DVLA Licence renewal - hopeless web site

usignuolo

I am trying to review my driving licence on line as I now have a digital passport. For some reason the DVLA is rejecting my Government Gateway User Id and Password (although they work perfectly well to submit my tax returns and have done so for years.)

So I thought I would just reset the password as if I had forgotten it - and selected the forgot password option. This prompted me to enter my memorable date, name, town - which you used when you set it up.

!!!!!! - if I have forgotten my password how can I be expected to remember this infomation which I last used years ago....:mad:

agrinnall

The operative word is memorable, if you've forgotten them they clearly weren't that memorable.

usignuolo

I have used many memorable words since then! In fact I chose my own password back in 2002 when I was issued with a Government Gateway to submit my tax return online. And I don't think it required this extra information. This was quite early on in submitting tax returns online. At that time the id I was issued was 11 characters. Since then it has been changed I think to 12 characters. But my original one still works fine to log into the Inland Revenue site.

The DVLA login however does not take account of any GG ids issued before 2002. So it expects the Id to be 12 digits and when I type in 11 it hangs waiting for the 12th digit, which I do not have of course.

This is guidance at the time:
"What do User IDs and Activation codes look like?
User IDs and Activation codes are both made up of 6 or 12 randomly-generated characters; a combination of letters and numbers, (for example, R72YA1 or 8CK3SA26U1G4).

Note: If you registered before 20 August 2001 your User ID will contain four letters followed by four numbers (e.g. ABCD1234). If you did not register yourself but received a 'Getting Started' letter in 2002 your User ID will contain 11 random characters, including letters and numbers. You may type the letters in your User ID in upper or lower case."

AdrianC

So, basically, it's the Gov'ts fault that you forgot your credentials?

usignuolo

No - I did not forget my GGid or my password - I know them and use them to file my tax return and have used the same ones since I signed up to do it on line, back in 2002.

Thinking about it, because it was very early on in the process that I got my id I am pretty sure I was not asked to give a memorable town, date and word. I was just asked to set up a password which was a combination of numbers and letters which I did and which I can recall. If I had been asked for the extra stuff I would have written them down, and stored them on my pc as I am like that.

I have a special one folder for registrations where I keep all that info for looking up in the unusual event I forget a password. On this occasion I was only going to reset it because the DVLA does not recognise my existing perfectly valid GG id and password and I thought that might enable me to log in there.

In any case it seems pretty pointless to ask someone who has forgotten their password what their three earlier "password" type words are. If you noted down one you would have noted down the others. If you forgot one you would forget the others.

It IS fault of DVLA that their system does not accommodate what I imagine are thousands of people like me who signed up to the GG when it started and were issued 11 digit user ids. If they want us to renew on line then we should be able to use them online, as the Inland Revenue allows us to.

Quentin

Can't you just start again with a brand new registration and thereby reach your objective?

agrinnall

I've just checked my own records and I can see that I've noted 3 pieces of information specifically for the DVLA under my Government Gateway login. I can't remember doing that but it must have asked me to set them up when I did something related to my driving licence online. I think you're right that they were not required when setting up for online SA, but they are there so perhaps you also did something with DVLA previously but forgot to make a note of them. Is there no chance that you could guess what they might be? I tend to have a limited selection of answers to these type of questions.

usignuolo

Well it gets worse. I thought I would phone the DVLA direct to discuss what might be the issue. After several false starts round their automated systems, I got an operator and explained my valid GG number would not work on their web site. She asked if I had used their website before and I said No.

She said in that case I would need to reregister with them as they used a different GG number to the main GG one. I said their log on screen linked to the main GG log on. So did the DVLA actually generate a different GG number just for use there or did I actually need to change my current GG number to their format to access the DVLA site online? She hung up on me at that point. Honestly that was all I asked.