Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not return my expired driving license photocard to the DVLA?

38 replies

tribyootband · 26/04/2023 13:54

I've just renewed my driving license photocard as it was coming up for its 10 year expiry. The instructions say I should now cut up the old one and send it to the DVLA, but they don't include a postage-paid envelope. People questioning this on Twitter have been told the DVLA do accept unstamped envelopes, but they advise you to use a stamp to avoid it going astray. Aibu to just put it in the bin instead?

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
tensmum63 · 16/12/2024 13:17

NOT CORRECT. DVLA send envelope for card with letter to sign & date to be received within 21 days (now 17 left) or DVLA cancel! SO, that , presumably same if lost. It is 16/12/24 today....Xmas post. Will cost new application + £20!

NumberTheory · 27/04/2023 02:04

tribyootband · 26/04/2023 21:21

For anyone in a black market for expired licenses it's probably much easier to steal fistfulls of untracked licenses from the postal system than to happen across them in people's rubbish bins or rifling through their nick-nack drawers.

Show quote history

I wasn’t thinking organized crime so much as teen kids wanting to pass for 18, or having a spare license to flash should you get disqualified. I suspect much more of an issue a few years ago than now, though.

Identifyingasadolphin · 26/04/2023 22:53

Europeans have identification cards as standard.
I hold on to my expired driving licence and EHIC/GHIC cards and carry them with me as standard everywhere in my holiday travel rucksack - as backup ID in case of emergency…

PriamFarrl · 26/04/2023 22:41

You’ve just reminded me that I didn’t send mine back. No one has asked for it.

LynetteScavo · 26/04/2023 22:32

I'd cut it into 1000 pieces, wait 2 years and then send it back. It would give them the same level of care and attention they give to people applying for a licence.

FirstnameSuesecondnamePerb · 26/04/2023 21:58

I never have. If you think about it for 30 seconds, I assume that they just chuck it in an incinerator or similar. They hopefully don't employ someone to match them up! Dd1 kept hers to use as photo ID

Original poster
tribyootband · 26/04/2023 21:21

NumberTheory · 26/04/2023 20:20

I've always assume I'd was to guard against forgery and other forms of deception as much as possible.

Cutting them up should do that, but they don't know if people have cut them up or if they've secretly passed them on to someone else or just forgotten about it and later it goes missing without them realising, etc. Can't be a huge risk if they aren't insisting on them being tracked, though.

Show quote history

For anyone in a black market for expired licenses it's probably much easier to steal fistfulls of untracked licenses from the postal system than to happen across them in people's rubbish bins or rifling through their nick-nack drawers.

OP posts:
Talkingtomyhouseplants · 26/04/2023 20:52

Fiancé has perpetually not got around to sending back his old driving license since moving in September 2021. It’s almost been so long now that we don’t want to draw attention to the fact we still have it 🙈

NetballHoop · 26/04/2023 20:44

Do you have to enclose a letter/form too? If not, I refuse to believe that the DVLA have a team of jigsaw fanatics who reassemble cut up driving licences to check who has returned theirs.

WeWereInParis · 26/04/2023 20:35

I didn't know you were meant to return them. I think I might still have mine somewhere. It definitely didn't cause an issue, I wasn't chased for it.

OhmygodDont · 26/04/2023 20:29

NumberTheory · 26/04/2023 20:20

I've always assume I'd was to guard against forgery and other forms of deception as much as possible.

Cutting them up should do that, but they don't know if people have cut them up or if they've secretly passed them on to someone else or just forgotten about it and later it goes missing without them realising, etc. Can't be a huge risk if they aren't insisting on them being tracked, though.

Show quote history

But theft does the same issues. If someone stole your purse they would have your license or if your passport got stolen or lost. It’s not like a digital thing that gets cancelled and new numbers issued.

NumberTheory · 26/04/2023 20:20

OhmygodDont · 26/04/2023 14:02

What is the purpose of returning them though? Genuinely. Like I’ve paid for it, I should get to keep it if I want to. Just like I don’t get having to return old passports.

I've always assume I'd was to guard against forgery and other forms of deception as much as possible.

Cutting them up should do that, but they don't know if people have cut them up or if they've secretly passed them on to someone else or just forgotten about it and later it goes missing without them realising, etc. Can't be a huge risk if they aren't insisting on them being tracked, though.

PinkiOcelot · 26/04/2023 20:18

I never sent my old one back. Nothing happened.

LeggyLinda · 26/04/2023 20:15

Your post has got me thinking. I renewed mine last year and I don’t recall being asked to send the old one back. But my memory of such things has been shocking recently.
I do know that I’m the kind of person that follows instructions like this to the letter, so if that’s what it says I must’ve done that.
But, if anything, I thought I had to send the old one off first?

I do know I did it online and they used passport photo and then sent instructions via email. Maybe that is why I thought I had sent the old one back first?
I’m going a bit crazy I think - imagine forgetting something like that. I really hoped I could add something and help.

bloodywhitecat · 26/04/2023 20:14

I've still got DH's, no-one has ever coming knocking for it and, if they do, I will say it's been sent back.

OhmygodDont · 26/04/2023 20:10

Roselilly36 · 26/04/2023 19:18

return it, otherwise you could risk being fined.

Fined for what though? I’ll just say I posted it and it got lost. Prove I didn’t.

Its stupidity. Red tape for the sake of red tape. Plus I paid this plastic piece of rubbish.

Original poster
tribyootband · 26/04/2023 20:02

OhmygodDont · 26/04/2023 14:02

What is the purpose of returning them though? Genuinely. Like I’ve paid for it, I should get to keep it if I want to. Just like I don’t get having to return old passports.

I'm guessing they shred them, but I can do that myself with a pair of scissors. If they recycle them then they should say so, because that would incentivise me to return it.

OP posts:
Fandabedodgy · 26/04/2023 19:27

I just put mine in the bin

Kablea · 26/04/2023 19:27

I’ve never returned any of mine. Why would you get fined? You don’t get fined if you’ve lost it.

13Bastards · 26/04/2023 19:23

I've got about 4 knocking around the house. I've never sent one back until I needed to change my name

Meredusoleil · 26/04/2023 19:22

I had to renew mine late last year and also found this a bit odd. I did actually comply and cut up the old licence and post it back to the DVLA, but was thinking I probably could have just kept it and nothing would have happened!

Doggymummar · 26/04/2023 19:20

I've never returned mine, and they send your old passport back when you renew so you don't return that either.

kenyaswhiterefrigerator · 26/04/2023 19:20

Two expired here. Never sent one back. Nothing happened.

EmmaEmerald · 26/04/2023 19:20

OhmygodDont · 26/04/2023 14:02

What is the purpose of returning them though? Genuinely. Like I’ve paid for it, I should get to keep it if I want to. Just like I don’t get having to return old passports.

I just had to do this
except I can't recall if I did it due to postal strike. I'm guessing nothing will happen, why should it?

Gymithoughtyousaidgin · 26/04/2023 19:19

I have never sent mine back and never had an issue