UK Driving Licence Holders

[Bugsy]

I've mentioned this before but its worth repeating.

It also means, to proceed legally, those with expiring photo licences, fully resident in france, will have to apply for a french licence.

"Thousands of motorists are at risk of being fined up to £1,000 because they are unwittingly driving without a valid licence.

They risk prosecution after failing to spot the extremely small print

on their photo card licence which says it automatically expires after

10 years and has to be renewed - even though drivers are licensed to

drive until the age of 70.

The fiasco has come to light a

decade after the first batch of photo licences was issued in July 1998,

just as the they start to expire.

Motoring organisations blamed the Government for the fiasco and said 'most' drivers believed their licences were for life.

They said officials had failed to publicise sufficiently the fact that

new-style licences - unlike the old paper ones - expire after a set

period and have to be renewed.

To rub salt into wounds,

drivers will have to a pay £17.50 to renew their card - a charge which

critics have condemned as a 'stealth tax' and which will earn the

Treasury an estimated £437million over 25 years.

Look at item 4b printed under your photo ...

Number 4b features a date in tiny writing, but no explicit explanation as to what it means.

The date's significance is only explained if the driver turns over the

card and reads the key on the back which states that '4b' means

'licence valid to'."

.

[JMB]

And as I found out to my annoyance on my last trip to the Blighty, you have to be resident in the UK to renew your license.

[AnOther]

Funnily enough I 'educated' someone to this just a couple of days ago and he discovered that his licence was due to expire early next year. Having failed to convince him to get a French one he's now planning a trip back to UK to renew it.

Just what this widespread reluctance to change is I really don't know. You can always get your UK one back if you did return there in the future and having made what is probably the biggest life change possible, moving to a foreign country, you'd think that a simple free procedure to exchange a licence would be a walk in the park.

I still have a UK licence with about 5 years to run but when the time comes I'll be off to the prefecture for a French on, unless 'obliged' to in the interim that is [blink]

PS: You're still a cheap tart Gary [:P]

[Bugsy]

[quote user="ErnieY"]

PS: You're still a cheap tart Gary [:P]

[/quote]

Actually, to be strictly correct, if I accept your analogy, I'm a cheap tart with a french licence......................[:P]

[AnOther]

[quote user="John Martin BRADLEY"]And as I found out to my annoyance on my last trip to the Blighty, you have to be resident in the UK to renew your license.

[/quote]Why to your annoyance John. Outwith the ability to drive vehicles up to 7.5 ton perhaps you could share with us why you personally don't want to change to a French one ?

[JMB]

I'd gladly change to a french one, but it's not much use to me in Cape Town :-)

[Sunday Driver]

A licence is a licence is a licence....

Whether it's a flashy British plastic one with a picture of me looking grumpy or a cheap French cardboard one with a picture of me looking even grumpier, it doesn't matter.

My UK photocard licence expires in 2013 so I'll get a French one.  Only downside is, I'll now need regular medicals to retain my category C.  That's 40 odd euros a pop, but who cares, it's only money....[;-)]

Once I've changed, I'll never have to do it again.

 

 

[Âme]

Oops! Thanks for the post. It's a good job I looked today, soon my eyesight won't be sharp enough to read that minuscule print!

What's the procedure on 'changing' an expired UK licence to a French licence?

[AnOther]

What is the French for p**s off !

An expired licence is worthless. If yours has expired you will need to contact DVLA to send you a letter of entitlement which you can then take to the Prefecture.

You cannot of course legally drive in France until you get a new licence.

[AnOther]

[quote user="Sunday Driver"]That's 40 odd euros a pop, but who cares, it's only money....[;-)][/quote]Loads cheaper than trips back to UK to have it renewed at an iffy address there what is, every 3 years after age 70 ?

[Âme]

Guess I'd better pull over then.... [;-)]

Seriously, thanks for the advice, I just found the 'letter of entitlement' route on another thread. Wish me luck; it's a loooong walk to the prefecture.

 

[mint]

And an even longer (and colder) swim across the channel!

[AnOther]

How is French prison food I wonder. Looking on the bright side though, the ultimate immersion French language course - and free too [:'(]

[woolybanana]

My uk licence does not have a foto. Does this matter? But my Belgian one does so does my Kuwaiti one.

[Âme]

[quote user="ErnieY"]How is French prison food I wonder. Looking on the bright side though, the ultimate immersion French language course - and free too [:'(]
[/quote]

Eh, oui!

