In lieu with a recent ‘Freedom of Information’ survey, car insurance companies have revealed that motorists could incur a £1,000 fine due to expired photo cards on their driving licenses. The foreseen number of motorists in need of a photo card renewal on December 2012 is at 3 million, more or less. However, it seems like not all motorists are aware of this requirement.

According to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, British motorists are required to renew their photo cards on their driving licenses every decade. Also, British law requires motorists to do this certain driving license update whether or not they still drive. This is hugely because of the hefty fine of £1,000 being imposed upon drivers that will be caught using their expired photo card license. In fact, under the Road Traffic Act 1988 Section 99, even the police can enforce this fine. In regards with car insurance premiums, motorists will not experience any increases unless he or she has been disqualified from driving. Despite this fact, car insurance companies are trying to urge motorists to comply with the regulations set by the DVLA and the Government.

In relation to an expanded survey regarding this issue, it has been found out that 30 % (487,000) of drivers do not even know that their license has expired. 10 million motorists, on the other hand, have no idea as to when their driving license or photo card will expire. And around 235,000 drivers have been maintaining expired driving licenses since three years ago (2009).

It has also been revealed that the majority of motorists do not have any idea as to what penalties they could incur with an expired license.  Around 29 % of drivers claim to be aware of the £1,000 fine that comes with an expired license. 30 % of the latter percentage is men while the percentage for informed women was only at 28 %. In addition to this, there were a relevant 31 % of motorists who believed that being caught with an expired driving license could affect their car insurance payments while 27 % of motorists thought that they could accrue points on their license if they were caught.

According to a car insurance expert, “The driving license containing a photo card was introduced back in 1988. So, it does not come as a surprise to learn that motorists are not quite keen on its ruling and expiration dates. Now that this is out in the open though, car insurance companies would like to encourage motorists to keep their driving licenses up to date so that they would be able to avoid the hefty fine of £1,000.”