Hi - I couldn't find any threads on this topic here. Hope I haven't missed something.

Now that it's 2021 and 'actual Brexit' has happened, is anybody experiencing the problems noted in this article?

'Shock Brexit charges are hurting us, say small British businesses' - Toby Helm and Michael Savage, Sun 17 Jan 2021 06.45 GMT, The (Guardian) Observer
theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/17/shock-brexit-charges-are-hurting-us-say-small-british-businesses
  • First, a “Brexit charge”, as the couriers are calling it, an export fee of £4.50 for every parcel shipped to the EU to cover costs of extra administration and form filling that couriers must carry out
  • Second, there is a “deferment account fee” of £5 per parcel that covers couriers’ costs of pre-paying import charges in the destination country
  • Third, a “disbursement charge” which is set at different levels in each EU country with a minimum of about €14 per parcel, or calculated as a percentage of the value of the goods, whichever is the higher, plus VAT in the destination country. This covers the costs of the tax authority in the recipient country inspecting and processing the parcels.


The quotes I get on Royal Mail Click & Drop for sending to EU countries haven't changed much since last year... e.g. £1.05 more to Germany. But nothing like their £7.25 price hike sending to the US, which presumably isn't due to Brexit. Perhaps RM will add new charges to the EU in line with other couriers soon?

I have had fun dealing with Swiss Post/Customs, and their high fees just to 'handle' a parcel and charge VAT. That was before Brexit, and Switzerland's not in the EU anyway. But it did give me a taste of things to come sending to Europe post-Brexit.

I'm starting to wonder if 'Paul' quoted in the Guardian article above is right...
“As far as I can see, currently, companies like ours in the UK are not going to be able to do ‘end sales’ to customers in the EU any more. Particularly, small orders for anything under £100 will be completely impossible,” says Paul.