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For much of the last decade, the value of the USD has dropped like a dead rhino. Needless to say, this puts a damper on many people’s international travels, especially if they include the UK or anywhere else in Europe. Half the fun of traveling to those places is the shopping so the cold reality of the pitiful USD really hits you when you are shopping for mementos of your travels. While it’s disheartening, especially for those who aren’t as well read when it comes to the exchange rates and experience extreme sticker shock in their first few days overseas, it doesn’t have to be a total deal breaker for your trip. The key is to make the most of your money, and here are a few tips to show you how.
Travel to Europe during the sales, usually held in January and July every year. By traveling to Europe in January, you will also experience significant savings on airfare and lodging.
Bring a pricelist of your favorite cosmetic items, perfumes, accessories from US stores and compare to foreign shops. Most people assume that buying these items through duty free saves lots of money. Sometimes it does, but in many cases it doesn’t. There is a certain novelty factor in saying that your perfume came from a Parisian shop, but the novelty will wear off if you’re out a lot more money!
Don’t buy US brands overseas. You’ll basically be paying the US price plus a double ding of poor exchange rate and import tariffs. Rather you should shop for and purchase items that are produced in the country. For example, if you are traveling to Paris, French brands are generally less expensive in France versus buying them in the US.
Value Added Tax (VAT) refund- the VAT is automatically included in the sticker price of the item. Rules vary from country to country, but generally if you purchase 175 Euro in a shop, you can qualify for a refund of about 12%. Therefore it pays to lump purchases together to a few single stores so that you can recoup as much of the VAT refund as possible.
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