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License plate renewals plunge

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Illinois

* Marni Pyke at the Daily Herald…

Got that nagging feeling you’ve forgotten something?

Better go outside and check the date of your license plate sticker. You could be among the thousands of drivers oblivious — thanks to the state budget crisis — that their vehicle registration has expired.
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Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White suspended mailing out reminders in September, noting it could save $450,000 a month.

Without that memory jog, renewals plummeted 19 percent in November, when 413,709 Illinoisans applied compared to 512,760 in November 2014.

And as of Dec. 28, only 301,965 people had renewed their stickers in December 2015, as opposed to 475,314 for the entire month of December 2014, the agency reported. That’s a 36 percent drop.

So, it’s costing the state lots more in lapsed plate stickers than it would’ve cost to mail out the reminders. But, eventually, almost all of those car owners will renew their plates, and some will mail their checks after receiving tickets. So, heck, Illinois might even come out ahead if you factor in the fines and late fees.

Business!

Oy.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:04 pm

Comments

Can someone explain to me what service I get for “renewing” my registration? Car get’s registered when I buy it and it changes when I sell/dispose of it. So why renew other than to pay for a bureaucracy responsible for nothing other than to collect the renewal fee?

Just another way Illinois nickles and dimes everyone.

Comment by We Aren't Your ATM Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:08 pm
Not to mention that if you sign up for email notice, it gives you a link to electronically renew but that costs even more money. Echeck (electronic check,not a credit card) adds $2.25 to each renewal. Using a credit card probably adds more. I guess if you really want to pay the $101 that is the legal charge, you must have to go there in person. Only this state makes it more expensive to do it the cheapest and fastest way!

Comment by Rebel13 Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:09 pm
I got one of the tickets as my reminder notice. Chicago is very efficient about using mobile camera vans to troll the streets looking for deadbeats like me. My sticker expired September 30, the ticket was issues October 3rd. New sticker was on the car October 4th. Expensive lesson, and I was among the first wave of people who weren’t mailed notices.

Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:09 pm
Well since a portion of the registration fee is from the capital bill, those extra fines and fees must be enough to be that dedicated revenue source to cover this month’s bond issuance. Business indeed!

Comment by Juice Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:11 pm
Remember, if you get a ticket, don’t forget to blame Madigan, it’s all his fault. /s

Comment by AC Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:11 pm
I was at the local DMV on Dec. 30th, my daughter’s drivers license, and the line for plate sticker renewals was out the door and around the building. That’s just the people who realized at the last minute their plates were about to expire. Quite a few were pretty upset about the waiting time, while one was calling other DMV locations to see if their lines were shorter. They weren’t.

Comment by Wensicia Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:12 pm
@ We Aren’t Your ATM,

When did they install the internet out at the wildlife refuge in Oregon?

Comment by How Ironic Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:13 pm
Money to send out renewal notices comes out of the SOS budget. Money that comes in from renewals goes in to GRF (and road fund). Make the SOS self funded and overages go to GRF may solve this but will never happen.

Comment by Casual observer Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:13 pm
sign up for email reminder?

Comment by Facts are Stubborn Things Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:15 pm
email reminder, no only way to do reminder would be to put a stamp on a letter. snark

Comment by Facts are Stubborn Things Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:16 pm
How Ironic-

Wondering why I have to pay a $101 fee for literally nothing is totally the same as an armed occupation of a federal building. Hell, call the FBI, I must be a terrorist. Get me on the No Fly List and take my guns.

You must be another government employee with that sense of entitlement.

Comment by We Aren't Your ATM Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:19 pm
nice one, How Ironic.

Rebel13, would you rather the credit card processor fee come out of the $101, thus shorting GRF?

Comment by cdog Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:21 pm
47th,

In 2013-2014, I drove a highly conspicuous pickup with expired license plates on the highways & byways in and around Chicago for 20 months.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:24 pm
cdog

You don’t read very well. I paid with a echeck not a credit card. An electronic check is the same as a printed check. You type in routing number, bank account number, and check number. It is electronically taken out of my bank account and put in theirs. No credit card company in the middle. All that with no people involved which is ironic it costs more.

