Brexit: how it has hit your wallet at the supermarket and on holiday

It is 10 years since voters in the UK chose to leave the EU, and our wallets have been feeling the effects ever since.

From paying more to take the dog on holidays in France – and making calls while you are there – to higher grocery bills and the headache of filling in customs forms for parcels, Brexit has made many simple tasks more complicated and expensive.

Here is how the vote to leave has hit our pockets.

Grocery bills

Trade barriers on food imports after Britain left the EU resulted in the cost of food soaring by 12%. Researchers from the London School of Economics estimate that between 2019 and 2023 the price rises cost the average family £400.

The price increases have been felt most by low-income households as they spend a greater share of their income on food compared with wealthier homes.

Some of this impact could be mitigated by plans for a new food export agreement between the UK and the EU, which the British government claims will reduce food costs and increase the variety of goods on supermarket shelves. The deal will mean no more paperwork or physical checks on dairy, fish, cheese, eggs and fresh red meat for EU exporters to the UK and could come into force in the summer of 2027.

Travelling with pets

If you wanted to take your dog or cat with you on holiday to an EU country before Brexit, the process was relatively simple. A pet passport was an official document that detailed your animal’s vaccination and microchip details as well as information about you as the owner. Under the EU Pet Travel Scheme, it cost £60 to get the passport itself and about £50 for them to be vaccinated and microchipped, although the costs varied. The pet passport was valid for life provided the vaccinations were up to date.

Since 2021 the process has been more expensive. An EU pet passport issued to an owner resident in Great Britain is no longer a valid document for travelling with pets to member countries. It has been replaced by the animal health certificate for dogs, cats and ferrets. This document must be issued within 10 days of entry to the EU and is valid for six months. You need a new certificate for each trip to a member country.

The British Veterinary Association has said the new documents are more onerous, complex and time-consuming for vets to complete – as a result, they are more expensive and will now cost you an average of £230. Be warned: do not to try to dodge the cost by getting a pet passport from a vet in the EU. In April, the EU made it clear that British residents cannot take animals to the EU on an EU-issued pet passport.

Postage problems

When the UK was part of the EU single market and customs union, goods could move from one country to another without import taxes. At the end of 2020, when the transition period ended, postage became more complicated and expensive.

Now, if you send a parcel from England, Scotland or Wales (but not Northern Ireland) to family or friends in France, Spain, Germany or another EU country, you have to fill out a customs declaration form. The form details what is in the package and how much the contents are worth and a specific eight-digit code for each item.

Taxes, duties and a clearance fee may be due on goods and gifts. Gifts valued below €45 are not subject to VAT or duties but above that threshold, they may be subject to VAT and fees, although this varies from country to country. The recipient of the goods typically pays the fees.

For goods coming into England, Scotland and Wales – such as online shopping orders from EU-based shops – VAT and customs duty may be due depending on the type and value of the goods.

VAT on items worth £135 or less will be collected when you buy them. If the value is more than £135, you pay the delivery company. Gifts worth under £39 are exempt.

Customs charges are applied to goods valued at more than £135 and gifts above £39. These are collected from the recipient before delivery.

So if you want to buy a pair of Chinese-made jeans (there are different rules for goods made in the EU) from a French shop costing £200 after shipping, you will probably pay customs duty of £24 and VAT of £44.80, bringing the total to £268.80. That is not including the handling fee that many delivery companies charge.

Not free to roam

From 2017, mobile networks in EU countries were banned from charging people who travelled from one state to another extra to use their phones. This meant that if you were in Berlin for the weekend, you could make calls, send texts and use your data allowance as if you were at home.

These rules ceased to apply when the UK formally left the EU in 2020 and soon after many mobile companies introduced fees, although each has a different approach.

For example, an EE pay monthly customer who started a contract after 7 July 2021 will pay £2.72 a day on top of their normal deal to use their call, text and data allowances within a “Europe zone”. For Vodafone users who signed up to a contract after August 2021 the charge is £2.75 a day (unless on a deal that allows roaming). O2 does not charge for using up to 25GB in its Europe Zone. This is limited to 63 days over a four-month period.

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, says mobile companies have to send customers a message when they enter a new country with details of any charges that apply. Providers should offer you the option to set a bill limit so you cannot overspend.

Travel changes

Since Brexit, EU countries will only accept passports that have been issued in the past 10 years. However, some UK passports – those issued before September 2018 – can be valid for up to 10 years and nine months. This is because you could add up to nine months of “unspent time” when you renewed an old passport.

Those extra nine months are no longer valid, so check the issue date when you travel.

Your passport must be valid for three months after your return date. Last month the price of an online passport rose to £102. With the lost three months at the end and a typical waiting time of three weeks to factor in, you are losing £3.40 worth of time from your passport when you renew.

Since the transition ended in 2020, British travellers to the EU have been able to take advantage of savings with duty-free travel. These can be considerable. For example, one litre of Jameson whiskey in World Duty Free is £25.49 at Heathrow compared with £34.50 in Tesco. But there are limits – 42 litres of beer, 18 litres of wine and four litres of spirits.

The global health insurance card replaced the European health insurance card for UK travellers, but the good news is that it is still free.

The card gives you access to state healthcare for free or at the same cost as a local in the EU and a few other countries.

Higher education in the EU

Students and young people from Britain have not been able to take part in the Europe-wide Erasmus+ exchange programme since the UK failed to reach an agreement over its post-Brexit membership in 2020. The scheme allows students to study at a university elsewhere in Europe for a year as part of their UK degree courses without paying additional fees.

It was announced at the end of last year that the UK would rejoin the scheme from January 2027. Students who take part continue paying tuition fees at their home university during their year abroad and are eligible for a grant to help with the additional costs of living abroad.