jd426

Does anyone know how to get their UK passport renewed without going to NZ post and getting ripped off $390 for what is 77 quid in the UK???

Justcol

But your not in the uk anymore so you have to pay the going rate.

jd426

Which is a rip-off...

Justcol

small price to pay for living here.

pitman

Ours are due for renewal very soon and were paying for the kids apparantley so that`s four of us and i think the renewal fee is reasonable.

jd426

When you add it all up, the fact that it costs well over 100% more to renew your passport here is just a small part of a very large financial price to live here, which is one of the reasons we're going back. You might care to think about that while your eating the scenery...

pitman

So your renewingyour passport`s here at a rip off price,Then moving back to the uk.

Justcol

Its not for everyone and certainly not for those who are driven by finance, although I feel you can live a comfortable
life here for less than the UK.
I have a wonderful lifestyle that I am very happy with and the scenery tastes very nice thank you.

You've given it a fair go here and its not worked out,dont let that put you off trying somewhere else in the future.
I hope you find your happy place soon, good luck

jd426

Thank you Justcol. I'm not driven wholly by money, otherwise we wouldn't have come here in the first place. However, I am sick of being had over just about every time I go to buy something from one of the monopoly/cartels prevalent in NZ. For example, our property taxes, power, food and petrol have more than doubled since we came to NZ ten years ago, while the already low wages have remained more or less static, but as I said, the money side is only part of the reason we're leaving...

Robbie2010

Blame the British High Commission ... It's they who set the fee.

BEVS

Quite so.

jd426

If the fee is indeed set by the British High Commission, and I'm not sure that it is, then I think it would be a fair assumption that they were aided and abetted by a money grabbing Kiwi.

luvwelly

It's a very fast service though and the passports have to be sent back to the UK to be processed. When my photos had an issue(wrong paper) a nice lady in Wellington emailed me rather than just return them and ask me to resubmit. She kept hold of my paperwork, waited for me to resubmit new photos directly to her by post and then forwarded it all to the UK for processing.

So thumbs up for Brit service from me

Don't see what the Kiwis would have to do with the price of it though .

BEVS

HeHe. I didn't mean blame. I was agreeing with Robbie2010 that it was nothing to do with Kiwis.
It is a very fast, efficient service. We were mightily impressed.

UKNZAUS

You pay practically the same amount for the actual passport when you get the breakdown at NZ Post. What you are charged the extra for is for it to be couriered safely to Wellington, for them to check through everything and make sure it's all done, then couriered to UK, and back again.

We had the 3 kid's passports done just after Christmas and from posting them here to receiving them back was just 10 days! Not a bad service for your money.

Aside from the passport prices, I was thinking back to when we arrived in NZ just short of 5 years ago and Moccona coffee cost approx. $12 for a 200g jar... same thing in supermarket yesterday $20.99!!! Pi$$es me right off it does... (I've tried ALL coffee here and it's just bad even invested in an Espresso machine and the beans aren't that great either)