There’s a lot of fuss made of online security, keeping your details secure and being careful about what websites you put your credit card details in to but I’ve just sent my driving licence of to the DVLA as I got caught speeding, 44mph in a 30mph limit.
Two things struck me as, well, not very good at all.
The first is that you have to send both parts of your driving licence off, not just the paper part. I don’t understand this at all. What is the point of having to send your photo card part? The DVLA don’t physically do anything with this part. What is the point in having a 2 part licence, one part of which is your recent driving history and the other part which is basically an identification card, if you got to send them both off? The notice of indended prosecution doesn’t ask for proof of identity of any kind when it ask you to tell them who was driving at the time of the offence. They just want a name. As long as the name on the fixed penalty notice is the same as the one on the paper part of the licence, it should be enough. When the DVLA receive the licence, it’s not like thay have a real person to check it against, is it?
Secondly, you get a choice of payments, cheque/postal order or credi/debit card.
Now a crossed cheque is pretty secure, and it’s been so long since I used a postal order i can’t remember what one looks like. The credit card payment seems not the best idea at all. not only do you put the card number and expiry date but also the 3 digits from the signature strip. This number was introduced a number of years ago to help reduce online fraud, as only the card holder should know it as, unlike the card number and expiry date, this number is not contained on the magnetic strip. It is one thing putting all these details into a website via a secure connection but to write everything down that is needed to make a payment online on a piece of paper and then enclose it with what is primary document of identification and put it in the post, to me seems complete madness.
It’s crazy enough to have to put a complete document of identification in the post when it is not neccersary, but to have the complete details of a credit card with it as well…
Just remember kids. The criminal justice system: helping you stay safe since erm, er, oh.