Help! You’ve lost your driving Licence and are panicking about where it could be. You use your Licence for pretty much all forms of ID…
And now it’s gone, you’ll be asking yourself where you last left it, how will you get a new one, you might even be worried that you won’t be allowed a new one right?
First thing’s first… don’t panic!
Many people panic when it comes to losing documents that are valuable to us, it’s totally valid, I get you.
So in this blog post, I’ll tell you what to do if you’ve lost your driving Licence, or have had it stolen!
Firstly, Consider The Situation
You’ll want to find out whether you’ve actually lost your Licence or simply misplaced it, and I know that this is likely going to be harder than it sounds…
Think clearly about where you last left it, what did you last do with your driving Licence, if the short answer is that you don’t know then it might be stolen.
If you believe that your licence has been stolen then the first thing to do is to contact the police – inform them of the situation and where you have recently been.
They’ll help you in thinking a little clearer in case you’ve just misplaced it.
Once you’ve drawn a conclusion to whether it’s potentially been stolen or has gotten itself lost, get in touch with the DVLA to apply for a new driving Licence.
Apply For A New Driving Licence
If you’re reading this guide for the future in case your Licence ends up getting lost or stolen, do yourself a favour and take a photo of your driving Licence now.
Even if it’s your provisional Licence if you’re a learner driver – it will contain the information that you need!
Needless to say, if it’s too late to be able to do that and you’ve already lost your Licence, you’ll need to apply online.
Once you’re on the DVLA’s website, you’ll need to to complete an online application form with. In order to do this, you’ll need to:
- Be a resident of Great Britain (if you’re in Northern Ireland, there’s a service for that too!)
- Pay £20 by Visa, Electron, Maestro or Delta debt, or credit card, or MasterCard.
- Provide addresses where you’ve lived for the last 3 years.
- Provide your driving Licence number, your National Insurance (NI) number and passport number if you know them.
The process of applying for a new Licence online is pretty straightforward – even if it does come at some inconvenience as you’ve got to go about doing this and then there’s the waiting times as well.
If you’re unable to apply online you can also apply for a driving Licence in the post.
Apply For A Driving Licence By Post
Despite being in a modern society with technology not that far away, actually being able to apply by post is still considered a more traditional approach for formal documents such as driving Licences.
In order to apply for a Licence by post you’ll need to:
- Head to your nearest Post Office and get a D1 ‘Application for a driving Licence form’, you can also get one online here.
After this you’ll need to read through the booklets carefully and fill out the required information.
It could take up-to 3 weeks for this process to happen of getting your new driving Licence.
What About A Phone Call Instead?
You can apply for a Licence by phoning up the DVLA, however I don’t recommend this approach as their phone lines will usually be pretty busy most of the time.
If you’d like to apply by phone, the number to call is: 0300 790 6801
You Finally Found Your Lost Driving Licence!
If you was able to eventually find your lost driving Licence recently after applying for a new driving Licence (which could’ve easily have happened) then you need to let the DVLA know!
They’ve got a section on their website about how you go about doing this, find out more by clicking here.
And that’s about it!
It’s that simple, applying for a Licence shouldn’t be as hard as what you might think, as long as you’ve got some basic information at hand.
