Shopping in Andorra: tech, savings and customs

The saving only reaches home if you cross the border without paying anything. That's what the traveller allowance is for:

• One per person aged 15 or over, when returning to Spain or France.
• €450 per person under 15.
• It's the value of everything you carry together, not of each purchase.
• It doesn't add up across people. Two adults can't combine their allowances for one expensive device.

However you travel, the limit is the same. Neither the Spanish tax agency (AEAT) nor French customs make any distinction by means of transport for Andorra. The guide on how much you can bring back explains it with quotes from both customs services.

If what you carry is over the allowance, you have to declare it and pay your country's VAT or TVA. The customs duty is 0% because of the customs union between the EU and Andorra, so you only pay the tax.

If a single item is worth more than the whole allowance, Andorra refunds 90% of the IGI through form 980-A. Even so, the saving disappears.

An example with a device costing €1,000 including IGI, for someone heading back to Lleida:

1. The whole amount is declared at the La Farga de Moles customs post.
2. 21% VAT on €961.24: €201.86.
3. IGI refund: €38.76, which arrives months later.
4. Final cost: €1,163.11. The same device bought in Spain, at the same pre-tax price, costs €1,157.89.

It comes out €5.21 more expensive. Taking the refunded IGI off the VAT base is our own reading of the GATT: no customs service publishes it for travellers. If customs charge on the full price, the gap rises to €13.35.

The guide on VAT and IGI covers what you pay when you get home and why. For the refund itself, see the guide on tax free in Andorra.

The guides follow the order the questions usually come in: first whether it pays off, then the product, then the shop.

Whether it pays off

• The savings calculator does the sum with your own prices.
• The allowance calculator tells you whether what you're carrying fits.

Phones, tablets and computers

• The iPhone in Andorra explains when it fits in the allowance and what Apple's warranty covers once you're home.
• Buying a mobile phone in Andorra explains why Samsung Spain's commercial warranty leaves out what you buy here, and how to read the model code before you pay.
• Buying a laptop shows you how to compare by the exact reference and what happens when the machine goes over the allowance.
• Mac and MacBook covers the expensive case. If the computer is over the allowance, the IGI refund is what counts, and it hardly ever pays off.
• The iPad and its accessories explains why the keyboard and the pencil count towards the allowance and when you have to declare the whole set.
• AirPods and Apple Watch are the small purchase. The saving is small and the watch has a country clause in its warranty.
• Parts to build a PC makes clear that the parts of one computer count as a single item, and that changes the sum if you go over the allowance.

Where to buy

• Electronics shops is a neutral directory with each shop's official website and what to check before you pay.

Cameras, drones and consoles

• Cameras tells you when your kit fits in the allowance and what happens if a body or a lens goes over it on its own.
• Drones warns that DJI's warranty only applies in the region of purchase and that flying one needs operator registration depending on its weight.
• Consoles compares each brand's warranty. PlayStation's applies in Andorra, Nintendo Spain's excludes anything bought outside Spain and Xbox's isn't published.

Everything above pays the same 4.5% IGI and goes into the same allowance. What changes from one guide to the next is the warranty and the starting price.

In Andorra the minimum legal warranty on a new product is 2 years, and 1 year if it's second-hand. In Spain it's 3 years and in France 2. The legal warranty follows the law of the country where you buy: buy here and you claim here.

The manufacturer's warranty is a separate thing, and each brand decides. Apple says its warranty is governed by the law of the country of purchase.

Samsung's Spanish warranty only covers purchases made in the countries listed in its Annex I, and Andorra isn't one of them. Nintendo Spain excludes anything bought outside Spain. The product guides above quote each brand.

The European Consumer Centre in Spain says purchases from shops in Andorra fall outside its network. If something goes wrong, you claim with the shop or through the courts.

1. Write down the exact model: reference, storage, colour and whether it has mobile data or not.
2. Check the price on the Andorran shop's website and on one from your country.
3. Check whether your total fits in your allowance.
4. Look up the manufacturer's warranty for that brand.
5. Ask for an invoice with the serial number and keep it with the box.

The savings calculator does step 3 for you, using the rates and allowances on this page.

The electronics shops directory lists the ones with their own website, in alphabetical order and with no ranking. They're in Andorra la Vella, Escaldes-Engordany, Encamp and Sant Julià de Lòria. Opening hours are the ones each shop publishes. The Andorran Government (Govern) hasn't published general shop opening hours.

If you live in Andorra and want to insure your phone or laptop, seguros.ad explains how it works here.