Politics
Martin Lewis warns drivers to check licences or risk £1,000 fine
MARTIN Lewis has issued an urgent warning that drivers must check their photo licenses or risk a £1,000 fine.
Photo driving licenses only last for ten years, but during the pandemic, the government was implementing automatic extensions for 11 months.
Check your driving license or risk a hefty fine, Martin Lewis warned on ITV’s The Money Show[/caption]
But now, that extension has been dropped and drivers with out of date licenses face a hefty fine, the money saving guru warned in a special edition of his Money Show Live.
To check if your license is date, you need to look on the photocard and check the date listed as 4b, which is the photo expiry date.
If this date has passed, your driving licence picture has expired and you need to get a new one as soon as possible.
The DVLA has warned that over two million licenses are out of date, and need replacing.
Updating it costs £14 and you can do it online, by post, or in person at some selected Post Offices.
- To apply online, you’ll need to head to gov.uk – you’ll need a valid passport
- To renew by post you need a D1 Pack of forms – you can find these in some Post Offices or order one from the DVLA website.
- To apply in person, you need to head to the Post Office. You’ll be charged an additional £4.50 for the service but this includes the cost of sending the application off. The cost of renewal also goes up to £17 from £15, making it significantly more expensive overall.
Your new licence will be valid from the date your application is approved, not from the expiry date of your current licence.
Usually, the new license arrives in a week, but it could take longer because of the coronavirus pandemic.
You can continue driving while you wait for your new licence to arrive.
You should get a reminder from DVLA a month before your license is due to expire, which alerts you it’s time to get a replacement.
Mr Lewis says that renewing late won’t prompt a fine, but if you drive while your license is out of date you can be fined up to £1,000.
You can also be fined if other information on your license is out of date, for instance your address.
You can log your new address for free if you move – through the government’s website.
You also need to update DVLA if you change your name or gender.
Mr Lewis said: “Photo driving licenses only last for ten years… If it’s expired go and renew it, you won’t be fined for renewing it if it’s out of date.
“But if you don’t sort it out… the highest fine you could get is a grand, so it’s worth checking that.”
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