Driving licence renewal


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I received a letter today informing me I have to renew my driving licence. I knew it was due. You can do it on line costing £14.00 or at the post office £21.50p. Seems quite a price hike for not using the internet. 

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Isn’t that unusual?  I thought driving licences were valid until your 70th birthday and then they are renewable for free, but need to be renewed every 3 years.  

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Ours is due this year, it's already been renewed once, it's a bit of a palaver. 

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59 minutes ago, LizzieM said:

Isn’t that unusual?  I thought driving licences were valid until your 70th birthday and then they are renewable for free, but need to be renewed every 3 years.  

 

The new cards only last 10 years, from first issue, lots of people have been caught out.

If you still have the old paper one they last till age 70, then you get a Card free.

Renewing a Card at 70 is free.

 

I tried to hang on to my paper one but it just wasn't going to last so I had to pay for a card, £20, I'm not 70 for another year and a bit.

 

£14 renewal fee is for under 70's with an existing card

£17 if you do it by post yourself and not with the Post Office.

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Yes Stuart, I remember renewing mine after 10 years, at no charge, then got another free one last year on my  70th birthday.  I’ve had a photocard driving licence for many years because we’ve moved house a few times and of course you should always have your current address on your licence.   

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If we change addresses, all we do is notify DMV of the change, and are told to keep the address on a piece of paper to hand to a police officer on demand of the license.

My wife had both cataracts removed from her eyes a couple of years back, on her license it says must wear eye correction glasses, she notified DMV  in person and the lady just said if stopped to notify the police officer..No new license.

In the state where I'm licensed it's an eight year license now.

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You’re very fortunate then Ayup.  When we had a place in Miami my husband decided to get a Florida Driving Licence for the simple reason that the car insurance was a lot cheaper that way.  He took the driving test and got his licence.  What he didn’t realise after all that was that his Florida licence was only valid for 90 days, the same length of time we were allowed in the States in one trip, on the ESTA.  This meant that every time we went over there he had to go right across the city and renew his licence.  The cost of renewal was such that we just paid the extra motor insurance on our car instead of all the messing about.  

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We pay $40 for an eight year license, it used to be 4 years for $20, but streamlining it to eight years saved them money. California used to be a five year license, I think that was $20.

My California driving test counts in every state, so no need to take even a written.

When I took that test, I scored 100% in the written, and a bout 98% in the road test, the 2 points I lost was at a "Tee intersection, turning right, I stopped at the line, but due to dense scrub to my left, I couldn't see up the road, and had to "nose out" a little to see the traffic. The examiner told me he'd have done the same thing, BUT, he had to follow protocol.  I think the test was to observe my driving habits and make sure I was safe driving on the right, as he didn't make me parallel park, three point turn or do an emergency stop, nor do a hill start.

In fact he was more interested in Australia, as he was taking his family on vacation there later that year. Probably another ploy to see how distracting to me conversing was.

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  • 2 years later...

Back in the day, I took my driving test on New Years Day before it was a bank holiday. It was great, hardly any cars on the road!

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Yeah Beekay there’s a limitation on my licence to say that I can’t drive on busy ones.

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Here in OZ cars have to show L plates for learner drivers and P1 and P2 plates for provisional drivers who have passed their test but have restrictions on what they can do. There is a now private group that has suggested that drivers returning to the roads after any form of road trauma display a blue R plate to make other drivers aware of their situation. A good idea? I can see benefits but it does leave those displaying the plate open for abuse.

I can see the day coming when we have to display a LGBTQI QWERTY plate to allow other drivers to ascertain our gender.

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"P" plates was a good idea, but I think adult drivers should have to only have them 6 months, I went through all that in 79-80. Teens to say 25 years olds one year "P".

Over here they didn't recognize my NSW Drivers license, except as a visitor, I had to pass a written and practical test. I was taken out for 30 minutes and made one mistake, but the examiner was only interested in my ability to drive on the right side of the road, and I didn't have to parallel park, hill start, etc, few lane changes, Stop signs, yield signs and back to the test center for my California license . Interstate, just swap my license for that states drivers license.

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Just received my renewed licence, which I'm very happy about. Didn't cost me owt, apart from a first class stamp to post my existing licence (cut in half). New one came back last Saturday,  so it now means I can run people over until, November 2025.

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We both had our renewed licences a couple of months ago and never sent the expired ones back, I just cut them up and put in the bin.  I don’t see the point in wasting a couple of quid on postage and DVLA haven’t so far asked where they are.  

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Filled my renewal online and DVLA sent me a letter and envelope, requesting me to return my licence, cut in half. So that's what I did.

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You don't Phil, I was sent an letter 2 months early advising me of renewal.

After filling in the online version all I had to do was cut my licence in half and make sure my signature was inside the little box, then post in the provided S.A.E.

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I don’t remember it being a ‘postage paid’ envelope.  I threw that in the bin too.  The old cut up driving licences went in our bin instead of theirs, no difference! 

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It wasn't postage paid. It was Self Addressed Envelope. Not Stamped Addressed, I had to put a stamp on.

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My father drove HGVs and taught lots of folkto drive including master who past his testfirst time, he also taught my mum to drive, wellll it took her5 attemps to pass. None of us wanted to get in the car with her. The point is my father did all that  and he never did take a driving test. When my father learnt to drive it was during the war, so after the war he was just given a liecence.

 

 

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34 minutes ago, mary1947 said:

When my father learnt to drive it was during the war, so after the war he was just given a liecence.

 

 

My father was the same, I remember him telling me he was in Teheran and his superior asked him to drive between some oil barrels in a courtyard and that was the only test he faced. Never involved in an accident in his life.

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I had a letter from DVLA to say my licence was up for renewal that was in June. Due to having "Parkinson's" i have to get it renewed every 2years.  A letter was sent to my DR at QMC to be compleated and to be returned to say that i am still OK to drive. By July I had not heard anything so I phoned DVLA to enquire the lady say that nothing had not come back from my Dr but I could still drive under driving rule ?? but I did not want to take the chance.  I telephoned DR secretary and she check though all the letters that were being sent back for DL to be renewed. Mine was not there. So back to DVLA they gave me an e-mail address that i had to give to my DR at QMC and with questions on to be filled in.  I checked next day that the secretary had got the email. yes it would be filled in and sent ASAP. " 2 weeks after still not heard from DVLA so gave them a ring  NO Form had been retuned, so went back to secretary oh!! sorry DR is on holiday she will fill form in when she returns. Waited, by this time it was Aug, gave DVLA a ring again no form received, I was told again that it was ok for me to drive ifi got permission from myGP  now how long does it take to see your GP? Gave secretary ring again call diverted to Kings Mill Mansfield from QMC,  spoke to Susan the secretary up there. found out that my DR from QMC her seretary was now on hollidays  AHHH!!! I am losing the will to live, It is now September I have almost given up when my DR secretary phoned saying form compleated and sent off.  Phoned DVLA a week later they could not find any form. Phoned a few days ago and yep they had the form but it had togo to the pannel for they could renew my licence. It is now October  not looking on the black side but amI going to get my liecence or not ????????

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