Many trips ago, I managed to misplace my passport on a trip to the USA.
But what is the actual cost of loosing a passport? The numbers are actually shocking
Lets assume for some odd reason you loose your passport, and never want to travel again…
| Emergency Passport Cost | £100.00 | Embassy Charge (currently $147) |
| Photo | £7.00 | About $10. |
Costs – FCO/British Consulate, Chicago.
So… £107 to get home and never travel again. Think that’s bad? What about the rest of the costs… and if you want to travel again?
| Emergency Passport Cost | £100.00 | Embassy Charge (currently $147, based on todays exchange rates of 1.46) |
| Photo | £7.00 | About $10. |
| Replacement UK Passport 48 Page | £90.50 | Can go down to £74.90 for a 36 Page Passport |
| Post office Passport Check Fee | £8.00 | Optional – but for the hassle saved.. |
| Telephone | £105 | Approx £1.10 a minute thanks to Orange |
| Data | £40 | A grand total of 5MB of data |
For those keeping track, that’s now a grand total of £350.50!
I don’t care how you dress it up – it’s a LOT of cash.
So what can you do to prevent turning into me and how my bank accounted after October a few years ago?
- Don’t loose the smegging thing in the first place. Sounds simple, but things happen – we all know this.
- Don’t Panic – to quote Douglas Adams.
- Take copies of your passport before you go – either electronicly or in a paper copy. And keep them seperate.
- Consider getting a local SIM Card to the country you’re in and not use the phone you normally roam on (it’s actually a very good method of saving a few pennies). Least of all if you have to ring the British Consulate, or IPS back home, you’ll be on the phone a lot to work out where you need to go.
- Look after and keep that passport safe!
- Know where your local British-Foreign and Commonwealth Office/British Consulate or British Embassy is and work out provisions to get there.
- Take Appropriate travel insurance to reclaim the costs when you get home
- Take an additional form of identification – separate to the passport (UK Driving Licence Card or other Photo ID)
If you do loose your passport….
- Don’t Panic
- Contact local police and get an incident number
- Contact the FCO/BC/BE, explain the situation. If possible get your backside down there.
- Fill in Form LS01
- Pay money, get emergency passport activated
And finally – Losses happen. All you can do is mitigate… and don’t panic.
Safe Travels!
