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.

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.)

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(I had kept my old paper license so exchanged that to a photo on) I still have my Aussie drivers license but alas it’s out of date now.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

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.

Good advice.

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.