Comment by Rebel13 Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:28 pm
On a similar note- when I went to my local Sec of State facility to buy a sticker, I was surprised when the woman who processed my purchase didn’t ask for my nsurance card. In the past when I purchased through the mail , the renewal form required you to write down your insurance information.. I was told the State didn’t have the money or technology to verify whether drivers had active policies. Then the woman told me if I was ever stopped or involved in an accident and didn’t have insurance I would be in big trouble. Isn’t the whole purpose of requiring insurance to protect the public from an uninsured driver getting into an accident and not being able to pay the victims for their damages? If what I was told is accurate, the State is really being derelict not requiring proof of insurance before the fact..

Comment by Sue Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:31 pm
I write almost no paper checks these days. It’s either cash or e-checks for the regular bills. $2.25 or 2.25% is on the way high side for an $100 È-check debit. In contrast, Springfield’s CWLP (local utility) charges 50 cents regardless of the payment amount. If this is going to become the de facto payment source, the SoS should consider trying to get a better bang for the buck.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:31 pm
47, the Governor appreciates your sacrifice for his anti-union efforts.

Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:34 pm
Local police departments must be loving this extra ticket revenue.

Comment by Anonish Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:34 pm
“Just another way Illinois nickles and dimes everyone.”

Is there a single state in the country that does not require annual renewal of vehicle registrations?

Comment by Nick Name Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:35 pm
“Only this state makes it more expensive to do it the cheapest and fastest way!”

This is false. Virtually all states apply “convenience fees” to these transactions because BANKS AND CREDIT CARD COMPANIES charge transaction fees on all such transactions. The state is statutorily compelled to collect $101 for each registration — not $101 less a convenience fee. Thus government entities are typically the ONLY entities allowed to charge convenience fees for these transactions; corporate and non-profit entities must eat the fees. Changes were made to laws regulating credit card transactions (i.e., that you can’t charge someone more for using a credit card) specifically to allow state and local government to use the process with the “convenience fee.” Otherwise the state could not collect via credit card or echeck at all — which would be LESS convenient for you and presumably upset you more.

Comment by Educ Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:37 pm
I signed up for email notice and received the following response:

Thank you for choosing to receive your license plate registration renewal by email from the Secretary of State’s Office. Secretary of State Jesse White appreciates your participation in “Going Green with Paperless License Plate Renewals.”

Your license plate email renewal notification from the Secretary of State’s Office may take one renewal cycle before it is in effect.

If it takes one renewal cycle to go into effect, that would make this a wasted action for my first renewal action. I’m going to just put a reminder in my iPhone calendar.

Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:38 pm
” If this is going to become the de facto payment source, the SoS should consider trying to get a better bang for the buck.”

Occasionally you see different convenience fees listed when you go to pay a local government with a credit card — 2.25% for Visa and MasterCard, 3% for Amex, or whatever — so sometimes they do negotiate to try to get better rates, and sometimes succeed. Occasionally you see one that’s gotten a 1% deal for being exclusive with MasterCard or something like that.

Comment by Educ Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:40 pm
Sue,

When you do it electronically, they require you fill in the insurance carrier, acct # and expiration date. I have no idea if they are able to validate it. I will say I never actually filled in the blank on the mailed notice before and always got a sticker.

Comment by Rebel13 Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:42 pm
Educ - Some other states have figured this out. Virginia actually charges less if you renew online under the theory that your renewal doesn’t require a counter person or data entry. Some states have passed a blanket authorization that agencies collecting fees will deposit the required fee minus any credit card processing fee into the appropriate account. After all, do they charge you for the person who opens the envelope and processes your paper renewal and paper check?

Comment by OutHereInTheMiddle Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:44 pm
Fees, including electronic check fees, are charged by the 3rd party that handles online transactions for the Treasurer’s office. Those costs are much lower than any individual agency or unit of government could obtain on their own thanks to scale and group buying power. Nearly every government entity uses the Treasurer’s office processor. Governmental entities using the Treasurer’s office processor receive $0 of any convenience or processing fee. The Treasurer’s office may receive a portion, but because these fees without them facilitating the service would otherwise be higher, this ends up being better than free.

I do think fees, like vehicle registration, in excess of actual costs seem like dishonest forms of taxation. I’m fine with raising gas taxes and income taxes as needed to support government operations, but fees just seem to be a way that politicians pretend they kept taxes low, when they did not. Of course, in the current tax phobic environment, I expect more, not fewer, fees for practically everything.

