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AIBU?

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Original poster

The cost of a passport is just stupid

282 replies

SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:14

That’s it really.

£94.50 for the actual passport, which is alright, I suppose.

£10 for the pictures because you need the fancy digital codes now and can’t just have a picture

£10 for guaranteed postage of the old one back to them, because of course they can’t just have a database that they update to say that one has expired or been replaced.

£115 in total! Bring on the days that it becomes totally digital.

OP posts:
Namechange546 · 27/11/2025 09:39

Your passport fee also contributes to Consular services being available to you if you need support while abroad. I think it's right that those who travel should pay towards that rather than people who don't hold passports.

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 09:37

SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:37

Or they could be made cheaper

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Cheaper than a tenner a year?

Original poster
SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:37

ItsInTheSingingOfAStreetCornerChoir · 27/11/2025 09:36

Exactly, you do have another option. Don’t pay for a passport and never leave the UK.

Show quote history

Or they could be made cheaper

OP posts:
ItsInTheSingingOfAStreetCornerChoir · 27/11/2025 09:36

LighthouseLED · 27/11/2025 09:36

Passports aren’t compulsory.

If you don’t like the cost, don’t get one 🤷‍♀️

Personally I think it’s well worth it

Exactly, you do have another option. Don’t pay for a passport and never leave the UK.

LighthouseLED · 27/11/2025 09:36

Passports aren’t compulsory.

If you don’t like the cost, don’t get one 🤷‍♀️

Personally I think it’s well worth it

Frynye · 27/11/2025 09:35

ItsInTheSingingOfAStreetCornerChoir · 27/11/2025 09:32

The website tells you if the picture is acceptable. Did you even try?

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Exactly this. Next time do it online. It checks everything and will tell you if the picture is ok. Ans for renewals it’s super quick especially if nothing major has changed since your last renewal eg. Married/ divorced (name change)

Springtimehere · 27/11/2025 09:34

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

ItsInTheSingingOfAStreetCornerChoir · 27/11/2025 09:34

Also I’ve had a Photo Booth picture declined and they give you time to submit a new picture, it’s only if you don’t do it in the timescale given that it costs extra.

Simonjt · 27/11/2025 09:33

SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:31

And the risk of it being turned down is a lot higher

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The website tells you if the photo is okay or not before you submit it.

Original poster
SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:33

Bushmillsbabe · 27/11/2025 09:31

Unless you need to travel for work, then a passport is optional, and lasts 1 years. Works out at less than £10 a year, for freedom to travel the world.

But it’s not, because you still have to pay for visas etc

OP posts:
Mercurial123 · 27/11/2025 09:33

If you think it's a rip off just stay at home for holidays. We are incredibly lucky we can travel many places without obtaining a visa. Be thankful for that?

Tammygirl12 · 27/11/2025 09:33

SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:31

And the risk of it being turned down is a lot higher

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Just follow the guildines, white background and no shadows. It’s super basic stuff

InveterateWineDrinker · 27/11/2025 09:32

SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:26

It’s just ludicrously overpriced. For such a small document. It’s a book.

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It's the cost of running His Majesty's Passport Office.

I sometimes wonder how some people cope with life when they can't see bigger pictures like this.

crackofdoom · 27/11/2025 09:32

Pffft. Compare that to nearly £500 to get a taxi/ private hire licence!

(Which took nearly 3 months, and involved me making a 70 mile round trip to the council offices just to show them my ID documents among other complex and bureaucratic side missions 🙄)

ItsInTheSingingOfAStreetCornerChoir · 27/11/2025 09:32

SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:31

And the risk of it being turned down is a lot higher

Show quote history

The website tells you if the picture is acceptable. Did you even try?

cornflourblue · 27/11/2025 09:32

Well you can save nearly £20 by taking the photo yourself and sticking the old passport in the normal post.

At less than. £10 a year, or 80p a month its a pretty good deal I'd say.

Original poster
SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:31

Tammygirl12 · 27/11/2025 09:30

YABU just take your own photo. I did for all 5 of our passports

And the risk of it being turned down is a lot higher

OP posts:
ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 09:31

Yes, it's £115 but it's something you only have to do once every 10 years. So that's just over £10 a year. Not so bad when you think of it like that. Maybe if paying for multiple passports in a household, it would be easier from a budget point of view to pay an annual fee of a tenner each.

Bushmillsbabe · 27/11/2025 09:31

Unless you need to travel for work, then a passport is optional, and lasts 1 years. Works out at less than £10 a year, for freedom to travel the world.

kiwiane · 27/11/2025 09:31

They do cost a lot but last 10 years and the service they’re giving currently is extraordinarily good for a government department. I lost my passport and attended their office and they were so efficient - my passport arrived within 2 days.
I took my own photo and that was approved online on upload; the only tricky part was ensuring verification of identity but that was completed online via email.
Compared to the cost of travel, I believe they give good value for money.

Beamur · 27/11/2025 09:31

Do you not think that it takes someone trained to check and validate your application? Maybe more than a few minutes of their time?
This is an important document.
You're not paying for the cost of the actual passport with that fee but the admin and security checks necessary for it to be a trusted document.
So salary, infrastructure, security, plus the machines to actually print it...

TemporarilyCantDoMyself · 27/11/2025 09:30

SoloTripSoloVibes · 27/11/2025 09:26

It’s just ludicrously overpriced. For such a small document. It’s a book.

Show quote history

Weird way to look at it. It's not a book, it's a service. The service of your government legitimising your information so that other governments can allow you into their country in good faith and with legal channels to trace you if you break laws, etc. It's a legal service.

Tammygirl12 · 27/11/2025 09:30

YABU just take your own photo. I did for all 5 of our passports

LupinLou · 27/11/2025 09:29

Is around a tenner a year ludicrously overpriced? I'm not sure it is

ThatWildMintSloth · 27/11/2025 09:29

You can do it totally digital. Take a photo at home on your phone with a white background
I never pay for fancy postage on them

Have done the same thing with my own, my grandmother's and 2 DC passports at various times over the past 3 years. No issues and all came back within 1 week!

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