The cost of a passport is just stupid

[SoloTripSoloVibes]

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.

But it lasts you 10 years so £11 a year

There is no visa for UK citizens to travel to Europe so I'm not sure why a PP says they stand in a queue and have to pay for one

Another Aussie here who's spent a small fortune on Australian passports this year. Needed 4 renewed, plus 3 British ones. The British ones weren't only considerably cheaper but also easier to organise despite applying from the other side of the world!

I met someone at a women in tech event who was a graphic designer for passports - some of the security stuff is really interesting (and some of it is secret, so there's probably even more interesting stuff.) It seems pretty good value for money to me.

What a load of utter bollocks from the OP, who is absolutely determined to be right come what may.

The last few passport renewals we’ve done (for four family members over the last few years) we’ve just taken our own photos on our phones, according to the guidelines and uploaded them - costs nothing.

I just did mine few weeks ago. I paid £94.50 and sent it Royalmail tracked which was about £3.50. I don’t think that’s too bad to be honest.

Didn’t pay extra to get the old one back and I did the photos myself on my iPhone. It’s so much easier than it was a few years ago and I spent a fortune getting pictures done at Timpsons for the kids.

mine wasn't shoved through my letter box, I had to tell the postman the name on the envelope before he would hand it to me. My sister got her passport delivered to me as it was more convenient and she had to provide a letter from me agreeing that I was happy to receive it and she had to include it with her paper form (can't do it digitally) and when the postman came I had to give HER name before he would give it to me.

Count yourself lucky, its €115 here in Italy!! You used to then need a €16 revenue stamp so that you could confirm that the passport you'd paid for was actually official!! That was abandoned, I think when ID cards became mandatory, but an ID card is another €22 (depending on municipality)

The other costs you have listed are entirely optional. I believe Spain is the place to be as a passport is less than €50 there :)

But it's a one off cost you have 10 years to put the money aside for. It's not a one off cost that drops in out of the blue.
That said, they could make it an annual cost to spread over the ten years.

I have not read the thread, but for my other nationalities (both EU) a passport with all the same biometric bells and whistles is €30 and the service is much faster. Clearly the UK is missing something in terms of its costs.

I've just renewed mine. I thought it was remarkably easy and extremely efficient. I was very impressed with the service . In fact, it is the only government service I have been impressed by in donkeys years - Im thinking of driving tests, local councils etc etc ..

£64.98 according to the fascinating Bank of England inflation calculator.

Europeans are already paying 15 pounds to get an ETA to come to the UK. Lasts for 2 years. Not sure why people are moaning about the ETIAS security check. Once you're in the Schengen area you can go to loads of other countries with no checks.

@SoloTripSoloVibes if you genuinely can't absorb either a £115 one off cost or the cost of putting aside £11 a year for 10 years, then the thought of paying for a visa should be the least of your worries.

£115 is a lot of money. Especially just before Christmas.

Why do you need to buy it now, just before Christmas?

Lots of people of different European nationality’s have been on the thread to confirm that they pay similar in their countries.

Your posts make it sound like its a renewal. In which case you've surely known when the expiry would be be for at least 10 years.

You don't have to have one. Just stay in good old Blighty for the rest of your life.

I renewed mine during lockdown when the staff were working from home. It was further complicated by the fact that I had started my renewal online but got refused as my old passport was not just lost but really old, so old it was handwritten. They had no record of it and so I needed to do a paper application. The lovely people I spoke to matched up my online payment with my paper application, kept me updated during a torturous process and were generally cheerful and efficient.

It's an occasionally recurring cost, like getting new spectacles or having your house redecorated. You know you will need to spend the money eventually, so you budget for it.

£115 for something that is to last 10 years, that’s £11.50 a year!!

£115 is not a lot of money though, especially this day n age.
Maybe get this passport and then start saving £15 a year for the next one in 10 years time, then you’ll have the money , maybe a little bit extra for a renewal!

Which is considerably less than the cost of even the cheapest travel insurance.