Comment by AC Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:46 pm
Wouldn’t it be nice to go to a two or three year sticker? We wouldn’t have the long lines at SOS, through retirement we could reduce the number of state employees and save a couple million annually on postage. Make it optional so those who can afford it may want to, while those who can’t still only have to buck up the min. I should have been appointed to that govt consolidation and anti Union task force!

Comment by Blue dog dem Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:51 pm
Educ,

The banks do not charge 2.25% on electronic transfers. The average fee ranges from $0.30 to $1.50 per eCheck transaction. I would think the State of Illinois would qualify for the volume discount. Also, how much does it cost to open the facility, employ a person or people to talk with the customer, accept a check, process and deposit a check? I am sure the people that work at the SOS don’t work for minmum wage an no benefits. That is what I am referring to when I say “Only this state makes it more expensive to do it the cheapest and fastest way!”

Comment by Rebel13 Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:51 pm
AC, you’re telling us that the Treasurer’s “best deal anywhere” is 4.5 times as high as the Podunk City of Springfield, right?

That’s how the math comes out. Is the $1.75 per transaction difference the Treasurer’s “facilitation fee” in your words? Jeez, people have gone to the slammer for that.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:00 pm
I was wondering if anyone would pick up this story/angle. I jet experienced the process: $60 ticket from police telling me plates expired plus $101 for registration plus $20 late fee equals $181 for license plate renewal, which equals priceless for Illinois. Secretary of State will make even mor money with fewer mailings plus late fees. How about email/text notification.

Comment by Rambler pride Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:01 pm
no wonder it was so quiet when I went in to purchase my sticker, on time. it was wonderful!

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:04 pm
== Wouldn’t it be nice to go to a two or three year sticker? ==

Just buy a vehicle 25+ years old, register it with Antique (AV) plates good for 5 years, and take it for lots of “test drives” and “repairs”.

/partially snark

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:04 pm
Need to check my camping trailer; wouldn’t wan to lose the plate on it.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:06 pm
A majority of drivers renewed their stickers on their own. The state saved taxpayers a lot of money. Stop complaining and start being responsible for yourself.

Comment by anon Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:12 pm
RNUG, excellent point there. Save on insurance too.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:16 pm
===I guess if you really want to pay the $101 that is the legal charge, you must have to go there in person.===

I pay only the $101 for the new sticker by mail and using a check.

===Only this state makes it more expensive to do it the cheapest and fastest way!===

Use of credit cards are, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Board, more expensive for purchases such as renewing a plate sticker. Cash and checks are less costly for most retail transactions.

Comment by Hit or Miss Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:22 pm
Arthur Andersen, it looks like the city of Springfield uses CollectorSolution which also charges a higher fee than SOS (and state agencies) for credit card fees and less for check processing. I also do not know if the city of Springfield subsidizes the check fee, many places do because they take into consideration reduced costs due to automation. The fees charged still vary and are dependent on the amount charged, number of charge backs or fraudulent transactions for most processors.

Comment by AC Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:29 pm
AA,

Yes, ironically, collector car insurance can be quite cheap if you are not using the vehicle as a daily driver, assuming you also have a “modern” vehicle registered for each driver.

Aside from the fact that, legally, you can only drive AV vehicles to and from shows and for repairs, it’s a good plan. I know quite a few people who really push the envelope because most non-SOS law enforcement (Chicago aside) tend to overlook it.

Seriously, if you own an old car and DON’T drive it in the winter (Nov 1 - Mar 30), check into the Expanded Antique (EA) plate category. Only a 1 year period but only cost 1/2 normal price and it is legal to drive as a normal car, including to work, the 7 months of Spring through Fall.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:32 pm
I now have 2 vehicles that are past due. I checked with the local license service. You have 30 days past the date on the sticker to renew. Therefore 11/15 stickers have until 12/15 to pay. If you do not pay by 12/31/15 then there is an additional $20 charge (in addition to the regular $101 plus his $5 fee)

IMO I would not push the AV line. They do not look kindly upon it.

Comment by BIG R. Ph. Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:38 pm
@- We Aren’t Your ATM - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:19 pm:

How Ironic-

“Wondering why I have to pay a $101 fee for literally nothing”

Literally nothing…so says you. And yes, you do sound eerily similar to the ’sovereign citizens/tea party/free ride conservatives’ who complain about everything related to taxes.

