THE cost of getting a new passport has gone up today – but there is a way to avoid paying the steepest price.
The new price has seen the standard price of a passport go over £100 for the first time, with the highest cost being £129.50.
However, there is a way to avoid paying the most expensive fee.
The new £129.50 cost – up from £120 – is for any 54-page passport, larger than the standard 34-page one.
Unless you are a very frequent traveller, you are unlikely to need the bigger version.
Not only that, but the £129.50 cost is also if you apply via postal form rather than online.
Do it online and it drops to £116.
Most Brits will pay around £102, as this is for any 34-page passports that are applied for online.
Kids passports have also increased, and you could pay as much as £94 for one.
However, this is also for a postal form application, and a 54-page one.
Apply online for a 34-page passport and it drops to £66.50 – a saving of £27.50.
Anyone born on or before September 2, 1929, can apply for a free passport.
Thousands of Brits also still have burgundy passports, despite the new navy options rolled out back in 2022.
Anyone with a burgundy passport should check the start date of them as a number of families have been caught out.
New rules – introduced when the UK left the EU – mean any ‘additional’ months on passports are no longer valid.
This means if your passport has a start date of March 2016 but an expiry of December 2026, it has technically already expired.
Instead, your passport will expire 10 years past the start date.
Everything you need to know about passports
Some countries – including many in the EU – also require there to be three months after the day you plan to return home.
And here is everything you need to know about the new British passports rolled out last year – said to be the most secure ever.
