Pay Croatian customs by phone before the border: eODPP

Anyone bringing goods into Croatia from a country outside the EU can calculate and pay the import charges online in advance from Sunday 1 November 2026. Croatia's customs administration launches a service called eODPP for this, short for electronic calculation of charges in passenger traffic, it announced on 30 October. It matters most for trips back from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and for flights from non-EU countries. No registration is needed, and the service runs in the browser on computers, phones and tablets.

How the declaration works

According to the customs administration, the calculation can be made no earlier than five days before arriving at the border crossing. Index.hr lists road, rail, air and sea crossings. For each line on the receipt you enter quantity, price, currency, invoice number and country of purchase. The amount that counts is the one including VAT. If you already hold a VAT refund form stamped by customs in the country of purchase, you enter the value without VAT. Clothes, shoes and toiletries for the trip itself are left out.

• Enter the goods: the tool deducts the allowances itself and only charges the rest.
• Submit: the calculation, a confirmation number and payment instructions arrive by email.
• Pay: following those instructions, before you reach the border.
• At the border: show the confirmation number and the goods. If everything is in order, the officer certifies the official calculation and the goods are free to use anywhere in the EU.

If you only want to know what you would owe, there is a non-binding test calculation that commits you to nothing. Travellers who have declared and paid get priority at customs, the administration says.

How much duty you pay

For goods worth up to 700 euros above the allowance, eODPP applies a flat customs rate of 2.5 percent; above that the regular rate for each type of goods applies (customs administration). For the goods most often brought into Croatia the regular rate always applies, because it is cheaper for travellers: jewellery, wooden doors, wooden windows, wooden furniture, mobile phones, clothing, laptops, PVC doors and windows, handbags, watches and upholstered seating. Tobacco and alcohol are separate categories. Other import charges such as VAT come on top, and eODPP calculates them too.

What it means for visitors

A day trip to Mostar, Međugorje or Kotor with souvenirs below the allowance changes nothing: if you travel by car or bus and stay under 300 euros, there is nothing to declare. Our page on day trips from Dubrovnik covers the runs to Mostar and Kotor.

The service is aimed at bigger purchases with a receipt, and the list of most common goods, with furniture, doors and windows, shows what that means. If you drive back through Croatia after a family visit in Bosnia, you can pay beforehand and show only the number and the goods at the crossing. The priority applies at customs; the queue before passport control stays. Waiting times and the situation at the crossings are in our border guide.

Goods without a receipt cannot go through eODPP and are calculated at the crossing. The same applies to goods under anti-dumping or safeguard duty, such as reinforcing steel for building a house, to prohibited or restricted goods such as hunting weapons, and when you want a preferential rate, which is often lower (customs administration). Residents of border areas, people who cross daily for work and crews such as drivers, pilots, cabin crew and train staff cannot use the service. The leaflet lists meat, meat products, fish and milk among goods whose entry is prohibited or restricted. Cash of 10,000 euros or more must be declared when entering or leaving the EU.