choosing means of ID

[Upphew]

Hey all,

I am an EU citizen, I have a residence permit and I need to start using some kind of ID other than my passport, in order to minimize the risk of it being stolen (or lost). I generally prefer to have some ID on me and carrying my passport daily makes me uncomfortable.

My initial thought was to switch to a Finnish driver's license. However, my own driver's license is perfectly valid (until late 2030's) and I would prefer to hold on to it for a number of reasons.

Which raises the question: what other options for identification are there?

Thanks in advance for your input.

http://www.police.fi/ licences|identity cards

[Rip]

There is the ID card: http://poliisi.fi/poliisi/home.nsf/page ... endocument

Note that an ID card issued by Finland to foreigners (including other EU citizens) isn't a valid travel document.
It has a your photo and will have your local ID number and is the size of the normal credit card, so it is practical in local use.
Bad point is that you have to pay 53 euros (+ photo) and it is valid for only five years.

There isn't any other option (and driving license isn't actually officially a valid ID, although it is in private business usually accepted as one (but people probably usually want to see that Finnish ID code in it)

[Alex.Sm]

I was in same situation, I didn't want to carry my passport with me every day so I got the ID card ... at that time in 2008. It's quite handy, it's valid ID in Finland, but you cannot use it as travel ID within EU. Driving license is accepted as an ID but it's not an "official ID". Some places will accept it and some will not so it's up to them. After I got my finnish citizenship I also made a new ID card, because of the same reason: don't want to carry the passport all the time, and it fits nicely in the wallet.

So I will recommend to get an ID card. Check police web-site.

[chrislaa]

Just an aside to this - I recently opened a Finnish bank account and they recommended to get an ID card as well. Apparently it makes things like applying for loans, credit cards etc easier in the future.