2.7 Million Drivers Risk a £1,000 Fine Over One Overlooked Licence Detail

Almost three million UK drivers hold a driving licence that expires this year, and most of them have no idea. The catch is not the licence to drive itself, which typically lasts for decades. It is the small plastic photocard in their wallet, which must be renewed every 10 years, and financial journalist Martin Lewis says 2.7 million of them run out in 2026 alone.

The detail hidden between two other numbers

Every UK photocard licence carries a code labelled 4b on the front, next to the driver’s photograph. That single line shows the card’s expiry date, separate from the licence’s issue date and a lengthy 16-digit reference code that sits close by. Lewis told his newsletter followers that section 4b “catches out more and more drivers each year” precisely as it sits squeezed between two other details that look far less important but appear right next to it on the card.

“While your driving licence itself is valid for many decades, the photo licence that you get is only valid for 10 years,” Lewis explained. “And 2.7 million of them are expiring this year.” The DVLA does send renewal reminders, but Lewis pointed out that plenty of drivers “ignore them or miss them or just don’t do it,” leaving a card that has quietly gone out of date sitting in a wallet or glovebox.

What actually happens if you get caught

Driving with an expired photocard is a criminal offence, and the consequences scale with how long the card has been out of date and whether the driver already has points on their licence. A driver stopped only a few days after their card expired might get a smaller penalty, but Lewis was direct about the ceiling: “if you’re driving with an expired licence and you get stopped by the police, if you continue not to do what they tell you, you could be fined up to £1,000.”

Drivers caught with a significantly out-of-date card can also pick up between three and six penalty points once the licence is finally renewed, a real problem for anyone already close to a totting-up ban. Repeat offenders, or drivers who refuse to sort out their paperwork after being warned, risk having their car seized by police or being banned from driving altogether.

The financial exposure does not stop at the fine. A spokesperson for GoCompare confirmed that driving without an in-date licence automatically invalidates a car insurance policy, which “could result in charges of driving without insurance” on top of any penalty for the expired card itself. If a driver with an expired photocard causes an accident, GoCompare warned that “any damage to the vehicle you were driving likely won’t be covered,” leaving the driver personally on the hook for repair costs that a valid policy would normally settle.

Why this catches so many people out

Part of the problem is how differently the photocard behaves from the underlying legal right to drive. Most drivers pass their test once and assume the paperwork is settled for life, aside from the well-known requirement to reapply from age 70. The 10-year photocard renewal sits quietly underneath that assumption, triggered by the date the photo was taken rather than any birthday or licence category change a driver would naturally think to check.

Drivers who passed their test in their twenties or thirties and have not needed to touch their licence in the years that followed are the group most likely to be caught out, simply as a decade can pass without any reason to look at the card closely. A change of address, a lost wallet, or a new car purchase might lead someone to glance at their licence, but none of those events reliably line up with the 10-year photo expiry date.

Younger drivers face the same trap in a different form. Anyone who passed their test at 17 or 18 hits their first 10-year renewal in their late twenties, often in the middle of house moves, career changes and new relationships, when a wallet card is the last thing on anyone’s mind. By the time a family car, a mortgage application or a new job requires the licence to be produced, an expired card can turn a routine admin task into an unexpected scramble.

There is also a generational split in how people store the document. Older drivers who passed their test decades ago are more likely to keep the same photocard for years without incident, only to be caught out when the 10-year mark finally arrives after a long stretch of never needing to check it. Younger drivers who renew phones, subscriptions and passwords constantly are, paradoxically, sometimes more likely to overlook a physical card sitting untouched in a drawer.

How to check your own licence today

Checking section 4b takes under a minute. Pull out the physical photocard, look at the front next to the photograph, and find the date labelled 4b. If that date has passed, or falls within the next few months, the licence needs renewing before it becomes a problem on the road.

Renewing costs £14 for the standard online service through gov.uk, and the new card typically arrives within a few weeks, though the DVLA advises applying in good time rather than waiting until the old card is close to expiry. Applicants will need a valid UK passport or another accepted form of identification to complete the digital photo and identity check, and a debit or credit card to pay the fee.

Drivers who no longer have easy access to their physical card, or who share a household where checking everyone’s licence individually feels like a hassle, can also use the DVLA’s free online service to view their licence details, including the expiry date, using their driving licence number and National Insurance number. This avoids digging through drawers for a card that might already be out of date.

Lewis’s advice was blunt: check the card no matter how confident a driver feels that their paperwork is in order. “I hope this is a waste of time, and yours is in date without any problems,” he said, “but just in case it isn’t, have a look at the 4b on your licence.” For a two-minute check against a fine that can reach £1,000, an invalidated insurance policy, and possible penalty points, it is a piece of admin that pays for itself the moment it is done.

Households with more than one driver benefit from checking every card at once: the same 10-year cycle applies to every adult in a family who holds a UK photocard. A quick round of checks over a cup of tea costs nothing and takes minutes, compared with discovering a lapsed licence at the roadside in a police stop, or worse, after an accident when an insurer refuses to pay out.

What renewing actually involves

The online renewal process asks for basic personal details, a new digital photo taken on a phone or webcam, and payment of the £14 fee by card. Drivers without internet access, or who prefer a paper process, can apply by post using a D1 form available from a Post Office, though this route costs £43 and takes considerably longer to process than the online service.

The DVLA recommends starting the renewal at least a few weeks before the expiry date shown in section 4b, to allow time for the new card to arrive by post. Drivers who leave it until the last few days risk a gap where their old card has expired but the new one has not yet turned up, which is exactly the situation Martin Lewis was warning against.

For anyone who has moved house, changed their name, or lost track of their paperwork entirely, the same online service can also be used to update those details alongside the standard 10-year renewal, avoiding the need for two separate applications.

Sources:

• Tyla: UK drivers urged to make simple check as 2,700,000 risk hefty fine
• GOV.UK: Renew your driving licence