Driving licence renewal

Kezzaduncs

Hi, I'm new to this so bear with me.
I renewed my driving licence accidentally with a company called licencesafe. Their website is almost identical to dvla. I actually thought i was on the government website. 
They've renewed my licence however have taken £93.00 from a card payment, when the transaction was being completed it never came up with an amount to pay either before or after card payment taken. Also confirmation email didnt state an amount. 
I've contacted them and they state they'll refund me £20.00 as a goodwill gesture. Has anyone else dealt with this company.
The bank state nothing to do with them as service has been provided. 

[Deleted User]

Your bank is correct. 

Lots of people seem to have started using these driving licence and passport renewal companies recently.  They don't provide anything of value, but they're not doing anything wrong.

Jenni_D

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6242903/licence-safe-scam#latest
That thread was on the first page when you created your thread.

Aylesbury_Duck

Jenni_D said:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6242903/licence-safe-scam#latest
That thread was on the first page when you created your thread.

And I bet licencesafe was the first result when they searched, too.

Too many people click on the first thing that crops up on their screen.  It's akin to heading into town for some shopping any buying the first thing you want from the first shelf of the first shop you encounter, without examining it or checking its price.

powerful_Rogue

It looks nothing like the government website.

The_Fat_Controller

@Kezzaduncs, how could you click on so many boxes "accidentally"  ?
All the clues are on their website.

Kezzaduncs

It was just above the DVLA one took and clicked on it by mistake, it then directed me to an application which is just about identical to the DVLA website. Once application completed took me too payment and there was no prompt for amounts etc... I assumed I was on dvla and would be charged £14.00

Aylesbury_Duck

Kezzaduncs said:

It was just above the DVLA one took and clicked on it by mistake, it then directed me to an application which is just about identical to the DVLA website. Once application completed took me too payment and there was no prompt for amounts etc... I assumed I was on dvla and would be charged £14.00

I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.  I've just gone through it myself to check.

1. It looks nothing like the DVLA website, at any point.  At the start, the home page has a cartoon on it!
2. As soon as you elect to renew your licence, a huge box appears on the right hand side which tells you the cost is £93, £14 of which is "Government Fees", the remaining £79 is clearly labelled as "1 Year licence safe".

JJ_Egan

Any search i make shows below as first site .

https://www.gov.uk/renew-driving-licence

Pollycat

JJ_Egan said:

Any search i make shows below as first site .

https://www.gov.uk/renew-driving-licence

If I search on Google for 'driving licence renewal', I get 2 Ads, then the genuine GOV.UK site which also has Ad against it, then 2 other websites that are Ads then GOV.UK.

OP - do you understand what Ad means against a search result?

Ad = advert. These companies pay Google for top spot.

OP - did you miss this statement on the home page (under Admin)? (the bolding is not mine, that's how it appears on the website.

Please note, Licence Safe is in no way affiliated with the government. You can apply onto the UK Government website or DVLA to benefit from a reduced cost.

Here is another thread new today about the same issue but a different company:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78299683#Comment_78299683

This is what Martin Lewis says about these companies:

"They are not scams, they're shysters," said Martin Lewis, founder of the website Money Saving Expert.

"They're not stealing your money, they're charging you a fee for something that is completely pointless."

in this article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56886957

Advice:

For anything remotely governmental - including stuff like licences, passports, land registry searches etc - I would always go to GOV.UK and use the search function on there rather than relying on Google, Bing etc.

I would accept the £20 goodwill offer.

Rosco62

Its not hard to pick the right site for licence renewal or EHIC card renewal