A quick post about stupid fees. Typically this type of post would be in reference to Ticketmaster. This time it is about Minnesota Driver & Vehicle Services.
I’ve been renewing my tabs online for the last several years. I figured this was a great deal for both sides of the equation. Convenient for me, and cheaper for the state of Minnesota. After all, I’m doing their data entry work for them. Really, all they need to do is have an automated system print my name and address on an envelope and shove the appropriate month’s stickers into the envelope. The picture of automation.
However, a new fee has greeted me with my most recent renewal. It now costs an extra $1.25 for me to submit my credit card information online. Yes, this means that if I send my renewal request by writing my credit card number on a form and mailing it to the DVS it actually costs me less. It costs me less to require a human being to type in my credit card information. This is a minimum that assumes other information is entered automatically by the human typing my VIN or some other such ID number into their system. This also assumes that from there the automated system can take over in printing and stuffing my envelope.
And it’s bull. The fee is “to offset the cost of electronic payment processing.” There are two options here. Either a) the system the DVS has developed or purchased does not pay for itself in efficiency, in which case they never should have built/bought the system or b) the “electronic payment processing” fee is actually just a convenience fee (where have we heard that before?). I believe the answer is (b), which basically means I’m being lied to. It certainly costs no more to submit an electronic credit card payment whether it is submitted by a system overnight or by a human at a computer. And, of course, batch credit card payments have the potential to be cheaper.
(I threw this post out quickly - I anticipate a lot of “yeah, but” responses.)
Comments (3)
I see your point, but can also see the state’s point. It may very well cost almost as much to renew online, and the state just did the online thing to make it more “convenient” for their customers. I really doubt there is some sort of fully automated system. The paid renewals probably print off but require a large degree of handling to actually be mated up with the stickers, checked for accuracy, and sent through the mailer. It seems simple, but they somehow managed to lose Janna’s in the process a couple months ago.
That, and the DVS is not exactly a for-profit business in the traditional sense that other credit card acceptors are. The money they collect goes into the funding stream to pay for new roads, maintenance, etc. The legislature designates that all the money they collect go to that, so they can’t exactly skim off a little to pay for the processing fees like a for-profit company can. Since they are a government entity all of the money they collect has to go to what they collect it for.
But yeah, it is stupid. Very annoying.
I can’t wait to see if Mr. Know-It-All chimes in to tell us all about how stupid the fee is from an economics standpoint, and how a private corporation could do it better if we’d just be smart enough to finally reject the government.
BEWARE THE ONLINE RENEWAL SYSTEM! As Luke mentioned, the twits somehow lost my tabs in the mail, forcing me to go into a DMV office to get replacement stickers (which of course defeats the purpose of me renewing online), but not before I was slapped with a $100 ticket for having expired tabs. Naturally, I contested the ticket and it was dismissed, but I had to take time from work to go in and contest it and listen to the hearing officer say to me (shaking his head) “You should NEVER renew your tabs online. Always go in in person…it’s so quick and simple.” He did concede this notion when I pointed out that both methods of encouraged renewal (online and mail-in) would require the DMV to mail me my tabs, and it was probably easiest for him to renew his tabs in person because he could simply walk down the hall at his leisure during his work hours.
Buy yeah, online renewal sucks - I feel your pain.
That’s a crap situation, Janna.
I guess the DVS is stupid for either a) implementing a system that doesn’t make the process more efficient (i.e. save money) or b) botching the implementation of a system that should have made the process more efficient. In either case, if it actually does cost the DVS more for me to submit my tab renewal online then they should call it a “convenience fee” rather than a fee “to offset the cost of electronic payment processing.†That’s bullshit.
I’m the biggest propenent of convenient online means to complete transactions. But the idea is the process should be cheaper. If it isn’t, I don’t want the government to give the public the option because it thinks we’d like the convenience. It really doesn’t seem like a quality of life issue to me. It’s not like anyone was elected on the “convenient license tab payment structure” platform (though I could see Dick Day running on an issue like that).
It wouldn’t have killed me to write a check and lick a stamp.