[dave21478]

[quote user="ErnieY"]....

An expired licence is worthless. If yours has expired .....[/quote]

 

Note that its not the LICENCE that expires, its just the photocard, which is not your actual licence to drive. A UK licence is valid till you are 70, and can only be invalidated by a court or a doctor.

A chap on a UK forum I read was stopped by police and found his photocard had expired. The police went heavy-handed and seized his car, claiming the expired licence made his insurance invalid. His car was impounded and cost him a couple of hundred pounds to get released later. He then found that the authorities have known about the photocard expirey problems for a while, and have recomended that motorists should not be punished. He also found that an expired card does NOT invalidate insurance. If you look at a UK policy, they all say something along the lines of "the policy holder who holds, or has held and is not prevented from holding, a valid licence"

He is now going down the complaints road and is looking to get all costs refunded and an apology.

 

This is all by-the-by for us though, Im sure the gendarmes would find that sort of explanation amusing as they look at our silly wee bits of plastic.

 

[AnOther]

Point taken Dave but in the context of of the thread, exchanging for a French licence, I'm sure your observation about a Gendarme's likely reaction is pretty well on the money.

As for the chap on the forum, (Pepipoo I presume [;-)]) I find it both extraordinary and depressing that even the greenest plod would not know about insurance NOT being invalidated by an expired licence, any more than it is by lack of an MOT or road tax. These peoples' stock in trade is the law so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect them to be au fait with the basics [:'(]

[dave21478]

It was on Retro Rides, not Pepipoo - I have gone right off pepipoo in recent years. There is good knowledge to be found there, but you need to dig hard amongst all the armchair experts spouting their opinions as fact.

If you are interested Ernie, this forum can be a bit of an eye-opener towards police attitudes...

www.ukpoliceonline.co.uk

 

[Âme]

I suppose I should 'fess up. Major blonde moment: in the light of day, phone in hand, ready to ring my insurance co, I realised....that last I'd read date 4a and not 4b. Doh! [:$] (I blame the minuscule print)

There. It's done. I feel better for admitting it. Not nearly as embarrassing as driving with an expired photocard for six years. Still, the thought of central heating in prison had its charm. [;-)] And thanks to Bugbear's post I am prep'd for the visit to the prefecture, so it was, indeed, worth repeating.

Incidentally, my licence valid from/licence valid to dates are for a total of 7 years 9 months. Is there something else I don't know about?

[Bugsy]

A tip on applying for french licences. We did ours together at the prefecture in Poitiers. All went well until my wife was asked for our marriage certificate.

Apparently required to prove maiden name.

Don't you just love french officialdom........................[:D]

They allowed us to post it and even gave us a stamped/addressed envelope.

[AnOther]

[quote user="âme"]Not nearly as embarrassing as driving with an expired photocard for six years.[/quote]Six years, cannot be !

Photocards were introduced in 1998 so the first ones are coming up for renewal now.

Valid from is normally the date you passed your test and to is your 70th birthday. Did you only pass your test or get a UK licence recently ?

[AnOther]

[quote user="Bugbear"]All went well until my wife was asked for our marriage certificate.

Apparently required to prove maiden name.

Don't you just love french officialdom........................[:D][/quote]What possible relevance has your wife's maiden name to anything [:'(]

[Âme]

My photocard is valid from the date I changed from the tattered, old green paper licence. The date I mistakenly thought was the expiry date. In fact, it expires towards the end of next year. So, I got less than eight years validity.  [8-)]

Marriage licence. Good tip, since have one & generally travel under the alias on my passport. When I first moved in to this locale I had a visit from the Gendarmerie within the first couple of weeks, just to find out my maiden name. Banking, insurance, health, tax... all FR documents have both names on them despite passport only having the later one. C'est comme ca.

[Bugsy]

Sometimes you have to wonder why we bother. This is from the same thread I posted on another forum

"When I got my new paper and photo license having got married, I was

told the paper one takes priority over the photo license and for

example must be shown in the event of being stopped by the police.

Since my paper one's expiry date is 2039 I do not intend to bother

changing it. If the photo one expires i still have the paper one."

DOH !

[Bugsy]

[quote user="ErnieY"]

What possible relevance has your wife's maiden name to anything [:'(]

[/quote]

Could be because in the case of a married woman its entered on the licence, (maiden name) epouse (married name)

.