Brits warned over renewing passport as almost one million make costly £9m mistake

The rules of travelling abroad are simple, with a valid passport at the heart of being able to legally leave a country and travel to another.

In the United Kingdom, a valid adult passport lasts for a decade meaning you don't have to worry about renewing it every few years.

But generally speaking, it's nine and a half years. That's because most countries wont allow you to travel if you've less than six months left until it expires. Some let it go down to three months but either way it's very much almost time to get a new one.

Just don't fall into the same trap as almost one million Brits. And that's coming from finance legend Martin Lewis.

In his latest Money Saving Expert (MSE) newsletter this week (2 April), the MSE founder drew upon a raft of ways you can currently save cash.

That includes a 'grab it while you can' offer for £389 in free money, with no catches.

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But on the topic of passports, Lewis says 'nearly 850,000 missed out on cheaper passports last year'.

And the timing couldn't be better to renew, with a significant price hike coming in next week.

Sadly for those 850,000 people, they didn't take advantage of advice that is regularly issued by Lewis' MSE team.

And as a result it cost them more, which no one wants.

According to a Freedom of Information request, a total of 849,247 applications for a new or renewed passport were made via a paper form either handed in directly to the Passport Office or done via the Post Office.

More than seven million of us used the online form.

As a result, those 850,000 spent an unnecessary £8,917,093 with the paper forms costing £10.50 more than doing it online.

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And if the same number of people were to do the same in the year after 11 April, it'd be £9,766,340 that could have stayed in the pockets of hardworking Brits.

Helen Knapman, news and investigations editor at MSE, said: "If you can do it online, or if you can get someone to help, the cheapest way to get a new passport is still to apply directly through Gov.uk, whether it's your first one, you're renewing an old one or changing your personal details.

"And right now is a good time to do it as you can beat the fee rises coming in on Thursday, 11 April.

"But be warned: since 2018, any time left on your existing passport is no longer added to your new one, so whether it's worth renewing early depends on how close you are to expiry. As a rough guide, it's only worth it right now if you've less than 10 months left on your current passport."

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Here is how much passport applications are going up from 11 April:

Online adult passport application: £82.50 to £88.50.

Online children's passport application: £53.50 to £57.50.

Paper adult passport application: £93 to £100.

Paper children's passport application: £64 to £69.

Fast-track adult passport application: £155 to £166.50.

Fast-track children's passport application: £126 to £135.50.

Same day passport application: £193.50 to £207.50.