Driving license renewal

[Primus1]

Both mine and my wife’s driving licenses need renewing this may, do we need to do anything or does the DVLA send out reminders.?

[Cyker]

They did for me.

Also, if you have a current valid passport you can do it online too as they use you passport photo.

[Haliotis]

7 minutes ago, Cyker said:

They did for me.

Also, if you have a current valid passport you can do it online too as they use you passport photo.

Also, you do not have to pay for the renewal, which is every three years from the age of seventy.

[Mjolinor]

3 minutes ago, Haliotis said:

Also, you do not have to pay for the renewal, which is every three years from the age of seventy.

Or from the age of getting diabetes. It drives me nuts every three years for the last 35 years.

I have never understood why that is.

[Primus1]

We don’t have passports, will that make any difference?

[Rhymes with Paris]

Mine coming up this year too.

Can you just go to a post office and fill a form out with a current photo? 

Come to think of it I suppose I'd best get my driving test passed aswell.

[Mjolinor]

I think (not sure) that will accept a pic from your mobile phone if oyu have a single background colour.

I think details are on DVLA website somewhere.

 

[Mjolinor]

https://www.gov.uk/renew-driving-licence-at-70

[Bper]

15 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

Mine coming up this year too.

Can you just go to a post office and fill a form out with a current photo? 

Come to think of it I suppose I'd best get my driving test passed aswell.

Paul what's a driving test🤔

[Bper]

23 minutes ago, Primus1 said:

We don’t have passports, will that make any difference?

No it doesn't myself and my wife didn't have current one when we applied.😄

[Rhymes with Paris]

29 minutes ago, Bper said:

Paul what's a driving test🤔

Dunno nowadays Bob,the lads down at tonight's car meet all seemed like good drivers.

One of them did a triple doughnut in a Saxo, another did a rwd burnout in an old lexus 300.

I just chilled with my backlit spinners switched on and basement Jax on the bass bins.

[Bper]

7 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

Dunno nowadays Bob,the lads down at tonight's car meet all seemed like good drivers.

One of them did a triple doughnut in a Saxo, another did a rwd burnout in an old lexus 300.

I just chilled with my backlit spinners switched on and basement Jax on the bass bins.

Bro you is kicking it.🎧

[Cyker]

2 hours ago, Primus1 said:

We don’t have passports, will that make any difference?

It makes it slightly more longwinded but might be otherwise okay depending on your level of technophobia  

With a passport it's easy as you just put in your passport number and it skips most of the other stuff you'd normally have to fill in, especially the photo, which is the single hardest part

You can do it with your phone, but the picture needs to be full face, neutral expression and without anything obstructing your face or any shadow behind. For my passport application (Which uses the same ID photo system) I had to submit the photo like, 9 times before it accepted it, and then it got rejected by a human so I had to do it again anyway!

My dad gave up when he did his licence renewal (To be fair it's actually quite hard to take a photo with no shadows if you don't have a light ring or photographer's lighting rig  ) and just got a photo done in a photo booth and stuck it on a paper renewal form  (Although it turns out a lot of those are wired into the electronic application system now, so you can use those and still apply online if you wanted!)

 

[Primus1]

Gawd, I think piloting a typhoon jet would be easier, we both wear glasses, last time we changed our paper licence we had to remove our glasses, it took an hour just to find the booth🤪, then the resulting pictures looked like they belonged on the wall at our local police station…

[Hybrid21]

I'm in the process of renewing my driving licence at the moment. Started to do it online but came to the health questions and one asks re eye conditions that affect your visual field.

I do have a condition that affects a small portion of my visual field in my right eye, my optician checks it every year and there is always no change, it doesn't affect my eyesight at all. I have made enquiries re this before I complete the form online and apparently the DVLA have some kind of link with Specsavers re fit to drive eye tests ?

I'm visiting my usual optician this week for my annual eye examination and will receive some guidance re this, but as for renewing your driving licence online it seems very straightforward apart from the medical questions.

 

[Bper]

1 hour ago, Hybrid21 said:

I'm in the process of renewing my driving licence at the moment. Started to do it online but came to the health questions and one asks re eye conditions that affect your visual field.

I do have a condition that affects a small portion of my visual field in my right eye, my optician checks it every year and there is always no change, it doesn't affect my eyesight at all. I have made enquiries re this before I complete the form online and apparently the DVLA have some kind of link with Specsavers re fit to drive eye tests ?

I'm visiting my usual optician this week for my annual eye examination and will receive some guidance re this, but as for renewing your driving licence online it seems very straightforward apart from the medical questions.

 

Hi Albert, It seems Specsavers has a sole contract with the DVLA to supply this information and have done since 2014.

Not all Specsavers stores offer this site  DVLA testing service.😄

[Bper]

11 hours ago, Cyker said:

It makes it slightly more longwinded but might be otherwise okay depending on your level of technophobia  

With a passport it's easy as you just put in your passport number and it skips most of the other stuff you'd normally have to fill in, especially the photo, which is the single hardest part

You can do it with your phone, but the picture needs to be full face, neutral expression and without anything obstructing your face or any shadow behind. For my passport application (Which uses the same ID photo system) I had to submit the photo like, 9 times before it accepted it, and then it got rejected by a human so I had to do it again anyway!

My dad gave up when he did his licence renewal (To be fair it's actually quite hard to take a photo with no shadows if you don't have a light ring or photographer's lighting rig  ) and just got a photo done in a photo booth and stuck it on a paper renewal form  (Although it turns out a lot of those are wired into the electronic application system now, so you can use those and still apply online if you wanted!)

 

We had the same problem with taking new photos for our passports. We must of taken 6 or 7 different photos before they were acceptable by the online passport office. Finding the right background with light and colour can be really difficult. If the photo booths didn't want the price of a 1st class flight to take photos we would use them.🙁

[Haliotis]

4 hours ago, Primus1 said:

Gawd, I think piloting a typhoon jet would be easier, we both wear glasses, last time we changed our paper licence we had to remove our glasses, it took an hour just to find the booth🤪, then the resulting pictures looked like they belonged on the wall at our local police station…

Why did you have to take off your glasses.  My passport photo, which DVLA use for my licence renewal, shows me still wearing my glasses.

My next licence renewal is in 2026, and my passport expires in about four years, so I can only use it one more time for licence renewal, unless we renew our passports, which is probably unlikely as we will then be in our 90’s - but who knows? 🫠

[Graham47]

2 minutes ago, Haliotis said:

My passport photo, which DVLA use for my licence renewal, shows me still wearing my glasses.

Passport applications now require you to remove your glasses …

[Graham47]

47 minutes ago, Bper said:

If the photo booths didn't want the price of a 1st class flight to take photos we would use them.

£12 at my local Max Spielman shop to take photo, do the online application for me, including submitting an approved photo, worth every penny.

[Parts-King]

I used a Max Spielman in a local Tesco, I got the photo and the code to use online for my passport, dead easy and cheap too if I remember correctly 

 

 

[Cyker]

Jeez last time I used a photobooth it was more like £1!   

But it does take a lot of the hassle out of it vs trying to DIY!!!

[Rhymes with Paris]

18 minutes ago, Cyker said:

**** last time I used a photobooth it was more like £1!   

But it does take a lot of the hassle out of it vs trying to DIY!!!

I think I will just lift my photo off the crime watch site, being cheap an all.

I just hope they don't notice that my appearance may have changed a bit.

 

 

[Bper]

On 2/26/2024 at 6:20 PM, Cyker said:

**** last time I used a photobooth it was more like £1!   

But it does take a lot of the hassle out of it vs trying to DIY!!!

When was that the 1960s😂

[Mjolinor]

34 minutes ago, Bper said:

When was that the 1960s😂

It was 2 bob in the 60s, went up to half a crown towards the end of the 60s..