Has anyone gone through customs and had to declare purchases recently through Dallas? It’s been years since I’ve flown through Dallas on an international flight. I just want to kind prepare myself in event I have to declare items. I only have a couple hours between my flights. Fortunately, I do have global entry and Clear to hopefully quicken the process. Fingers crossed there’s no delay flying out of CDG the day we depart.
US Customs discussion - airports, importing
- Thread starter esyee
- Start date
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Can someone explain to me what is the advantage of using the Global Blue refund service in the city (like in Rome)? Don’t you still have to stop by the VAT custom counter to scan those forms and sometimes show the custom officer when you are at the airport? Isn’t it easier just to do it once at the airport and avoid lining up twice?
TIA
I like to use global blue refund Sevice in Italy because it then makes it so much easier to use the vat refund kiosks once u are the airports. You can just scan your passport and your boarding pass and it has all the refund info and your vat form gets stamped electronically. ( sometimes you will need to have the customs officer stamp the form if the machine indicates it). You don’t have to mail anything. Also the credit card refund is processed by the global blue service and it’s on your card in 3-4 days.
If you decide to use the vat kiosk directly then you need to mail your form after getting it stamped at the kiosk or if there’s an issue you need the customs officer to stamp it and then mail it. It can take 2-3 weeks to get the refund.
Hope this helps!
Absolutely true, however the other side of it is that Global Blue takes quite a bit more for their cut than you may realize, or that they publicize. Although they state 5%, it actually can go from 9%.
So it comes down to there are pros and cons for each option, and which works for you. But it’s certainly not a given that GB is the only option.
Regardless, have a wonderful trip!
HTH
Sharing my recent trip from Paris to west coast.
Part One: Scanned each document at CDG detax kiosk. Green lights just put documents back into my purse. Red, stood in line for French customs agent. They reviewed each red and gave back the document and receipts. No stamp. I asked if I could get it stamped. They kept saying no stamp. I left asking myself should I have a stamp or not. Got to airport lounge minutes later and saw an email from Global Blue saying my documents were being processed. There's a link in the email that gives more details. It listed 'all' of my documents that were green and EVEN the red ones the customs agent didn't stamp so it's all done electronically. I didn't need to drop it in the box because I was getting refunded directly back to my cc. Two days after returning to the states this link showed me the ones already completed. Checked my cc and sure enough it was being processed. Since that time I've been keeping track of the others.
I have to say I'm pleased with this major improvement since I last went through this detax process prior to 2020.
Part Two: Landing in the states. Okay, learned a lot but maybe some of you already know this but if not ... Customs agent asked if I bought anything. I said yes. How much did you spend? I whispered 'x' amount. He looked up and said I'll call an agent to walk you to the back. I wasn't going to lie and glad I didn't. I offered to open my luggage and show all my receipts I had stacked. I was told it was okay but to list in categories if need to save space on the form what I purchased and amounts. They were patient for I had to go by memory and not my actual receipts. Anyway I was passed on to the supervisor for I was taking to long and there were others. He shared there are volumes and volumes of regs and codes. Said good thing you didn't lie because they would know. Not the little stuff but big items like handbags, fine jewelry etc. It's in the system which makes sense cause it's tied to our passport numbers. If caught in a lie,you don't get the $800 personal exemption or first $1000 at 3% and you would be fined heavily. They were somewhat nice about my experience for I was cooperating.
Shown an itemized list with $800 personal exemption and first $1000 at 3% plus, the following:
Silk duty (scarves, twillies etc) - 1.50%
Jewelry duty (fashion/fine was lumped together) - 5.50%
Leather duty (handbags, lipstick cases etc) - 9%
Paid with cc on the spot. He did say but at least you will get your 12% detax on the items. I said on some but H only gives back 10%. He seem surprised to learn that.
I am still happy with my purchases minus detax and plus duty. Hope this helps someone!
