SWMBO and I finally got ourselves organised and applied for and received our new licences, with our current addresses on, only some 16 months after we moved!
It's great for me because my speeding endorsement from 1999 has now disappeard. I now have a clean licence again.
I was also pleased to receive a credit card sized licence that can sit in my wallet along with all my other items. Only I was disappointed to have to be given the counterpart as well. This put me right back where I was before, having to store an unwealdly parchment in my wallet!
Apparently both have to be produced on demand.
What is the point of this counterpart? I know that it includes information about provisional entitlements, entitlement history and endorsments, but with a bit of forethought could this information not be included on the photocard?
H
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I agree with you but the best thing is to perhaps just carry the card with you. Both need only be produced within 7 days so there's no real advantage to carrying both with you.
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Well H you need to produce both parts if required to so so by the police but AFAIK the photocard is valid (and very useful) when you need some form of ID for, say, opening an account or making a large withdrawal, or as has happened to Mrs V. when she's been asked her age. From a purely technical viewpoint I too feel having the paper counterpart is something of a joke in our computer dominated society. Regards.
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I can vouch for that. When we moved house, we we transferring some money from one account to the next. Then, Dad never had a photocard licence but the bank wanted to see one. He tried explaining that he didn't own one but they weren't having any of it. So he shows he warrant card and the jumped up little clerk said it wasn't an accepted form of I.D. Incidently we tried closing the account down and then sent us some champagne...so we stayed!
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Hugo...
Can I hijack the this thread and ask how much it cost to get the licence changed to a photocard one? (Yes, I know I could look on the DVLA site...)
And does anyone know if there's an option to update the photo at any point or will I be stuck with Pologirl aged 23 in my wallet forever once I get round to changing it?
Thanks!
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Oh I forgot to add...
The photocard isn't 'chipped' so can't be updated or scanned for endorsements or anything like that. That's why you have to have the counterpart.
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PG,
from what I gather, £19.00
www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/applydl.htm#cost
Sorry Hugo but I was looking at this last night so figured I'd answer.
Cheers
Adam
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IIRC there are certain instances where it is free to change though. For instance, if your address changes then the replacement license is free.
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....and there I was all chuffed because the three years had expired yesterday for my 3 points - clean licence here I come.... to then find out that it costs £19:00 to remove this. Apart from the fact that your paper counterpart has no endorsements on it, am I missing the point of why this is necessary or is it just another way to extract some money out of us?
I suppose you could change the fixed penalty to £79 and pay for your licence to be "cleaned up" after the three years in advance!
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No option to renew, but every ten years you will have to apply for a new licence and supply a current photograph. For a fee, of course...
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Ah, thats why I keep my old green one. Runs for 30 odd years I think (or until 70 or 75)??
It's getting a bit tatty though.
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My licence is in pieces, and I haven't lived at the address on it for 3 years (it's my parents address so technically still my permanent address but that will change as of the end of June when I am no longer a student), but I don't want a photo one!
At a gym I used to go to, there's no photo on the card but when it's scanned a photo comes up on the screen so they can check it's you. That would be much better but then I suppose police would have to carry card scanners.
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In theory if you do move and don't noticy the DVLA you can cop a fine - and given their enthusiasm for such practices I wouldn't be surprised if this actually started happening.
On another note - if you do complete the new form for a photo ID - you need to make sure that your signature doesn't extend beyond the small box on the form (same for a passport application). If you have a "wild" signature - stick some masking tape around the box before you sign it - then peel the tape off!
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If you want the new style licence without paying the fee simply send off your old one with a change of address to your parents/mates house, then once it arrives simple keep it a few weeks before changing it back to your correct address. Also works for removing out of date points.
Ok not 100% legal but it does work...
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I also have the UK credit card size licence and that piece of nonsense that goes with with it. What seat warmer waiting for his inflation proofed government pension invented that I wonder?
Here in the Land of Sun & Fun it's not a lot different. Your licence is not considered valid without the Official Receipt (O/R) which you got when you paid for it. I have to renew mine every three years. Without your O/R you have to go to a Notary Public and swear an affidavit that you lost it.
The license itself seems to be entirely irrelevant, it's that bit of paper they want.
(OK OK Officer I'm sure we can negotiate a solution.....may I give you your lunch money as a token of my appreciation that you have stopped me and annoyed me for the last 10 minutes.....well I suppose if you must stick your upper body inside my car so no one sees this transaction taking place.......)
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My photocard and counterpart were delivered to me attached to each other with some sort of adhesive. They are still attached, and they live in a drawer. The moment I separate them it becomes twice as easy to lose one of the vital parts. I think this perfectly illustrates the uselessness of the photocard idea, as executed by our glorious Great British Beurocracy. If only they'd waited a few years until they could incorporate a chip, it would have made the idea so much more of a success.
Incidentally, I spent several years holding a licence with an address that my parents had moved away from, let alone me. The fine for this is, I believe, a cool grand. It's amazing how carefully you drive when a flash from a GATSO means not only 3 points but a 1000 pound fine.
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It's amazing how carefully you drive when a flash from a GATSO means not only 3 points but a 1000 pound fine.
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but how would they find you if you have moved address and not told them? I have spent the past 2 year working on government databases, and believe me, they are clueless as to how to track an individual.
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Depends on the poor hapless victim whose adddres the car is registered to.
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The new DL is very handy for photo ID on internal flights. ie easyjet. NOt much good for much else tho.
I got stopped in the states years ago by a county mountie who asked for my driving license, so I gave him my torn tatty old style green paper one.
He held it distainfully from one corner flapping in the desert breeze drawling
"Goddamn Limeys, y'all call this a drivers license?"
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When I went to the States last month I only realsied as I passed it over at the rental car desk that I'd only brought the photocard part of my license with me! My heart was in my mouth for a few seconds while I waited for the man to ask for the paper part. That would have put a bit of a dampener on our fly-drive holiday!
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Perhaps there is some blindingly obvious technical reason that I am too thick to understand, but shouldn't one document be capable of containing a photo of the holder and all the additional information needed as well?
Cheaper to produce, more convenient and less likely to get lost.
But then, what do I know?
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Yet another half-bottomed government idea. They do this sort of thing to make the masses believe that they are really working to change things for the better. Like banning fox hunting, which the vast majority couldn't care less about. We're in a war and they're going to revive the hunting bill! Brilliant. Hope you all voted today.
The card would only be any good if it held all relevant data electronically, and all police cars had a computer system that could a) read the licence and b) connect to the PNC/DVLC.
That's how it works in the US. They take your license (US spelling!) back to the car and swipe it, and up pops your driving history.
Too expensive for here of course, so we just do a cheap, cut-down version that really doesn't do anything at all.
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