When I moved back to the state of Minnesota a few years ago, I re-registered both of my cars on the same day. The benefit of doing so made the license plate numbers really easy to remember because they are one number off i.e. OLDCAR1 and OLDCAR2.

The unfortunate part about registering them on the same day is that I get the letter in the mail demanding to re-up on the registration on the same day. So I get to see the message pictured twice in the same day on the DVS site. Seeing it once, you see the sticker shock of needing to pay $45 bucks to own a car you can operate on roads….. other than having insurance.

Seeing it the second time, I got a little bit angry at the fact that they needed to charge me $9.50 extra because….. they can. I possibly could’ve saved $1.75 if I had decided to go down to the DVS and wanted to wait in line with 30 to 40 other folks at Sears. I will pay $1.75 to not have to get into my car, but having to pay a $6 handling fee implies there is a way to get around this cost if I did something like drive down to the capitol and handed the state treasurer a check. If they are unavoidable fees that are part of what it costs to register your car then why isn’t part of the base fee?

Have you ever received any benefit from having your car registered? Do you prefer fees to be broken down when they are unavoidable?