dean350

I will be returning to UK. I have a foreign licence and an expired UK Photocard licence which will need updating when I return. Has anyone else been through this?

• How long would it take to update the photocard?
• Also I will hire a car when I get back but only want to do this for a few days as its so expensive. Has anyone else been through this before and whats the quickest and most sensible way to get a set of wheels. I want a secondhand estate about 2 years old for about 25K.

durham_lad

We went through this a few years ago. Getting the driving licence updated to the new address took only a week or so and can be done online, with the requirement that you send the old card in once you receive the new one. We hired a car on arrival using my US licence, and went to local dealers where we found and bought a secondhand car for cash. (Not literally cash, but a bank transfer from our UK bank account) If you don't have a UK bank account you can easily open a Wise GBP denominated account with UK sort code, account number and debit card to tide you over. (This is what our daughter and her partner did this year.)

brits1

We hired a car for a week whilst I looked at buying a car, I bought a car whilst living at my dads and had my Aussie driving licence, I was able to “do” both of the above easily, I would change my driver’s licence asap (I had kept my old paper license so exchanged that to a photo on) I still have my Aussie drivers license but alas it’s out of date now. Good luck

tdrinker

If buying a second hand car for cash from a dealer, don't tell them you're a cash buyer until you've negotiated the price. Dealers get commission from financing deals, so being a cash buyer removes one of their revenue streams and they will try and make it up via a higher price.

durham_lad

Good advice.

brits1

I always haggle a wonderful thing I learnt whilst living in Australia….most people I know here say the feel “uneasy” doing that. We bought with cash and like you mentioned I haggled the price and then again when I said cash and also “got” some free extras.