Originally Posted by
GaryK84
My US citizen wife used the T5 airside VAT refund facility airside last year. You present the VAT refund receipt to the customs desk along with your passport IIRC. She was given a refund voucher which she took to Travelex who asked her what currency she wanted her refund in.
Worth pointing out, although they are increasingly printed out for you 'there-and-then' from a credit card like machine at the retailer onto very narrow thermal 'till recipt' type paper, what you are actually presenting to be stamped by customs is a (retailers custom printed version) of a formal Retail Export Scheme refund form. [Some still have their own forms that are normal A4 paper sized forms, etc.]
It is worth being clear on this, as you do hear of (and I have seen sadly too many times) unfortunate cases where people have not obtained such from the shop (not all shops participate in the scheme, and not all staff are well versed in it).
And they have instead turned up with just normal till recipts (that show within them the VAT collected).
Or dedicated 'VAT recipts' - which shops will happily generate for customers. [But these are not Retail Export Scheme forms, but simply dedicated recipts to assist businesses etc looking to reclaim VAT under the business VAT reclaim provisions, which are different.]
In such cases, there is nothing the customs officer can do, but explain what they did wrongly, and brief them for next time.
You should keep the actual purchase recipts to suport the purchase handy, and may be asked if you have anything to support your residence location or otherwise (to give customs officers confidence if they are concerned, that you are permanently exporting them items).
This form that you have had stamped should then be returned to either the merchant/retailer (if they are going to process it themselves) or to a company (global blue, etc) that they have contracted to operate the scheme for them.
Some of these companies have arrangements for processing the refund at desks in airprots (e.g. dedicated desks for this inside travelex, etc).
You may have options for either a cheque to be mailed to you, or a refund credited to your credit card, or accept cash. There may be a *further* admin fee for accepting cash.
All processors of the scheme are entitled to charge an admin fee if they wish. So it certainly might not be the full VAT ammount you get refunded.
Some will have agreed different fee models with the same refund companies. So don't expect the fee ammount to be the same store to store. Some will be flat fee, others %, some a combination of flat + %, some will be capped, others not.