The rules around the way you renew your passport have changed, which means you'll no longer be able to carry over remaining time on an old passport when you get a new one.
In September 2018, the government announced new plans that would change the rules surrounding passport renewal, meaning you'll no longer add existing months on an old passport to your new one.
This used to happen when Brits needed a minimum of six months left on their passport to visit a certain country, and so had to renew their old passport even if it had five months left on it, for example.
Direct Line Travel Insurance say that since then, the equivalent of 155,000 10-year passports have been wasted, revealing that the average person in the UK has around 159 days left on their travel document when they renew - just over five months.
"The changes to the time carried over onto new passports have taken many people by surprise," explained Tom Bishop at Direct Line.
"In many cases a 10-year passport is only useful for nine and a half years as so many countries require six months validity to let someone in. It is a difficult balancing act, passport holders won’t want to waste remaining time on an old passport by getting a new one too early, but in many cases, holidaymakers will need to ensure they have at least six months validity before travelling."
Essentially, to get your money's worth, it's best not to go on a long haul holiday when you have less than six months on your passport - try to wait until you need to renew it because your old passport has run out.
Dusty Baxter-Wright is an award-winning journalist and the Entertainment and Lifestyle Director at Cosmopolitan, having previously worked at Sugarscape. She was named one of PPA’s 30 Under 30 for her work covering pop culture, careers, interiors and travel, and oversees the site’s Entertainment and Lifestyle strategy across print, digital and video. As a journalist for the best part of a decade, she has interviewed everyone from Louis Theroux and Channing Tatum to Margot Robbie and Ncuti Gatwa, while she has also spoken on Times Radio and BBC Radio. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram here.
