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.

Well- this I agree with.

Exactly. Save £15 a year = £1.25 a month and you'll have £150 to pay for the next one, even with inflation. Maybe make it £1.50 a month to make it £180 next time, just in case.

Not exactly a problem. Not that expensive.

Ditto.

I applied online on Tuesday afternoon and put my old passport in post. Got text message updates then received a shiny new passport on Friday morning!

Why are you lying? It’s £95 plus 85p to post it. They’ll send your old one back for free within a week usually and they have an excellent online service that tells you instantly if your photograph will be accepted. It has a chip in it making it difficult to fake and whole teams of people employed to verify and process passport applications.

It’s optional and the whole thing works out around 75p a month. About 18p a week. What a fucking weird thing to get so riled up about.

Same.

Definitely!
saying that though we pay for our travel insurance yearly using a multi-trip option so it’s a bit cheaper

But you get 10 years from it so it evens out.

Well renew it at a different time then.

£1.75 for postage and free photos (with a really helpful online checking service which tells you if they'll be accepted). You are definitely making it more expensive for yourself.

And try saving £1.25 a week so you are prepped for the next one.

Factor it in as part of your holiday costs. £10 a year to be able to go abroad, less than £1 per month.

one of the most valuable things you will ever own
OP doesn't own it though. Passports still belong to the Government. They can take it back if necessary.

I still think it's reasonable value given the amount of technology contained therein, and you can use it for ID and for travelling. Very handy.

OP can always decline to get one if she believes the cost is too steep even to save up for.

The whole process of uploading a digital photo is dead simple and it tells you whether or not the image is acceptable.

Honestly, mumsnet is just full of people moaning about the price of anything and everything. Life is expensive in almost any country. Fact. £94 doesn't sound that bad to me when you look at the technology in a passport etc.

If you don't want to pay for it, don't renew it and don't travel!!

Some people are just determined to feel like a victim, and nothing will change their minds. Next week they'll be bewailing having to pay for something else that "should be free!!!", and how they're being scammed, and how their Christmas is ruined.

I can understand why you feel this way, but I must mention that a passport is a legal form of documentation that allows you to leave your country and enter a foreign country and this is a privilege, not a right. That in some exceptions this might be required for work but for most people a passport is a luxury that allows them to travel to places that they go to for fun, and this is part of your fun tax.

Wait till after Christmas then to renew it. If it’s a renewal you must have had 10 years to know it needs to be renewed so why the fuss now when you could have saved up for it?

Unless you’re off skiing in January then you can just renew it at some point next year.

Then don't get one.

If you struggle to pay £100 for a passport then I'd think you'd struggle to find the money to use it. Foreign travel is a luxury, not a God given right.

Duplicate post

🤡

So what do you need it for?

You obviously didn’t do much research before applying for your passport. There’s no separate fee for returning supporting documents or receiving your passport. It’s included in the fee. You can choose to pay an extra £5 to get them returned.

Ridiculously expensive. I imagine the government is making a tidy profit. I think we should pay roughly cost price which I imagine is somewhere around half to two-thirds of what we pay.

As PPs have said - no need to pay for photos. I had mine done on my phone.

You should have put it on your Christmas list and asked your friends and family to all chip in for you.

Has anyone warned you about resort fees? Brace yourself 💸💸💸

The Passport Office has not had a surplus since 2014. And according to the National Audit Office report in June 2025 it had a shortfall of £223 million in 2023-24.

So at the moment we, the tax payers, are subsidising the price of your passport, OP, and everyone else's.

It's what the cost is? There's a cost to make it. That's it. What's the big deal to even make a MN post about.

Don’t move to Australia. Just paid over £200 to renew mine… and I also have a British one. It’s expensive but I feel lucky to be able to travel