Call Kurtis: Problems Online with the DMV

Be careful before you renew your registration or driver's license online. Renewing online is supposed to be easy, but this is the third time we've heard of someone using the Department of Motor Vehicle's website getting a confirmation, then getting hit with hefty late fees.

"Well I would say it was kind of an obsession for a while. It was a lot of time," said Jann Mayo, of Stockton.

Jann can't count the number of hours and energy burned trying to resolve her accounting problem with DMV. It should have been easy; she's an accountant. But this goes beyond numbers.

She renewed the registration for her husband's truck online in early October, weeks before the due date.

Her proof is the printout in her hand "...that says you've successfully renewed." The tags came and her husband Richard put them on.

But when she got a notice weeks later she learned her payment hadn't gone through.

"Now due is $245."

That's $121 in penalties because the DMV says her payment didn't go through when she checked her bank statement; it's true the money never came out.

Last year we told you about John Bruno who says he paid online, got a confirmation notice, and also got his registration stickers. The DMV also slapped him with late fees saying his payment was rejected by his bank.

"It's obvious.  Something at the DMV didn't go right."

The same kind of thing happened to Dorothy Wallace after she tried to renew her driver's license online.

"One of those things where you think, you know, government.  You'd think they have a great system. They don't" she said.

So why does the DMV screen say your renewal was successful if it wasn't? That's a question consumer advocate Rosemary Shahan has some thoughts about.

"It's a thumbs-down," she says.

Shahan, of CarConsumer.org, says the agency should change its online payment system.

"If your transaction doesn't go through online you know right away that it didn't go through and rectify it before you're faced with a heavy penalty" she says about what should happen.

The DMV tells us its current system can't "simultaneously verify the validity of the e-check" like it can with credit and debit cards.

And they send out new tags and licenses as a "courtesy." In all three of these cases the DMV blamed the consumer for mistakes with inputting their checking account numbers and refused to back down, assessing penalties.

They say there's a disclaimer on the website that says it's "subject to the availability of funds from your bank."

And customers are required to enter their account number twice so it's their responsibility to get it right.

Jann wonders "how do you trust the system so that you can continue to use the registration renewal online?"

Know this:  when entering information online you must have every digit exactly right. If one digit is off you may later get hit with late fees.

The DMV says it is looking into a system that can immediately verify checking accounts; it's just a question of money since they don't have many customers who make mistakes with the electronic check process.