Brits going on holiday hit with £94.50 charge from Thursday

Brits going on holiday abroad face a £94.50 charge from Thursday as are introduced.

The is hiking the cost of applying for a new passport from April 10, 2025, with the standard online fee set to rise by £6. So that need to renew their passport will have to pay £94.50 from Thursday onwards under the new rates, up from the current £88.50. Standard online application fees for children are also going up, rising from £57.50 to £61.50 - an increase of £4.

If you apply for a new passport via post then the costs will be even higher, with fees for adults rising from the current rate of £100 up to £7, while for children it will cost £74, up from £69.

The One Day Premium Service, which is available if you need to get your passport renewed quickly, is rising from £207.50 to £222 for adults, while for children the fee will go up from £176.50 to £189.

Additionally, overseas applications for a UK passport will also be going up from Thursday, with standard online applications for adults rising from £101 to £108, and from £65.50 to £70 for children.

Adults who apply from overseas via paper application will pay £120.50, up from £112.50, while costs for children will be £82.50, up from £77.

The new fees are subject to approval by Parliament and will be used to contribute to the cost of processing passport applications, consular support overseas, including for lost or stolen passports, and the cost of processing British citizens at UK borders, according to the Home Office.

Holidaymakers are urged to apply in good time before travelling to ensure they receive their passport in time. In 2024, where no further information was required, 99.7% of standard applications from the UK were processed within three weeks.

Brits who are travelling to a country in the European Union, or Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein, must have a passport that has a 'date of issue' less than 10 years before the date of arrival, AND an 'expiry date' of at least three months after the day you plan to leave.

It means that if you renewed your passport before October 1, 2018, then it may have a date of issue that is more than 10 years ago.

If your passport doesn't meet both of these requirements then you will be denied entry as you don't have a valid travel document to enter these countries.