Don’t like them, move to KY. It’s like $30/year (yes, each year).

I’m in CA, and only wished my car was $101.

Comment by How Ironic Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 6:14 pm
Can I bill the state $2.25 fee for the convenience of e-notifying me?

Comment by anon Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 6:24 pm
I renewed my driver’s license over the phone. Two weeks after I received it in the mail, I got another piece of mail from the Secretary of State’s Office thanking me for being an organ donor. Really? There’s money to thank me for doing the right thing but not money to send out renewal notices?

Comment by CCP Hostage Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 7:35 pm
==Two weeks after I received it in the mail, I got another piece of mail from the Secretary of State’s Office thanking me for being an organ donor. Really? There’s money to thank me for doing the right thing but not money to send out renewal notices?==

Heh..

Comment by Wensicia Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 8:53 pm
Really glad I saw this topic…just checked and mine expires this month. I wouldn’t have remembered !

Comment by Anotherretiree Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 9:03 pm
Oops! I guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow. Good thing I read this blog to help me stay informed. Thanks for the great public service Rich.

Comment by The unknown poster Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 9:08 pm
I better call the other half and have her check our plate sticker, hard to do it for me from the West Coast. I hate paying late fee’s.

Comment by FormerParatrooper Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 9:15 pm
Illinois will make more money, if anything. Payments after the expiration are what? $20? Add on to that the tickets issued by the police…how would Illinois lose money?!

Comment by Shanks Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 9:16 pm
AC, that’s good information. Thanks for following up. Your point that the check/credit card fees may reflect some “blending” and/or charge backs is well made and well taken.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 9:18 pm
“noting it could save $450,000 a month”

Wow. Yep, nothing left to streamline (maybe privatize?) in state government. Not like any other large entity or business has ever been successful in asking for text, email numbers and send this all out for a couple hundred bucks tops… and mail the remaining hold-outs for a fraction of the cost. What a joke.

Comment by Robert the 1st Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 9:42 pm
It should also be noted that most people’s time is worth a whole lot more than the cost of an eCheck or the credit card fee when you consider the time it takes to go to the Secretary of State’s office stand in line do the transaction and then go back to wherever your house or your office.

Comment by Cheswick Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 11:19 pm
I never seen so many cry babies. Is that where were at in society today, that you can have a license plate sticker on your car that you can see 12 months of the year, but you’re going to complain to the State that they never reminded you when your expiration date is coming up? What a joke. We are truly in trouble. I don’t even think there was a comment that the SOS doesn’t even charge a late fee until the following month! Yes that’s right…same price 30 days after your due date. The big bad State of Illinois is really out to get you. It’s actually law enforcement that can ticket you the first day after your expiration month. But no…let’s complain about corrupt Illinois and how dare they charge a transaction fee for an e-check or credit card. And maybe the State should be responsible for reminding us when to go the doctor. I mean they should know. I think I’ll use a cliché that’s already been used..”What a joke.”

Comment by anon Wednesday, Jan 6, 16 @ 12:38 am
Anon,

You have missed the point by calling us crybabies. Good business practices say that one should “Bill” you for services. Anon, do you get a bill from Comed, Nicor, water bill, garbage bill, insurance bill, credit card bill, property tax bill? This is what is considered good business practices. A bill for services. SOS is saying it is too expensive for them to bill you or they figure they can make more money when you forget.

Comment by Rebel13 Wednesday, Jan 6, 16 @ 7:46 am
Can someone explain to me what service I get for “renewing” my registration?

What if we just take away everything you enjoy as a citizen and just charge you for the stuff you use? Is that how you want to live? Government taxes and fees are what we pay as citizens in a democracy. We pay for our costs, and then we pay for those who cannot pay. This keeps everything functioning.

You aren’t getting ripped off. Comparing what we pay as citizens to our communities, as though we are buying coffee at Dunkin Donuts, is exposing yourself as gullible and uneducated.

Being a consumer is about you, but being a citizen is about being a part of something bigger than you. Go back to civics class if you are still confused - that is, if our schools are still attempting to educate people into understanding their roles as citizens in a democracy.

The fault might not be yours alone, but you are still capable of reading, writing and understanding that you are more than just a guy with nickels and dimes, a wallet or a purse, a consumer or a monkey.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jan 6, 16 @ 8:51 am