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.

I'm pretty sure return postage is free, unless you pay for a premium service.

What are you using id for that you need a passport?

It’s not. You still have to pay for some form of postage.

In your expert opinion how much do you think they should be charging then @SoloTripSoloVibes ?

Using your calculation OP a passport costs £11.50 per year. Less than £1 per month.

You don't have to have a passport, it's your choice to travel outside the UK and your choice to take a job that requires you to travel.

Passport production has, like everything else, costs attached. Who do you think should pay those costs - you or the state (ie the rest of us)?

I have 2 passports now (thanks Brexit) but due to the new rules i have to have an ETA on my EU passport to enter the UK. Which isn't strictly kosher, but there it is, i have one.

And because i am worried about being sent back at the border, i applied for a new passport (old one lapsed in 2020). Even from abroad it was very easy, and i used a photo that i took at home with my phone camera.

The ETA costs 15 pounds every other year, so even though i don't really need a UK passport, it works out at not much more than the ETA.

(the one thing that does grind my gears tho, is that you have to pay for each new passport to be returned separately even if you make one application for 2 passports, of a married couple with the same name, paid on the same credit card and to be sent from and to the same address.)

You can also go to the post office and they take a pic with their IPAD and do the renewal for you, costs about a tenner more but so easy

Isn't that to prevent a husband (or wife) confiscating their partner's passport? I mean I know its not foolproof....

Well, yes, but the average wage for a day's pay was approximately £3:72. So if a passport was £15, it would cost you 4-5 day's wages.

Today, a person working a 7.5 hour day on National minimum wage would earn £91.58, so the cost of a passport is less than 2 days wages.

Agreed. OP just seems like rage bait at this point. I hope no one who travels is this intentionally ridiculous about what actually goes into a passport and what it means. And if OP can find ANOTHER country whose passport allows you to travel to 115 countries without a visa, 184 with a visa, and costs less than the UK’s, then I recommend that she move there and good luck. Some people really don’t get it. My friend is from Venezuela and he has to apply for a visa to go almost anywhere, it feels like. We’re talking about a man who is a scientist at CERN yet can’t come to the UK unless he applies for a visa first. Your passport represents the “strength” of your country’s relationship with the whole world, and people with “weaker” passports have to jump through 1,000 times the hoops we do. People have now told OP the price of New Zealand passports (over £200) and Australia ($596). So OP is aware, the US passport, which also has no “special access” to the EU, is $165 (£120). OP says they can’t “wait for it all to be digital.” The books should never be, because the security aspects would be horrific, and the rest of the shenanigans (passport application, taking photo, submitting photo) IS all digital. Paying for pictures is a fool’s game - the website checks your photo and tells you immediately if it’s accepted! What a bunch of absolute bollocks.

Ah yes, I have to pay for a visa to visit Europe and stand in queues for hours to get in. So strong

sorry that caused you issues, renewal will be relatively easy though now you have one.

But you are unfortunately an edge case, and that doesn't mean that the whole process and cost is silly.

You can accept a birth certificate for right to work. We accept them all the time and have no problems, you have to have other supporting documents such as a letter from HMRC but it’s easy to pass the checks without a passport.

Proves it. Rage bait.

Not the case

Well, it is.

for £100 they can’t have a digital database where I just give my name and they can renew it?

No I’m just sick of everything in this country being expensive and mediocre

What are you actually talking about hours and hours! My god have a day off.

German passport is EUR 70 and i just trot down to the town hall - who will take my photo too - to get it done. Back within a week last time.

Getting the passport from overseas is more pricey, but that is the price we pay of living overseas. As pp said, you start saving for your next passport when you get your current one, surely?

No, when you upload it there is an indication of how likely it is to be accepted/rejected. I’ve renewed a total of 4 UK passports (mine, and my kids’). It was easy, and I did it all digitally, I don’t live in the uk!

oh yes, i get that it is a safety feature - but since you don't have to sign for it and it just gets shoved through the letter box it's not that secure.

When it was DH, me and 2 DCs it was 80 quid just to get the passports at all! (as i said i'm not really complaining and i only got the UK one just in case - because i might need to travel to see my mum unexpectedly and i don't want some border force chap deciding that an ETA doesn't apply. Having said that, they don't seem to make a fuss... yet)

ETA: one thing tho. We did ours recently. Photos were green (OK) on the website but DH had to upload a 2nd one (no problem). We also had to send a photocopy (or original) of our other passport. Photocopied on the same machine with same quality. Mine accepted, his rejected. So i guess it also depends on the person looking at the docs.)

Thats literally what the online renewal process is.

Same, I renew our UK ones online, as mum visits every threeish months she just brings them when she comes to see us.

It s less than £1 a,month for 10 years

Ours expire next year.Sadly,due to DH's declining health,international travel is now a thing of the past for us.However,we'll still get them renewed as the passport serves as an important ID document for both of us ; indeed it's the only one as neither of us has a driving licence.It's a lot to pay, but at least we have a document which proves our identity and can't be challenged.