Duty free shopping in Calais is back! How to save hundreds on booze and food this Christmas by heading abroad
Families can save hundreds of pounds by doing their Christmas shopping abroad this year, because of Brexit.
Anyone visiting France will be able to nab up to 20 percent off food, drink, cosmetics and tech products with duty-free shopping at certain stores.
With new travel rules coming into play this week, it’s much easier to pop across the border and bag some tax-free bargains.
According to The Times, Brits can save £84 on the new iPhone, £36 o designer jeans, £160 on a box of wine, £237 on a DJI Mini 2 Fly More drone and £24 on a Mango coat.
The only catch? You need to spend over €100.01 (£85.51).
Filling your trolley won’t be a struggle though as shops are desperate to entice tourists with huge discounts.
Here’s how to do it…
Make sure your travel costs are minimal. After all, there’s no point saving 200 quid on food if you’ve spent a fortune on a flight there.
Plus, you’ll need the space to carry everything home, so taking the car is your best bet.
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Eurotunnel has one way tickets to the French port of Calais from £91 per vehicle, which includes nine passengers.
There’s a huge Carrefour supermarket just five minutes’ drive away which sells everything from wine and cheese to jewellery and clothes as well as The Cité Europe shopping centre in the terminal.
Anyone travelling with Eurotunnel in the coming months will get a €10 Carrefour gift card for every €100 spent before November 30.
Make sure to bring your passport into the shop and pay with a credit card.
Not every store offers duty-free shopping, but the ones that do tend to advertise it with a sticker in the shop window or at the till.
Once you’ve filled your basket over the €100.01 threshold, ask the cashier for a tax refund form at checkout – that’s “une détaxe” in French.
Keep it safe as you’ll need to scan the form before heading home.
You’ll have to avoid the temptation of tucking into any goodies you’ve bought too, as everything must stay wrapped up in its packaging until you’re back in the UK.
Anyone buying duty-free goods will need to “validate” their tax refund form to prove they’ll be consuming them at home, instead of France.
To do this, head to one of the self-service PABLO kiosks in Eurotunnel’s Calais terminal and scan the bar code on the form.
All the tax will be re-paid back to your credit card after a few days.
It’s worth remembering though, that there are limits on how alcohol, tobacco, and other purchases you buy before having to pay tax in the UK.
Before crossing the UK border you must tell customs about any goods where you go over your allowances, and if you go over an allowance, you will have to pay tax and duty on all the goods in that category.
To find out more about when and how to declare goods to UK customs, head to the government website.
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