VisitBritain Shop Reviews 

I accidentally forwarded the link of visitbritain.com to my wife, for them to pay for ETA (visa travel) from EU to UK, thinking that this was the official route. Visitbritain.com is very good at getting high position in search engine results, and the name sounds like it is government approved.

Unfortunately they are not only bad as other reviewers have said, but you could be at risk of your card being used illegally for other purchases.

My wife rarely uses her bank card for online purchases, but noticed immediately that her payment had been declined and the seller was asking for payment in US dollars. Later that day, I found the official UK Gov site for the application, and she made payments there easily.

Then she got a phone call that her card had been blocked by her bank because someone had tried to pay .49c for Google Storage from a strange location. This is a well known tactic by scammers and fraudsters to make small transactions to check it works, before hitting the card with big transactions later.

Think carefully before trusting this site for anything that involves card payments

Great customer service. We appreciated the quick responses and their friendliness. Highly recommend it 👌

I’m getting ready for my next city trip to Edinburgh — I’m from Belgium. I had entered the wrong email address, so I didn’t receive my e-voucher for the airport-to-city transfer. One email, and everything was resolved in less than 24 hours! Such efficiency!

We buy Britrail passes every year from you due to fair prices and great service. This year due to some unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to use our passes. Lillie, a very friendly and efficient member of the staff, helped us and promptly processed our refund. A refund is given if you have not used your pass. I highly recommend VisitBritain shop!

Amazing company, really great customer service. My oyster cards had been delayed and once I wrote them about it they offered me a full refund, since the cards arrived when I was already in London.
And they also guided me in how to buy one in London since I got there without my oyster cards.
All in all it was a good experience, they didn’t leave me hanging or without a plan or way to solve my problem.

I needed help with my vouchers and Bryan went above and beyond. Good communication, polite and considerate.
Thank you so much.

I purchased the britrail pass, there is an error which cause my payment approved but my order was cancelled. Miss Lilie response to my problem and she arrange refund to me immediately. I really appreciate on this. I have re purchased the ticket without any issue. Thank you Lilie.

Good contact and helpful communication with interesting offers and willing to reduce price at once!

Quick responses and very helpful

The help I needed regarding the submission of the documentation and the support Araceli provided throughout the entire purchase.

Having an absolute nightmare!! Brought £300 worth of vouchers to use to visit harry potter studios - got £300 free and can't spend a single penny!!! Couldn't book Harry potter for the family visit for 8 of us - can't book Jacobite train we wanted - couldn't book Cadbury - couldn't book anything in Blackpool. Requested a refund and was refused. Spent two weeks sending hundreds of Emails to still be no further forward!!! DO NOT WAIST YOUR MONEY ON THESE. Absolutely horrendous. Have reported to watch dog and contacting trading standards on these complete jokers. AVOID AVOID AVOID

The Oyster visitor card is a waste of money. You pay 7gbp just for the card, and any leftover balance is hard to refund—especially when leaving London, as refunds aren’t available at the airport. Requesting a refund from abroad adds extra costs and hassle. It’s much easier and cheaper to just use your contactless bank card to tap in and out.

sells "gift cards" where you get twice the value, ie buy 40 get 80. Of course it is a TOTAL SCAM. Even more annoying is the time you waste trying to get it to work on their glossy site... It simply wastes your time inputting your long numbers and giving you balances, but never gives you any tickets. Hopefully I can save 50 aussies from wasting their money. Complete and utter scam. Have nothing to do with them. Buy from proper site only and you will have no trouble... if it looks to good to be true, it is.

We read all the poor reviews about this website, AFTER we had purchased our Oyster Visitor cards. I was devastated and thought that my money had been lost. HOWEVER, they continually gave me updates and a week after I ordered them they arrived in the mail in Australia. I was so pleased.
Not sure how they stack up on organising tours or theatre tickets.
For now, we are very impressed with their service.

Purchased tickets through website, they weren’t even sent and couldn’t speak with anyone at visitbritain to resolve. Had to purchase full price costs upon arrival due to issue. Don’t bother using this website, waste of money and can’t be trusted

I am trying to redeem gift card on their website that they are selling but their gift card not excepted in their website? What a joke how could you sell gift card and not except them same time? Trying to buy pre loaded Oyster card for 2 people to go out in London £60 gift card not excepted no phone number to call this scammers their creating website with gift card to cone people please stay a way from this company website name visit Britain shop but you can’t visit London what a joke?

I'm still fighting for my refund. After two failed attempts to redeem my VisitBritain gift cards (resulting in two ruined London trips) I demanded my £60 back. Eventually a company called Cashstar cancelled my cards but with no refund!! There's nobody to talk to so it's all taking months of fruitless messaging. But I won't give up VisitBritian, or Cashstar or whoever you are!
Update: Wow! I got a response thanks to this post and a £10 credit as compensation. (no refund annoyingly) I'm in London again now trying to use my VB gift card at Sea Life. Spent all evening filling in online forms. Must've types their handy 16-digit and 9-digit codes a dozen times. Wish they accepted Paypal/Apple Pay/Amex or anything other than Visa! Each time I get right to the end only to get an error message!! My wife finds it hilarious that I've wasted so may hours of my life just to save a couple of quid by using this HORRIBLE company rather than just paying on the door as we always end up doing anyway. But I won't give up VisitBritain! The battle continues

Spent 70eur on two visitor Oyster cards and now Belgium post is asking 25eur for import duties. But VisitBritain was listed as the official seller in Belgium. Surely they should be shipping from inside the EU but apparently not. Of course they don't warn you during the buying process and I'm not even sure that's legal. I am now contacting them to see if I can refuse the package and get a full refund.

Like others, I also ordered Oyster Cards for a visit to London. They hadn't arrived to our home in Ireland by time we needed them.
The reason for the delay was they were held up in Irish customs who wanted fees and charges to release them.
On our return I contacted VisitBritain regarding a refund which was dealt with in excellent fashion.
I received a full refund without hassle hence my 5 star review.
Given Oyster Cards are really not required given the many alternative payment options, I think this could be better explained on the website. Also the likelihood of customs charges arising should be advised for EU purchasers which would remove many of the frustrations expressed here.

it wasn't clear that I should have paid customs to Italy to receive visitor oyster cards I ordered online. I had more 4,60 euros to pay when receiving the parcel. The tracking isn't available in Italy so we had no idea of where it could be and if we could receive the cards on time. I expect a full tracking after spending 19,90 pounds of shipment!