Save Holiday Costs: Act now!

Online loans from Loans 2 Go for the holiday of your dreams

Well who knew? The cost of a passport is about to rise. So if you are planning a holiday abroad this year and your passport is due for renewal, make it sooner rather than later.

At the end of January the Home Office announced that passport prices will increase this year. The changes are still subject to Parliamentary approval, but if this is granted will come into force on 27th March.

The proposed price changes are as follows:

• Adult online applications will rise from £72.50 to £75.50
• Adult postal applications will rise from £72.50 to £85
• Children’s online applications will rise from £46 to £49
• Children’s postal applications will rise from £46 to £58.50

As well as the price increases themselves, what you may notice from the above figures is that the prices for postal applications are being increased much more dramatically than online applications: 13% more for adult passports and a huge 20% more for children’s passports. Currently the postal and online prices for each type of passport are the same.

The difference in price increases in being justified by the Home Office as being part of its push to increase the use of online services and its ambition to create a self-sustainable immigration and borders system.

So if you are planning to travel during 2018 and your passport expires before 26 December 2018, it makes financial sense to apply for a new passport before 27th March. You will get the current cheaper rate, and because you have less than 9 months remaining on your current passport, this time will be added to the new passport.

But if your current passport expires after 26th December then hold fire. The Home Office advise that it will then cost you more in the long term to renew ahead of the price change as you will lose the validity of your existing passport.

Food for thought, and we hope that this advice will help you to save a bit of money on your passport.

In future remember to renew your passport online to get the best price. Also remember that at Loans 2 Go we offer online loans to our customers to simplify and speed up the loans application process. So if you need some additional funds to finance that holiday then do get in touch!