Licence replacement /renewal

BertandMaud

My OH is 70 at the beginning of November, so will need to renew his licence. However, due to not checking before he threw his old wallet away, he's managed to throw out his old (pink paper - very old) licence! I'm imagining that it's best to wait until the DVLA sends him the form to renew it 90 days before his birthday, ie in a couple of weeks, rather than getting a replacement and then having to renew it, but would he usually have to return the old one? 

born_again

Does he not have a photo licence?

Ayr_Rage

I kept my old pink paper until I was 60 (2019) and even though I was not obliged to upgrade I did so because when travelling the photo card version was much more acceptable than the paper relic.

However, you do need to have a licence to produce in the event of a Police stop or accident, so best to get one now and that'll have to be the photo card version, just apply as having lost the paper version.

Hopefully he has a photocopy of it or has made a note of his full licence number somewhere.

BertandMaud

born_again said:

Does he not have a photo licence?

No! Still his antique pink one! We've been at the same address for 33 years so never needed to update it! I still have mine too. 

BertandMaud

Ayr_Rage said:

I kept my old pink paper until I was 60 (2019) and even though I was not obliged to upgrade I did so because when travelling the photo card version was much more acceptable than the paper relic.

However, you do need to have a licence to produce in the event of a Police stop or accident, so best to get one now and that'll have to be the photo card version, just apply as having lost the paper version.

Hopefully he has a photocopy of it or has made a note of his full licence number somewhere.

In 12 days time he should be able to renew as 90 days before he's 70. The replacement wouldn't arrive until after he'd applied to renew it. 

user1977

Ayr_Rage said:

However, you do need to have a licence to produce in the event of a Police stop or accident

You can worry about getting a replacement of a lost licence if and when that happens though, there's no strict penalty for not being able to immediately produce your licence.

Mildly_Miffed

BertandMaud said:

My OH is 70 at the beginning of November, so will need to renew his licence. However, due to not checking before he threw his old wallet away, he's managed to throw out his old (pink paper - very old) licence! I'm imagining that it's best to wait until the DVLA sends him the form to renew it 90 days before his birthday, ie in a couple of weeks, rather than getting a replacement and then having to renew it, but would he usually have to return the old one? 

This thread suggests that, yes, he will do if he's going through the renewal route.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6618936/over-70-licence-renewal-is-this-new

The question is whether he wants to go for four months without having a licence. He's clearly not needed to produce it often in the past, but... A replacement costs £20. Surely that's cheap piece of mind? It also decouples the replacement from the legal requirement to renew, which - again - can only be a good thing in case of issue.

As others have said, retaining a pre-photocard licence until now is merely a wrinkle of not having needed to replace it in the nearly 30 years since they were last issued. That ends at his 70th ANYWAY. Personally, I find my photocard licence the single most useful piece of photo ID I possess, and it gets used more regularly for that purpose than for proving my driving eligibility.

molerat

born_again said:

Does he not have a photo licence?

BertandMaud said:

born_again said:

Does he not have a photo licence?

No! Still his antique pink one! We've been at the same address for 33 years so never needed to update it! I still have mine too. 

Same here, both myself and MrsM got our first photo licences at 70.

molerat

Mildly_Miffed said:

BertandMaud said:

My OH is 70 at the beginning of November, so will need to renew his licence. However, due to not checking before he threw his old wallet away, he's managed to throw out his old (pink paper - very old) licence! I'm imagining that it's best to wait until the DVLA sends him the form to renew it 90 days before his birthday, ie in a couple of weeks, rather than getting a replacement and then having to renew it, but would he usually have to return the old one? 

This thread suggests that, yes, he will do if he's going through the renewal route.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6618936/over-70-licence-renewal-is-this-new

The question is whether he wants to go for four months without having a licence. He's clearly not needed to produce it often in the past, but... A replacement costs £20. Surely that's cheap piece of mind? It also decouples the replacement from the legal requirement to renew, which - again - can only be a good thing in case of issue.

As others have said, retaining a pre-photocard licence until now is merely a wrinkle of not having needed to replace it in the nearly 30 years since they were last issued. That ends at his 70th ANYWAY. Personally, I find my photocard licence the single most useful piece of photo ID I possess, and it gets used more regularly for that purpose than for proving my driving eligibility.

Mine hasn't been out of my wallet since I got it.

As for needing the old licence when renewing, simply tick the "lost it" box, no big deal.