UK Passport Charges

wrebwen

The UK government has just announced that from 15th April all UK passports for overseas residents will now be issued from Belfast. The charge will be £147.86 yet if you reside in the UK the charge is only £72.50. How can they justify charging more than double?

grumbler

wrebwen wrote: »

How can they justify charging more than double?

[PDF] Passport application fees

The fees are charged for processing the application, rather than the issuing of a passport.
...
There are three components to passport application fees:
• the costs incurred in administering passport applications (this forms most of the fee);
• the costs of providing consular assistance to British citizens overseas (known as the ‘consular premium’); and
• the costs of providing assistance to British citizens overseas in the event of unexpected emergencies (known as the ‘emergency consular premium’).

Why do you think that Credit Cards board is the best place for discussing this?

Steve059

Yes, that's one heck of a credit card surcharge.

Thomas_Hardy

Steve059 wrote: »

Yes, that's one heck of a credit card surcharge.

I blame Ryanair

Steve059

Thomas_Hardy wrote: »

I blame Ryanair

That's a point. Maybe they use Ryanair to fly the applications to Belfast.

reclusive46

Steve059 wrote: »

That's a point. Maybe they use Ryanair to fly the applications to Belfast.

Oh god, hope not :P There's probably a hidden admin fee for it to be actually delivered to your address.

chattychappy

wrebwen wrote: »

The UK government has just announced that from 15th April all UK passports for overseas residents will now be issued from Belfast. The charge will be £147.86 yet if you reside in the UK the charge is only £72.50. How can they justify charging more than double?

Yep.. A friend of mine was back in the UK for just one week. She thought she'd use the special "one day" service for which there is also a premium.

Ha ha ha... "sorry we can't give you an appointment for a week".

To answer your question: they don't need to justify it because we are talking about a government "service" provider and can do as they please.

Jules2012

Makes sense it should be more expensive, maybe not that much more though.