Photo Id Driving Licences To Be Compulsory?

[Frank Hovis]

I have a paper licence and was told (down the pub) that they're expiring soon and I have to get a photo one.

I've resisted because of the cost and inconvenience, especially the need for a new one every few years.

Is this true?

(and yes, I know there's a theoretical £1,000 fine for having the wrong address on a paper licence)

[winkie]

I have a paper licence and was told (down the pub) that they're expiring soon and I have to get a photo one.

I've resisted because of the cost and inconvenience, especially the need for a new one every few years.

Is this true?

(and yes, I know there's a theoretical £1,000 fine for having the wrong address on a paper licence)

Yes, it is yet another way of money making ...I have a paper licence also it expires at age 70....the photo licence needs renewing every 10 years for a fee.

Talk about fees £77.50 to renew a passport now...free if born before 1929.

[Frank Hovis]

Yes, it is yet another way of money making ...I have a paper licence also it expires at age 70....the photo licence needs renewing every 10 years for a fee.

Talk about fees £77.50 to renew a passport now...free if born before 1929.

Yes, which is why I don't have one.

My question was whether we now had to replace paper licences, even if nothing has changed, with a photo one. I've had a quick google and I can't see anything suggesting that so I think I was misinformed.

[Oliver Sutton]

I'm dead against id cards but I've found the photo licence useful several times. Even abroad.

e.g. using an iternet cafe in Italy

[winkie]

Yes, which is why I don't have one.

My question was whether we now had to replace paper licences, even if nothing has changed, with a photo one. I've had a quick google and I can't see anything suggesting that so I think I was misinformed.

I don't have one either...I am sticking with the free green tatty one that I have got.....if they want me to change they can try to write to me.

[erat_forte]

I have a paper licence and was told (down the pub) that they're expiring soon and I have to get a photo one.

I've resisted because of the cost and inconvenience, especially the need for a new one every few years.

Is this true?

(and yes, I know there's a theoretical £1,000 fine for having the wrong address on a paper licence)

Is it different for HGV licenses then?

[funinhounslow]

I felt really old when presenting my paper licence at a shop when getting a new phone last year. Even though it was backed up with my passport, the teenage sales assistant had a hard time believing that this piece of paper was a 'driving licence' and had to go and check with his boss. ("Oh yeah, my mum used to have one of those"!)

I'm also not giving mine up. I'm sure it can't be too long before they start adding biometric chips to licences and making them a de facto id card. Far, far cheaper then the national ID card system and not nearly so contentious.

[General Melchett]

I don't have one either...I am sticking with the free green tatty one that I have got.....if they want me to change they can try to write to me.

Quite.

I have no intention of making bringing in such an money making scheme/id card by devious means easy for them. The ******* can write to me, and write me again (to account for the fact that I didnt recieve the first letter/threw it in the bin unopened thinking it was junk mail etc) and then threaten me with sanctions amounting to more than replacing the damn thing every 10 years before I'll voluntarily submit. After all, they have my address: It's written on my license.

[deflation]

I take it no-one here has moved house for a while then. Getting your first photo driving licence is free when you move house. This from the AA website:

"Parliament has given powers to recall all paper licences so the more secure photocard licences will be held by everyone, but no date has been set for this and the government is well aware that it would be controversial to make everyone buy a new licence."

Once you get one though, you have to update the photo after 10 years.

In some European countries, you have to have a medical every 5 years after the age of 45-50, even for car licences, so I don't think we're hard done by.

[General Melchett]

In some European countries, you have to have a medical every 5 years after the age of 45-50, even for car licences, so I don't think we're hard done by.

I would have no objection to that: that makes sense on road safety grounds. I would object to a back-door ID card.

And no, I havent moved house for *cough* years. As soon as the bubble started in about 2000, I began waiting for the crash and seriously paying off my mortgage (did that in 2005), waiting for the inevitable bottom of the market to make my next move. I'm now like an owner-occupier-STR-er. I own my house, which is plenty big enough for me for now, and I'll be damned if I'll use my ever-growing money pot to pay off some reckless fecker's Plasma TV, expensive car and holiday habit. I can wait *all day* if necessary.

[White Craw]

I have a paper licence and was told (down the pub) that they're expiring soon and I have to get a photo one.

I've resisted because of the cost and inconvenience, especially the need for a new one every few years.

Is this true?

(and yes, I know there's a theoretical £1,000 fine for having the wrong address on a paper licence)

I was really upset when my last red book, with its handy blank pages for jotting notes, was replaced by the paper green version.

The red book licences had to be renewed every 3 years, or at least the validity sticker attached to the first page inside the cover did.

[Woot]

(and yes, I know there's a theoretical £1,000 fine for having the wrong address on a paper licence)

Good point - thanks for the reminder: mine's 10 yrs wrong!

[Frank Hovis]

I think I read somewhere that your insurance is invalid if any licence details they hold are incorrect, including your address, I assume. It would make sense, as insurers will take advantage of any tiny excuse not to pay.

EDIT: Yes, several stories on google agree and this newspaper article says "might":

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1158471/Drivers-risk-fines-totalling-1-billion-failing-update-licences.html

That sounds rubbish to me, and I'm not having a go at you Durch.

If you disclose everything correctly to your insurers then they have no basis upon which to reject a claim.

So if you give them your real current address they have all the information, with regard to that, that they need. That the DVLA have something else is irrelevant for them and how they rate the risk when insuring you. Though I agree they might try it on.

[indirectapproach]

I suspect that if your insurance company has your out of date driving licence address, they may have a leg to stand on as your adress has an impact on their premiums, no?

But if they have the correct address for you, I do not see any causal link between an out of date licence address and an insurance situation.

[Frank Hovis]

I suspect that if your insurance company has your out of date driving licence address, they may have a leg to stand on as your adress has an impact on their premiums, no?

But if they have the correct address for you, I do not see any causal link between an out of date licence address and an insurance situation.

Or rather - if you give them an incorrect address they may not pay your claim.

I don't see where the driving licence comes into it.

[indirectapproach]

"I don't see ...."

Well .... you know ....

[Riedquat]

Only because I read somewhere that if any details of your licence are different from those they hold, the insurance is invalid. But that probably just means points, medical issues, expiry dates, etc. - although that guy from the DVLA implied otherwise with "might"- but that might just be scaremongering to get people to update their address. He is a VI.

Don't see why. It's not impossible that you might keep a car somewhere miles away from where you actually live, in which case it seems perfectly reasonable to have one address on your licence and another on the car paperwork (registration, insurance), as long as they can contact you via that address. If there are any legal issues in that then the law merits a lot of contempt. It's possible that I'm just being paranoid here because I left my address on my licence as my parents' place (I go back there often enough anyway) and suspect I might've been done today for not sticking to the most absurd 50mph limit I've ever seen (i.e. about the straightest road I've ever driven on - was still under the 60 limit that it was until some ***** with idiotic ideas managed to change things a couple of years ago).

[Qetesuesi]

I'm dead against id cards but I've found the photo licence useful several times. Even abroad.

e.g. using an iternet cafe in Italy

Why do they need photo ID, or any ID?

[deflation]

.... I left my address on my licence as my parents' place (I go back there often enough anyway) and suspect I might've been done today for not sticking to the most absurd 50mph limit I've ever seen....

If it was a speed camera, the ticket will be sent to the address where the vehicle is registered. The only time the address being wrong on your licence would be noticed would be if you were subject to a roadside check or had a road accident where you would get notice of having to produce your documents at a police station. That's when the possibility of getting prosecuted maay happen although using your parents' address is probably OK because you would have a plausible reason.

I'm surprised though, that some people are stubborn enough the risk a fine of up to £1000 to escape paying £2 a year in effect for a photo driving licence. If you want to hire a car or drive abroad, they are invaluable and there is no magnetic strip or chip on them for all you TFHs. It has my original signature from 1984 on it though, which is not like it used to be.

[indirectapproach]

A photo driving licence is just another form of id card and I am dead agin.

As for a £1,000 fine, for a first offence ..... give over.

Three weeks ago I hired a car in the USA.

They were bemused by my crumbling paper licence but perfectly happy to accept it.

I needed i.d to buy a bottle of Scotch in a supermarket, for which I had my passport in my pocket, again bemused but perfectly happy.

[MrPin]

In some European countries, you have to have a medical every 5 years after the age of 45-50, even for car licences, so I don't think we're hard done by.

It's only a formality to check you have enough limbs to work the controls, and eyes that point in roughly the same direction, preferable in the direction you are moving!

[Riedquat]

If it was a speed camera, the ticket will be sent to the address where the vehicle is registered. The only time the address being wrong on your licence would be noticed would be if you were subject to a roadside check or had a road accident where you would get notice of having to produce your documents at a police station. That's when the possibility of getting prosecuted maay happen although using your parents' address is probably OK because you would have a plausible reason.

I'm surprised though, that some people are stubborn enough the risk a fine of up to £1000 to escape paying £2 a year in effect for a photo driving licence. If you want to hire a car or drive abroad, they are invaluable and there is no magnetic strip or chip on them for all you TFHs. It has my original signature from 1984 on it though, which is not like it used to be.

It was one of those ****ing Talivans. Cameras are easy enough to spot and you can tell exactly which spot they're aimed at. WIth the van you can come over a hill or around a corner and if that's where it's looking it'll get you before you can slow down. I wouldn't mind so much if I'd been doing 90, but 50 on this road is something I just could not take seriously. Later on the way back I got overtaken by two nutters over a blind crest. Isn't it doing a lot for safety?

I'm not avoiding a photo licence to avoid £2 per year. I'm avoiding a photo licence because I strongly disagree with them. I've had no problems picking up a hire car in France (which is another reason this could be awkward - I'm going to France for a month in a couple of weeks and will need to drive).