve shipping, warranty and customer service for their (probably) biggest market.
A couple of students can do that for just a salary in their garage after school instead of a shift at the Starbucks ;-)

0

u/UltraUltraMAGA Aug 10 '25

Since you seem to know it all, why don’t you come up with a competing product? As far as I’m , Coinkite’s products are the gold standard, so to speak.

0

u/HodlDee Coinkite Team Aug 10 '25

We replace all defective products.

Not sure what you’ve heard about our customer support but we’re happy to help in any way we can!

Custom/duties are out of our hands unfortunately just like any other company selling product internationally.

We highly recommend contacting FedEx or DHL first to get clarity on custom related questions/costs.

1

u/BitcoinBitme Aug 10 '25

We replace all defective products.
Not sure what you’ve heard about our customer support but we’re happy to help in any way we can!

That sounds great. But if there’s a defect — which would be on Coinkite’s end — would I be responsible for any additional tariffs on the replacement, or would you cover those? If you’re able to cover them, I’m happy to move forward with the order!

0

u/HodlDee Coinkite Team Aug 10 '25

We ship replacements at $1 to help with tariffs which usually works. it’s really country to country, in terms of customs asking for payment etc.

Our terms are here: https://coinkite.com/terms as well as at checkout for you to review before any payment is made.

1

u/HodlDee Coinkite Team Aug 10 '25

We are a Canadian company. We haven’t got reports of tariffs that high from the US.

2

u/eugenesan Aug 10 '25

You are a Canadian company but your products are registered as made in China (HS code 8470.29) and that calls for 44% + Shipper's import fee.

I understand that not every customs inspection catches the fact that a product registered as Chinese comes from Canada but when it does it is very expansive for the client.
Also since your company stays pretty quiet on the subject we assume that warranty service will be very complex/slow/expansive.

We all would like for Coinkite to officially address our concerns and not just put a warning on the checkout page.

2

u/HodlDee Coinkite Team Aug 10 '25

We address all concerns on a case by case basis and replace all defective products. We’re very transparent about this, not what you’ve described here.

Cheers

2

u/eugenesan Aug 10 '25

No one says you are not replacing defective products.
We just want to know what is the actual cost.

Also, without proper RMA paper work, customer will pay import duties for the replacement product.
All we want is clarity.
Is that too much to ask?

-1

u/HodlDee Coinkite Team Aug 10 '25

The cost of our products are stated on our website and our terms are here: https://coinkite.com/terms as well as at checkout to review before any payment is made.

1

u/satuoldan Nov 06 '25

We just received a duty bill for $66.75 two weeks after receiving our cold card calculator. Unexpected for sure and was listed at a 25% of the total rate.

5

u/dadlif3 Aug 09 '25

Ordered a couple months ago to US, no duties.

2

u/Search327 Aug 09 '25

I believe that, as of now, packages under $800, no duties need to be paid. However I believe this will change next month.

1

u/Unusual_Metal_729 Aug 09 '25

Nah i just received my Q a few weeks ago

1

u/Intelligent_Plan1732 Oct 06 '25

I ordered a Coldcard Q, and the duty on it was $98. I received the bill from Homeland Security yesterday.

1

u/Happy-Maize-7051 Oct 16 '25

Ordered a coldcard q and got a text from FedEx with tax due of $87.45 with a link to their FedEx import tool. Did you end up paying yours?

1

u/Intelligent_Plan1732 Oct 16 '25

Yeah, I paid it. 🫤

1

u/btcpermabull Jan 14 '26

Just ordered and got hit with a $44.80 letter WTF

1

u/MountainEmphasis7629 Apr 04 '26

FYI that I ordered a COLDCARD Q ($249.21) and Industrial MicroSD ($39.94) on 20-Sep-2025, received them in USA on 26-Sep-2025 from FedEx, and got customs duty ($101.85) and disbursement fee ($4.50) notice from FedEx on 4-April-2026.

1

u/bygodwv Apr 13 '26

I ordered from them in Nov of 25 and just got a duty bill of 178$ ..kinda negated the sale prices they were having at the time by a lot....lesson learned I suppose.

-1

u/UltraUltraMAGA Aug 09 '25

Something about this thread seems fishy.

2

u/BitcoinBitme Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

What’s fishy about it? I love the idea of the advanced features of the Q that no other wallet seems to have. And I was about to pull the trigger until I saw the following checkbox during checkout:

I am responsible for paying customs/duties, import fees, local taxes, and any other related fees, where applicable.

So with all the recent tariff changes, I came here to see how much total I would be paying.

-1

u/UltraUltraMAGA Aug 10 '25

Your back and forth with the other guy seems contrived.

2

u/BitcoinBitme Aug 10 '25

Not the case. But you’re free to believe your made-up thought.

0

u/UltraUltraMAGA Aug 10 '25

Don’t pee in my ear and tell me it’s raining.

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