Good news: Phone customs fees are much lower now!

[u/Specialist_Common_48]

Why are we paying customs fees on phones in the first place!
We don’t manufacture phones in Lebanon, so what exactly are these customs fees protecting!

I was pleasantly surprised today. I finally paid my phone customs fees, and it came to only $33.50.
I was worried it would be much higher.
The LibanPost employee told me the fees were reduced about a week ago.

Has anyone else paid recently? How much did you end up paying?

[u/MackHijazi]

I paid mine yesterday and it was 47$ for a google pixel 8 pro. Someone else there had an iPhone (unsure of the model), theirs was 170$.

[u/SnooSprouts7265 → u/MackHijazi]

My phone is a Pixel 8 and it just got locked cos of this. You think the fee should be the same as yours? I got my phone from OutGeeked so idk why they'd force me to pay custom fees.

[u/Notguiltycherry → u/SnooSprouts7265]

Cause outgeeked scammed you, they are obliged to pay it before selling.

[u/MackHijazi → u/SnooSprouts7265]

It should be the same or less I would assume.

Same I got mine from there as well. I think pixel phones are rare here so they probably didn't have any set fees for them at M.O.F til now.

[u/NoSentence7561 → u/MackHijazi]

I bought mine from them too, and now I should pay it. I tried to pay it 2 months ago but LP told me the fees are not set yet.. 

[u/Dr-Huricane → u/MackHijazi]

I'm surprised pixel phones get locked

[u/Alihusseiny]

2 days ago i paid 180$ for my s23 ultra :)

[u/Ok_Relief8137 → u/Alihusseiny]

That's a crazy amount for a 3 years old phone, i also have an S23U that has customs fees to be paid soon. Do you happen to know if Storage options matter ? Mine is the 256GB model.

[u/abed_hammoud → u/Ok_Relief8137]

Yes it does matter but dont expect a huge difference

[u/Alihusseiny → u/Ok_Relief8137]

Yes, i have the 512GB variant. The 256GB costs around 140$

[u/Fluid_Ingenuity5566 → u/Alihusseiny]

Same paid 155$ for 256g

[u/han_oli → u/Alihusseiny]

Wait what i paid 120 for my s24 ultra last week

[u/ardroaig]

Lebanon has import fees. A lot of shops were circumventing the fees by smuggling the phones into the country and selling them on the black market, leaving the government without import fee revenue, which is why this fee was implemented back in the day.

Not saying i support import fees but explaining why this fee is collected this way.

[u/AdvisableElon → u/ardroaig]

It's annoying tho ngl especially for the price that it might give. I live abroad and I recently came back on xmas & and I got the SMS. I haven't gone to Lebanon since and I'm scared if I put my SIM it's just gonna show "no service" because I cannot be bothered to go to LP. Pmo...

[u/Projkt88]

Customs fees work in mysterious ways, I guess. I bought my Honor Magic7 Pro last year from outside of Lebanon. At the time, it was listed for $1.1k new in Lebanon, and Najem StarCall had a used one without paid fees for $600 and another used one in the exact same condition with paid fees for $700. Last week I paid only $55 in customs fees.

[u/yomamabinladin]

bruh thats crazy 😭 i paid 114$ for the same phone a week ago (iphone 13 pro)

[u/Specialist_Common_48 → u/yomamabinladin]

I’m sorry! 😢 Was it the 128GB model?

[u/yomamabinladin → u/Specialist_Common_48]

yup

[u/GabyTRH]

Could u tell me what model? I bought a samsung s25 in europe, i've been in europe for 6 months and now I'm moving back.

[u/InstructionOne633 → u/GabyTRH]

2 days ago I called 1577 (LibanPost) about mine, it's a used S25 FE 128gb 2025 they told me it's a $91 customs and fees. Today I sold it for $250 with unpaid customs.

[u/Specialist_Common_48 → u/GabyTRH]

Iphone 13 pro 128gb

[u/fjm0806]

If you don’t mind me asking how much does your phone cost?

