Banging my head against a brick wall now

My driving licence is due for renewal beginning of Feb so left it till now to renew as it say you can do this on line now.  So yesterday thought I had better get it sorted.  After much searching for a renewal form or link I found I needed to click the link for DI driving licence and fill the form in, which said nothing about renewal. So did all that until I got to the passport section, put in my passport no in and they said 'no you cannot do this on line' and shut me out.  I searched again to find out why this happened and it appears because I have an Irish passport I cannot apply on line and can only apply by post.  Now DVLA already know this as I have a card with photos etc they took from my passport 10 years ago so why did the tell me I can apply on line and then decline.

Ok no problem, I rang them and they will send a new form to me however, I must pay via cheque as there are no option for a debit card payment or a bacs payment, I am trying to catch faries here, now as I no longer have cheque books due to cuting them all up years ago. Nobody I know has cheque books these days.  I cannot get a postal order here in BG and won't be going home until March.  She said my only options are to order a new cheque book and get it sent to me in BG to fill in a cheque or send everything back together to my family member and get them to buy a postal order and post it all off to dvla.  My children have never seen a postal order before.  

Don't they make things very difficult all the same. You would think they would have a debit/credit card line set up for all payments what with being a government department.   I will be going home for a while so might just wait until then as she said you have 60 days grace after the renewal date, then you have to apply for a complete new licence.

Hi Berni
Sounds like the luck of the Irish just ran out?? And you thought the hoops you have to jump through in BG were bad

However, The DVLA site does state at the beginning -- Renew your driving licence online with DVLA if you have a valid UK passport
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Quote :

Now DVLA already know this as I have a card with photos etc they took from my passport 10 years ago so why did the tell me I can apply on line and then decline.

Could this be the reason?

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If you have a photocard driving licence, you must renew it every 10 years - you’ll receive a reminder before your current licence ends.


Good Luck

Thanks Bill. I already have a pink card driving licence so no exchanging paper for card is not the reason. They did send the renewal but son cannot find it, guess it went out with the xmas trash. Now I have to apply manually I also need to send a new photo as they cannot use the one on the passport. Never just rains but pours eh!

Well looks like the documents have been lost, they were posted from Sofia 30th Jan and I rang the DVLA today and they still have not received them, they cannot track the envelope as it was just normal post. They said give it another week and try again, if not received by then you will have to reapply all over again.

oddball wrote:

Well looks like the documents have been lost, they were posted from Sofia 30th Jan and I rang the DVLA today and they still have not received them, they cannot track the envelope as it was just normal post.  They said give it another week and try again, if not received by then you will have to reapply all over again.

I think you have to give it more time Berni, it took 4 weeks for our Xmas cards from Varna to get here. It is hard to understand why it takes so long when we received our card from Sheila's brother in Australia in four day's, Crazy and totally unacceptable in this modern world of electronics

It's not uncommon for the post to be a little slow, I have on occasion received 3 months of pension slips at a time

Statements from my bank in Australia usually take between 5 and 6 weeks to arrive....sometimes they don't arrive at all!
I received a letter from NS and I on Monday last...it was postmarked (stamped) September, last year.

I never send anything by post...courier is much more reliable.

Well I am well pleased I rang DVLA today and they have received and processed my driving licence so all is well. I honestly thought I had lost it all so yes [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] there must have been a clever person who check the postcode. Well done that person, made my day.

Good news, a bit of pressure off, lets hope getting back to you is just as successful