Part One: Scanned each document at CDG detax kiosk. Green lights just put documents back into my purse. Red, stood in line for French customs agent. They reviewed each red and gave back the document and receipts. No stamp. I asked if I could get it stamped. They kept saying no stamp. I left asking myself should I have a stamp or not. Got to airport lounge minutes later and saw an email from Global Blue saying my documents were being processed. There's a link in the email that gives more details. It listed 'all' of my documents that were green and EVEN the red ones the customs agent didn't stamp so it's all done electronically. I didn't need to drop it in the box because I was getting refunded directly back to my cc. Two days after returning to the states this link showed me the ones already completed. Checked my cc and sure enough it was being processed. Since that time I've been keeping track of the others.
I have to say I'm pleased with this major improvement since I last went through this detax process prior to 2020.
Part Two: Landing in the states. Okay, learned a lot but maybe some of you already know this but if not ... Customs agent asked if I bought anything. I said yes. How much did you spend? I whispered 'x' amount. He looked up and said I'll call an agent to walk you to the back. I wasn't going to lie and glad I didn't. I offered to open my luggage and show all my receipts I had stacked. I was told it was okay but to list in categories if need to save space on the form what I purchased and amounts. They were patient for I had to go by memory and not my actual receipts. Anyway I was passed on to the supervisor for I was taking to long and there were others. He shared there are volumes and volumes of regs and codes. Said good thing you didn't lie because they would know. Not the little stuff but big items like handbags, fine jewelry etc. It's in the system which makes sense cause it's tied to our passport numbers. If caught in a lie,you don't get the $800 personal exemption or first $1000 at 3% and you would be fined heavily. They were somewhat nice about my experience for I was cooperating.
Shown an itemized list with $800 personal exemption and first $1000 at 3% plus, the following:
Silk duty (scarves, twillies etc) - 1.50%
Jewelry duty (fashion/fine was lumped together) - 5.50%
Leather duty (handbags, lipstick cases etc) - 9%
Paid with cc on the spot. He did say but at least you will get your 12% detax on the items. I said on some but H only gives back 10%. He seem surprised to learn that.
I am still happy with my purchases minus detax and plus duty. Hope this helps someone!
I didn’t know one only receives 10% detax back with H purchases. Interesting, thank you for the info.
You are welcome. At least that’s for usa citizens. Not sure if same for other countries. If I am to guess it’s the same but can’t speak to it.
Thanks for clarifying the process. But I’m still confused w the benefit.
The reason I asked was because I made purchases in Italy back in 2022. I didn’t use the service in Rome. I just went directly to the kiosk at FCO. Got the green light, then got the money back couple days later.
To me, it seem like you are still doing what I was doing after using the kiosk in Global Blue service in Rome. So, why doing the same work twice?!
I feel that I’m missing something from that Global Blue service in city center. First i thought once you get to the airport, you just get your boarding pass and don’t need to use the kiosk. But it sound like after you use the service in the city centre, you still need to stop by kiosk.
I’m in the US but haven’t been to Europe in years. I’ll be going again soon. From reading your posts- it seems things have gotten more strict. Do you keep your purchases all together so they can inspect and charge accordingly?
Usually they are happy with receipts in my experience, but if you've bought a LOT or get a meticulous agent, then you might be asked to show the pieces. This happens at customs though so you would already have all your luggage, if you checked anything.
Although you are going twice, it’s more like assurance to make sure most if not all your refunds get processed correctly sooner than later. I did it because I had 10 separate transaction receipts, and saw the refunds that same day for one transaction where it was required I go to the global blue office immediately after purchase (department store in Madrid). I saw the benefit. And for early refunds, although they can technically take the money back if you don’t go to the kiosk in the airport, I liked seeing the refund was already processed, giving me one less refund to worry about. It’s more peace of mind that you are getting things processed earlier than later, not when you are in the airport possibly running into issues or long lines, running late to catch a flight.
I came through SFO from Munich on the two weeks ago and wasn't asked by anyone about purchases/paying duty at all. I've been asked previously, answered honestly and been waved through. Not sure why nothing this time, but I was over the 800pp/1600cple.
Please look back through the thread- you will see that in the past few years, you must "volunteer" to declare. Customs officers in the US no longer query arriving passengers about this.