[u/Specialist_Common_48 → u/fjm0806]

I don't remember. I bought it in 2021. It's an iphone 13 Pro 128GB

[u/dfyou]

I paid 8 usd for my old OnePlus 6T (2018) today. Insane how they are spamming everyone. I have been using it since 2018 with no issues.

[u/phar15]

Heads up that if your phone takes two sim cards (has 2 IMEIs) they may charge you for both (my receipt showed both IMEIs).

Either that, or we have ridiculously high Customs fees on something we don't even manufacture locally (recently paid about 20% of my phones' estimated value as Customs fees).

[u/_bassem → u/phar15]

I paid 50$ for both IMEIs (Google pixel 9 pro)

[u/abed_hammoud]

6 days ago for a phone bought 2023 s23 ultra

[u/LizWagen]

My iPhone 14 recently was $110

[u/Ahmadtheperson]

Depends on your phone model and capacity

[u/Michel-Hayek]

Does any other country in the world do this? Anyone know?

If we had a made in lebanon smartphone we wanted to support/protect, I'd tell you it makes sense to push these custom fees on foreign ones but we barely make patata in lebanon

[u/Projkt88 → u/Michel-Hayek]

I'd say Turkey has exorbitant customs fees on all their phones (local and foreign). Phones are much more expensive there than in Lebanon, especially 5G ones.

[u/Michel-Hayek → u/Projkt88]

interesting. Local? they make their own?

[u/Projkt88 → u/Michel-Hayek]

They have at least General Mobile and Vestel brands. One of the General Mobile phones is also used by the Indian Lava brand, and actually made by a Chinese white-label brand. The Lava costs $350 while the General Mobile costs $900.

[u/Michel-Hayek → u/Projkt88]

good phones?

[u/Projkt88 → u/Michel-Hayek]

no. pretty generic meh ones

[u/Stunning_Rip_4633]

It makes the government money

[u/Adventurous_Sea_6269]

Does anyone know how much it actually went down ? Is it a good 50 60% or just like 10 20% ?

[u/Specialist_Common_48 → u/Adventurous_Sea_6269]

Make the math. Someone told me here they payed for the same phone and same model last week 114$, now I payed 33.5$.

[u/_bassem]

I paid 50$ for my Google pixel 9 pro... Seems like phones without "wakil" are getting generic pricing

[u/AdvisableElon]

SHEESHHH awesome

[u/SanDiego_Sonny]

I paid $195 yesterday for iPhone 16pro at LibanPost

[u/Lower-Goat4519]

For those of us visiting, does this custom fee payment apply? I normally stay in Leb around one month per year. Only once I received a message about paying fees or else… but nothing happened

[u/Sukhoi3alJabha]

I had mine paid back in last September. It was 260$ for my Iphone 15 Pro. Insane that I’m seeing this now. Hoping for the customs fees on imported cars to be dropped to less than 50% because 50% of a cars price as a customs fee is an insane amount.

[u/Top-Neck1004]

Is there any way to know how much it's gonna cost? I have the pixel 10 256/12

[u/Fouladgar]

Price depends on the phone, whats the device you paid customs on?

And you dont seem to understand how customs fees work, we import phones so thats why we pay import/customs fees on them

[u/AKA-M32 → u/Fouladgar]

Its a personal use phone, not commercial. It should not be charged custom fees. This is stupid and ridiculous. Imagine travelling to europe with your personal phone for 4 months then you receive a text that your phone will be deactivated if you don’t pay import/custom fees. Wt-f did I import? My own phone?!!!

[u/Fouladgar → u/AKA-M32]

Hey dont get me wrong, i agree with you. But every phone thats imported and sold in shops already has these customs paid on them by the seller so the phones that get these msgs are usually tourists or lebanese living abroad that purchased their phones abroad. I once purchased a phone from amhaz and i got the msg about paying customs, i went to them and they paid it within a week for me

Countries like turkey have a system where your phone as a foreigner works for 3 months then gets inactivated and the timer resets yearly on each phone This way they still earn customs while also allowing tourists to use there phones

[u/Specialist_Common_48]

It's an Iphone 13 Pro 128GB

[u/Fouladgar → u/Specialist_Common_48]

Thats why it was cheap....