Vanity and Driving Licence Renewal!

Bronnie

I have just had to have my Photocard Driving Licence renewed, since it had reached it's 10 year expiry date. For this, I had to fork out £20.

At the very last minute I ended up going to the Post Office, where for the princely sum of £4.50, your photo is taken electronically in a little curtained booth at the counter and at the same time a very wobbly version of your signature is taken via a screen and a digital pen. (This is how your signature will look when you are 96, but it will actually appear like that now on your renewed licence :cool:) You also get an official receipt for the fact that your application has been electronically submitted , lest you fall foul of the law inbetween times.

Anyway, disconcertingly, no chance to preview the photo of myself, which I will have to keep in my purse until 2021. Fast-forward a week and the new licence has arrived :eek: Unlike my previous licence which showed my pic in colour and a hint of a smile was permissable, this photo is reproduced in black and white. Unsmiling, pale and moon-faced, despite having made a modest effort with make-up and hair and having just returned from hols with a healthy glow! I have actually never seen a photo of myself that looks as bad as that!

The rules for the standards of these photos are very strict, but I strongly recommend if you care about such matters, you get your photos taken somewhere where you can preview them until you are satisfied, before having them printed and don't leave it to the last minute. I wish I had given more thought to this in advance.

I actually feel quite p*ssed off at having to carry that photo round in my purse for the next ten years! I admit, I am probably likely to submit a replacement photo Expensive boob.

Would you care?

Magnolia

Be thankful for small mercies - in America you have to put your weight on there as well :eek:

glowgirl_2

Oh Bronnie:( Yes I would care and I sat in that photo booth posing until I got the right one, full hair and make up done in Morrisons in the middle of the day;) if its any consolation even though I was happy with my pic at the time (it was only last year) I now don't like it at all, so will we ever be happy? Having said that if you really hate the photo I would change it, ten years is a long time:).

Lol @ Magnolia - they'd have a hard time keeping up with mine:rotfl:

ailuro2

well hopefully no one will ever see it... apart from maybe the car hire guy somewhere exotic on hols who will never see you again?

Katiehound

I wouldn't worry too much.
A charity I work for had to see everyone's licence who drove during their voluntary work.The person in charge said that they probably wouldn't have 'employed' any of the volunteers if they had seen the photos first!!!! In the 10 of my last licence it had never an outing. The new one is....like a police mug shot!!

Bronnie

Weight on driving licence :eek:. Does anyone actually check what you claim?!!

My driving licence doesn't look any better in the cold light of day, tbh the picture really gives me the creeps. Thing is I am always smiling on photos normally. I suspect any photo submitted will look awful , especially in the flat black and white format

There is no legal requirement to carry your driving licence with you, so I suppose I could just hide it away with the paper copy in my files!

Amanita_2

Thanks for the warning! My current picture is truly dreadful and I get howls of laughter when I show it to anyone. I'm looking forward to a chance to change it in 2 years time

Little_Brenda

Bronnie wrote: »

I have just had to have my Photocard Driving Licence renewed, since it had reached it's 10 year expiry date. For this, I had to fork out £20.

At the very last minute I ended up going to the Post Office, where for the princely sum of £4.50, your photo is taken electronically in a little curtained booth at the counter and at the same time a very wobbly version of your signature is taken via a screen and a digital pen. (This is how your signature will look when you are 96, but it will actually appear like that now on your renewed licence :cool:) You also get an official receipt for the fact that your application has been electronically submitted , lest you fall foul of the law inbetween times.

Anyway, disconcertingly, no chance to preview the photo of myself, which I will have to keep in my purse until 2021. Fast-forward a week and the new licence has arrived :eek: Unlike my previous licence which showed my pic in colour and a hint of a smile was permissable, this photo is reproduced in black and white. Unsmiling, pale and moon-faced, despite having made a modest effort with make-up and hair and having just returned from hols with a healthy glow! I have actually never seen a photo of myself that looks as bad as that!

The rules for the standards of these photos are very strict, but I strongly recommend if you care about such matters, you get your photos taken somewhere where you can preview them until you are satisfied, before having them printed and don't leave it to the last minute. I wish I had given more thought to this in advance.

I actually feel quite p*ssed off at having to carry that photo round in my purse for the next ten years! I admit, I am probably likely to submit a replacement photo Expensive boob.

Would you care?

Oh how I wish I had read your post before I went to the Post Office for my renewal.

"I bet that photo's just as hideous as the last one" I joked with the assistant. How wrong was I. When my licence turned up a week later the photo on it was even worse!!
My husband saw the photo and said I looked drugged. My 14 year old daughter just fell about laughing.

So would I recommend the Post Office renewal service? HELL, NO!!!

TimBear

I sometimes think about changing my passport for exactly the same reason! I even get comments at passport control along the lines on 'Much better in the flesh', it's such a bad picture!

However, for the amount of times people see it, and it's always people I'll most likely never see again, I'm really not that bothered! It's only a photo and I'd rather not pay again to have a new one just yet!

Penny_Watcher

I'm so old my driving licence is a green and pink piece of folded paper

Alizarin

I had to get mine renewed earlier this year, and I've never seen myself look so miserable in a picture. Still, it's better then my previous licence picture in which I had a terrible haircut and looked like a boy! :rotfl: