Upgrading to a photo card costs you and has to be renewed at intervals so no point in doing so unless you have to such as when hitting 70. Abroad just use your passport as ID.
In the UK I have a bus pass.
Colin
If you have no credit record, as my wife has not, you cannot access your State Pension forecast via the Government Gateway \ HMRC \ DWP website. This is because in their wisdom, Accenture \ Crap Gemini or whoever, decided you need to verify your id via a credit reference agency to confirm you are who you say you are and access your forecast.
A UK photo id driver's licence is one of the documents needed amongst others, for agencies such as the Post Office \ Experian etc, to verify you are who you say you are on behalf of DWP \ HMRC. This verification can then be used to access your pension forecast via the Government Gateway \ HMRC \ DWP web site.
Utterly ridiculous but true. Some people do not have credit cards or bank accounts in their own name hence no credit record and rely on being second named on a joint bank account or authorised user on a spouse's credit card.
You can hire a car in Europe with a paper licence. You're supposed to get a pass code from DVLA before you leave and car hire firms are supposed to request this from you. However, most dont bother and still just hire on a paper licence but you could have issues without a code.
When you reach 70, you automatically lose the right to drive certain classes of vehicles from your licence unless you take a medical and apply to retain these classes.