Anybody have experience with Global Blue Tax Free Shopping?

[curves2000]

Hi all,

I travel often to Europe to visit family and friends and I always see the Global Blue Tax Free Shopping signs in store windows when I am over there. I always had an idea what the program is but I have never signed up myself.

Does anyone have any experience with this program? If so is it worth it and is the process easy?

I love some of the overseas shopping available but it never dawned on me to ever sign up.

http://www.globalblue.com/

Any thoughts would be great, thanks!

[OMG!WTF!]

They do a pretty good business with Russian oligarchs, Chinese businesses and Arab royalty; currently the three investment banking conglomerates vying for a piece of their IPO in 2018. I think it saves you the hassle of applying for a VAT refund yourself but likely costs you a bit of that refund. It also saves retailers the hassle of creating their own VAT refund system and then advertising it as such. And they offer currency conversions for you as well, likely credit card rates on that, so helpful only if you were going to pay in local, converted cash. It's probably better than applying for the refund yourself. But you won't be getting all of your VAT back unless you're spending gillions. I would assume the more you spend the less you pay in fees...that's why the richie riches of the world like it. It's a "might as well" scenario as you probably won't do the paper work to get it back yourself.

[me_dennis]

It can be a pretty good deal if the exchange rate is good. I've only had experience with some purses and luxury goods that the wife purchased in Europe. Different countries have different VAT amounts, so you can get a portion of that back as a refund.

For example, if the country has a 15% VAT, and the item you purchased is 1000 Euros, you could get 150 euros (minus the global blue fee that they take) back as a refund.

The process itself is pretty easy. Most stores have a minimum spend amount to qualify for global blue. If you spend over that amount, ask for the global blue or VAT back. They will give you a receipt and some forms. Basically all you do is when you goto the airport of the last EU stop of your trip, you would bring those forms with the receipts, AND the item that you purchased (this is important because you may need to show it) to the customs officer. The customs officer will then inspect the forms, receipts, and goods, and stamp the form. Once you have a stamped form, you can mail it to the address on the form, or they usually have global blue drop boxes at the airport. You can choose to get the refund in cash, or on credit card, but credit card usually takes longer, but you get more of your refund back. It's very important to get the customs stamp because without it, there will be no refund.