On my travels to various countries I love to explore the local shops and buy something that reminds me of my trip. This however does not mean that I am like my friend Deeta, who has an entire room in her large home in New Jersey which is adorned with souvenirs from her various jaunts the world over.
My weakness is usually limited to articles of clothing and shoes, which like most women I have a passion for. One city which I frequently visit is London and currently with the dollar and pound exchange rate differential shopping in London is quite prohibitive but that does stop me from pounding London's high streets to bring back a slice of 'Cool Brittania' to the New York City. 
Apart from trendy clothing which I source from stores like TopShop, River Island, NEXT and Dorothy Perkins which are all located on Oxford Street, London's main shopping drag, I also tend to always visit the flagship store of the quintessentially British chain of stores- Marks and Spencer. This store located at London's Marble Arch which is located at one of end of Oxford Street. Here I stock up periodically on comfortable shoes from their Foot glove line and their well made and durable lingerie. Marks and Spencer's like many other British stores carries the Global Refund sign and offers Tax Free shopping to its international shoppers where they have a chance to get back some of the hefty 17.5% VAT which have to pay purchase of goods and services in the U.K.
Marks and Spencer's at Marble Arch has a VAT refund desk located on its upper floors and it is here that you take all your receipts and your passport to process your claim, once you have finished shopping. Marks and Spencer's requires that you have a minimum spend of £75 excluding food and children's clothes in order for you to qualify for this refund. Other stores like Harrods, Selfridges which have great luxe bargains during their bi-annual sales in January and July require you to have a purchase amount of at least £ 100 in order to qualify for this VAT refund.
In order to process these claims to stores also charge you a handling charge which is usually between 2%-3% and on my trip to London last month, I was told that if I wanted my refund in the form of cash at the airport, I would have to pay an additional charge of £ 2.50 which would be deducted from the refund amount at the airport. So in reality the amount you get back in the form of your refund actually amounts to approximately only 10% of the value of your purchases but even this amount which you convert into dollars is worth the hassle of processing this claim.
You can even choose to have this refund amount credited to your credit card in your currency rather than collect cash in £ at the airport, however in all cases you must get the refund claim stamped by a customs officer before you leave the United Kingdom. For this reason you have to go to the HM Revenue and Custom's desk located at all London Airports before you check in for your flight so that the customs officer's can inspect the goods and stamp your Global Tax Refund or Premier Tax Refund form.
For your credit card refund you simply have to post the tax refund form with the choice of refund ticked in the accompanying envelope at any of the post boxes located at the airport. This envelope is marked free post and does not require any stamps if posted in the UK itself. You usually do get your refund in a few weeks. So next time you are in London be sure to process your Tax refund form and some of the hefty VAT that you pay while shopping in London back.
Images of London stores on Oxford Street originally posted on http://www.flickr.com by jovike, coda and Maria Salviato.
