Driving licence renewal scam

jduncanc

I recently renewed my driving licence online via the gov.uk website and expected to pay £14 but at the time of hitting the pay button, was diverted and paid £94 to Application Online LTD. I’ve contacted gov.uk who offer a fraud line and duly completed this but has anyone else had this experience and retrieved the £80 pls?

born_again

Sad to say that there are lots of threads on the subject.
Contact the company & ask for a refund. You may then get a % of it back.

But you were not diverted to pay £94, you were on their website all along. Let me guess you used google or other search engine to find the site to renew your licence.

McKneff

Renewal of a driving licence as far as I know is free. 
Why did you expect to pay £14.
Unless it's changed in the last 2 years.

JJ_Egan

Odd that a legitimate government web site would divert , reads as not the genuine government site that you where using .

Paying this large amount is not unknown for those that type driving licence renew into a search engine and then do not go via the genuine DVLA site .

Usually well posted on these sites as to what you are paying for and not fraud .

McKneff

My apologies. 
I misread your post and thought you were renewing your licence at 70,.
Please ignore it. 

Aylesbury_Duck

jduncanc said:

I recently renewed my driving licence online via the gov.uk website and expected to pay £14 but at the time of hitting the pay button, was diverted and paid £94 to Application Online LTD. I’ve contacted gov.uk who offer a fraud line and duly completed this but has anyone else had this experience and retrieved the £80 pls?

Were you actually diverted from the gov.uk website to a third party site, or did you google and end up on a third party site in the first place?  If the former, I would expect to see a news story soon, because lots of people will be experiencing the same thing.

The_Fat_Controller

Virtually impossible that what you say happened did actually occur.

@jduncanc please go back into your browser history and post the exact URL where you made the application.

This topic rears its ugly head with alarming regularity.

sheramber

But nobody ever comes back and admits they used the wrong website.

mattyprice4004

You weren’t diverted, you clicked the wrong site. 

It had nothing to do with gov.uk as you wouldn’t have been on their site to begin with. 

Pollycat

jduncanc said:

I recently renewed my driving licence online via the gov.uk website and expected to pay £14 but at the time of hitting the pay button, was diverted and paid £94 to Application Online LTD. I’ve contacted gov.uk who offer a fraud line and duly completed this but has anyone else had this experience and retrieved the £80 pls?

Didn't you notice the amount before you paid?

I'm pretty sure you were not diverted to Application Online LTD from GOV.UK website.
As said up-thread, there are lots of threads on various boards about this.

It used to be the same with passports, EHIC and lots of other things.
Websites set up to take money from people who aren't watching what they are doing.

There has even been a MSE article warning about this:
Warning issued to motorists over copycat DVLA websites that charge a premium for services — MoneySavingExpert Forum

And read this BBC article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56886957
in which Martin Lewis says:

"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."

Laz123

As above OR you may have some malware on your device.