Passports, certificates, EHICs: avoid rip-off fee-charging companies

A number of companies charge a lot of money for 'helping' with applications that cost little or nothing to do yourself.

Online search engines can be wonderful sources of information, but they can also be an opportunity for rip-off artists to part us from our money.

A variety of companies have built businesses out of charging additional fees for online applications, many of which can be done for very little or even absolutely nothing. These include applications for passports, replacement birth and death certificates, EHIC cards, travel documentation such as visas, and driving theory tests.

Many of these companies use what’s known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to appear at the top of the search engine listings. The ads are delineated from what are known as the natural (unpaid) results that are returned by the search engine by a box. The box has a light pink background on both Google and Bing.

To be clear, they’re not doing anything illegal, as the Office of Fair Trading states on its website: “It is not unlawful to provide reviewing and forwarding services, but businesses should make it clear on their websites that they are not affiliated to the Government and that consumers will be paying for a service which they could obtain from Government for free.”

These companies are required by law to point out where to find official services, but these can often be inconspicuous among the sales messages.

Here are some of the biggest rip-offs to watch out for.

Passport applications

If you want someone to help you ensure you’ve completed your passport application form correctly, you can go to a Post Office branch and pay £8.75 for its Check & Send service.

However, online companies charge up to £59 for the same service via an online form.

Some also offer a premium-rate ‘advice’ service over the phone costing £1.53 a minute.

Replacement birth, marriage, civil partnership, adoption and death certificates

If you lose or damage an official certificate, you can order a copy from the General Register Office website for £9.25 or £23.40 for it to be dispatched the next working day.

Go via an unofficial site and you can pay anything from £24.95 for a ‘standard service’ to £64.95 for a 'premium' fast-track service.

EHICs

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) is a free card provided by the NHS that entitles the holder to free/reduced cost state healthcare in European Economic Area countries.

Enter ‘EHIC’ into Google and the top three results are ads for companies that charge up to £23.50 to ‘process’ your application, ie quickly check it and send it off to the NHS as you could have done yourselves.  

One says “The best way to apply is online from us”, although it doesn’t elaborate on why.

You won’t get a card any quicker by using these services, so save yourself some money and head to the official site at www.nhs.uk/ehic or call 0300 330 1350.

Travel documentation

If you want to travel to the likes of the US or Australia, you’ll need to apply for entry documentation.

If you’re going to the US for 90 days or less, an ESTA costs $14 from the official site. There are plenty of fee-charging sites willing to ‘help’ you with your application for a fee. They will generally offer a ‘free assessment’ of whether you’re likely to be accepted but you could answer these questions for yourself at the US Department of Homeland Security website. They will then charge a ‘processing’ or ‘application’ fee of up to $74 (around £49). Some will make a big deal of charging these fees in pounds, but all they’re offering is a rip-off in sterling rather than dollars.

If you’re visiting Australia for up to three months on holiday, you can apply for an eVisitor free from the Australian Government website. Or you can spend a lot more and have someone do the exact same process for you. They might throw in a ‘free Australia guide’, which will probably amount to nothing more than an emailed PDF. Many sites promise ‘instant processing’. Well, guess what? If you do it itself, it will be instantly processed too.

Driving theory tests

A number of sites offer to book your driving theory test for you. You can do this yourself for £31 at the official DSA website. The other, unaffiliated sites try to make their services look more attractive by offering free retests as part of their ‘online booking fee’ or discounted resits.

These may look attractive, as they are generally cheaper than booking another test via the official route if you fail, so the booking company is taking a hit. However, if you pass your test first time you’ve wasted up to £18. And with a pass rate of 65%, your odds of success, providing you do your homework, are fairly high.

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