VAT Tax and electrical outlets!

[Dancingfish Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dancingfish]

Ok can someone explain the whole VAT tax thing and how I get my hard earned money back???

Also I thought I just needed an adapter when traveling to Scotland but the guy at radio shack said that also we needed a voltage converter! Is this right?

[Fern Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fern]

Yes. Our power is 110 and theirs is 220. What are you plugging in?

Fern

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Oh yea, you DEFINATELY need a voltage converter. They forgot to explain that to me the first time we went to Scotland. It was a VERY impressive flash that came out of the wall outlet when I tried to plug in our hair dryer only using an adapter! I don't think the hotel was very happy with us either, not to mention the fried hair dryer. The hotels we've stayed at overseas have provided us with a converter when we've asked for it.

As far as the VAT tax goes, it's been such a PIA to apply for the refund that we've just skipped it. For the most part, as I understand it the refundable part hasn't ever amounted to over $100 anyways. There are forms that have to be filled out, a tax booth that you must stop in at your last connecting airport before leaving the U.K. and then you have to wait to get your money back. I think both times we've been oversea's, the amount of money we'd have recieved back was only around $50 to $70. It just wasn't worth the effort to us. Perhaps if we'd purchased quite a few goods to bring home and the amount was far greater I would have thought differently.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I got mine from Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more I think it is a Proctor Silex.

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

I think you will need a converter and an adapter. You will not be able to plug into the outlet in Scotland with the US plug. What are you bringing that needs to be plugged in? If it's a hairdryer, you may just want to check to see if there will be one in the room. BTW, you can't plug anything except a shaver into most outlets in bathrooms in the UK, either, from my experience. Hair drying needs to be done in the bedroom.

Sue

[TravelBug Member Find all posts View Profile Close TravelBug]

Ahhh, this brings back fond memories. When in China in 1994, I was really good about plugging in the hair dryer in the bedroom rather than the bathroom. What I forgot was to also plug in the converter ! Fried hair dryer!

Re VAT, we've found that the best thing to do is to get the forms competed and stamped at the airport, but to mail in the request for the refund itself once we get home as the lines at the airport for the actual refund are just too long.

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

Vat

You may not want to do much shopping. Things seem to be priced in pounds as you'd expect to pay in dollars in the US. Therefore, if you'd expect to spend $10 for something in the states, you can expect that it will be 10 pounds in Scotland or England. But it's more like $20 with the current exchange rates.

[Laurie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Laurie]

Also I thought I just needed an adapter when traveling to Scotland but the guy at radio shack said that also we needed a voltage converter! Is this right?

Actually it depends on what you're plugging in - some items sold in the states are already dual-voltage. Some examples are certain battery chargers, eg the Duracell 30-minute AA and AAA recharger I always pack so's I can run thru a couple sets of camera batteries every day, and certain C-Pap machines. Those items do need the adapters tho. Other battery chargers are not, like dougp and TravelBug we learned the hard way when we forgot (and almost burned down the resort).

Converters are tricky, because there are different kinds of converters for different types of items - you don't use the same kind of converters for electronics that you do for items that get hot. If you use the wrong kind, you'll wreck the thing you're trying to use.

The adapters are inexpensive little plastic things, most travel stores have them.

I'm pretty sure Kilconquhar had a hair-dryer in the unit.

[TravelBug Member Find all posts View Profile Close TravelBug]

Laurie, you're right. Nowadays, certainly most everything we take overseas is dual voltage. I can't think of anything recently where we have had to take a converter...the hairdryer, shaver and battery chargers are all dual voltage. Now, it's remembering to switch over to 220!

[x3skier Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close x3skier]

Laurie, you're right. Nowadays, certainly most everything we take overseas is dual voltage. I can't think of anything recently where we have had to take a converter...the hairdryer, shaver and battery chargers are all dual voltage. Now, it's remembering to switch over to 220!

Most places have hair dryers so my never takes one. If they don't, they can be purchased cheaply.

All of our other electronics (Razor, Cell phone Charger, laptop, etc are dual voltage as are most things these days. Never had a converter in over 20 European trips so far.

Cheers

[Dancingfish Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dancingfish]

I will check on the hair dryer situation. But you certainly don't want me roaming the streets of scotland without my curling iron now do you???

And then we have camera chargers and cell phone chargers-- I can't think of anything else that we would bring with electricity... and unfortunatley they do not have duel switches on them.

[Laurie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Laurie]

None of our dual-voltage things have any sort of switch - that's not the indicator. You can check your book, or call the manufacturer, or go on line and look up the model. But some electrical things can take a range of voltage, like 100-240.

If not, do you have the cigarette-lighter-type chargers for your camera battery? (And will your cell phone even work over there?)

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

I don't know if this is still relevant, but when I went on a cruise and visited several countries in 2004; we could only collect the VAT in the last country when we were leaving Europe.

[Dancingfish Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dancingfish]

Well with the dollar plummiting I am guessing I probably won't be spending that much anyway... but are you saying that because I fly from Scotland to London to US that I would not be able to collect from Scotland?

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

You can collect for all the countries in the last country visited. We were in Italy, France, and Spain and we had to collect in Italy at the airport.