If you're wanting to regularly travel abroad, the cost of renewing your passport is something you have to put up with. And more than three million Brits saved money last year when applying for new passports.
But more than 500,000 of us missed a trick and spent more than was necessary, says money expert Martin Lewis. It may be worth checking if your passport is still in date before you travel and if it’s not, don’t panic as there’s a way to renew it for cheap.
Between December 1 2020 and December 1 2021, 3,902,137 passport applications were made online, while 674,454 were made by post, according to figures released via an FOI to Money Saving Expert, MyLondon reports.
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The cost of applying for a new or replacement passport online is £9.50 less than applying by post using a paper form. The findings mean those applying online collectively saved over £37 million. Regardless of what changes you need to make to your passport, it is always cheaper to do it online via the Gov.uk website.
It costs £75.50 to get a new first-time or replacement adult passport online, including if you need to change the details on it. This drops to £49 for children. However, should you do so by post using a paper form costs £85 for an adult passport and £58.50 for a child – £9.50 more in both cases.
The current standard waiting time to renew an adult or child passport is five weeks, whether you apply online or by post, though the Passport Office says you should allow up to 10 weeks to get it. Furthermore, the Post Office says that paper applications are two-and-a-half times more likely to be delayed due to basic errors compared to applications done online. So if you think you might make a mistake or are in a hurry it may be worth opting for the service.
