Submitted by exhilaration t3_1110hcl in Pennsylvania
I got a renewal notice for my driver's license back in December and it lists the fee as $30.50. But when I go to renew online, the price is $36.50 - as confirmed by the schedule of fees ("Four-Year License Renewal"). What gives? Is it just more expensive to renew online? Did the price go up? I can't find any article talking about this.
EDIT: Updated with screenshots -- https://imgur.com/a/n8R4hJv
If you go to the DMV go about 10 min before they close. I didn’t realize that they have a legit armed security guard come and lock the door. People were being crazy. Trying to sneak in as customers opened the door to leave. People were pounding on the doors. The security guard was yelling at people.
Think of your $6 as a ticket to a show. Maybe bring a snack.
But you don't have to go in person, you can just mail them a check!!! And save $6! That's a lot of money, have I really been paying that much extra all these years? Also I updated the post with screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/n8R4hJv
I'm mailing them fuckers a check and they can pay someone to open my envelope and deposit or scan that check. Some damn bullshit going on here.
Shit they didn't have armed guards in my county... LOL
Ahah. This was Huntington valley DMV. People were getting rowdy.
> you just paid the 6$
FTFY.
Although payed exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. The deck is yet to be payed.
Payed out when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. The rope is payed out! You can pull now.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
Beep, boop, I'm a bot
Jesus these bots are getting out of hand.
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There needs to be a there, their, they’re bot and maybe a then/than one. Yeah I’m that guy.
Your/you’re as well….
Yeah your write.
/s
Yore not funny.
I hate when people use the wrong their/there/they’re as much as the next guy, but I think that programming a bot to correct that would be a lot more complex.
Sometimes autocorrect gets me and changes it so you might be right.
Can we get a “lose not loose” bot too? What’s with people not being able to spell lose?
Helping your ass how to spell correctly, but your ego is hurt by a bot lol
I think your ass might be missing a word in that sentence
You still mad, bro? This was 8 hours ago — I’ve moved on with my life since then 😂
And yet here you are replying
You crack me up bro
English isn’t everyone’s first language and it’s not helpful having a smarmy ass bot pop out to grammar nazi you.
People who learn English as an additional language tend not to make mistakes like this with homophones because they learn the language in written and oral form at the same time.
This is the kind of mistake made by someone who learned English by hearing it spoken around them.
Let today be a lesson in hubris for you.
We wouldn't need them if people could just learn basic elementary school grammar.
Covers their AOL dial-up fee.
All these fees but can’t maintain a single road in this state
But the rural areas are getting Free State Police.
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Keep um
Generally the extra fee is to cover electronic payment processing fees levied by 3rd party payment processors. States are also generally not allowed to eat the cost because you'd be taking money out of the "pockets" (paid taxes) of people that chose to show up and pay in person. Tax collectors in other municipalities and states all charge similar fees.
That said, $6.00 is insane and way over priced. Someone should get around to auditing that department and figure out who they're using as a payment processor.
They have to pay teams to maintain the payment system. It does need a minimal amount of integration and maintenance to keep it up to date.
If y'all have teams of people maintaining a payment system then something is very, very wrong.
I would like to apply to be on this team full time
You need to maintain the site and the interoperability, paying for the SLA, etc. The payment processing integration must be maintained. Not the service itself.
Breakdown time:
In 2019 there were just over 9,000,000 licensed drivers in PA. Assuming about 50% renewed online, and assuming an even spread over 4 years, you're talking 1,250,000 renewing per year online. That's $6,750,000 per year.
There's no way that the SLA, maintenance, hardware costs, and plugins cost that per year alone. If it does, going back to an initial statement, something is very, very wrong.
A 6 million dollar a year CMS with integrations is pretty common at the federal level. I don't think the economics would change that much at the state level for a critical site 🤷♂️.
really? the federal level only encompasses 50 states, i guess its not that different.. /s
But the complexity doesn't scale with users. Sure you might have more AWS or Azure costs, but you are still left with the complexity of a CMS with multiple integrations. You still going to need an SLA/support comparible with any federal run CMS. It might be even harder depending on budgets around supporting services.
They have to pay for buildings and actual people in meat space. What’s your point?
Christ you folks are argumentive. SE, Ops, and technical PMs are all paid easily double if not triple the cost than a warm body standing at a desk. Per my other comment, a site like this can easily be a few million a year to build and maintain.
Electrons are expensive...
9,119,280 licensed drivers in PA
@ $6 per renewal
= $54,715,680.
Who runs the 3rd party payment processing companies and how are they connected to our politicians?
Make sure you are on the PennDOT official website, penndot.pa.gov or dmv.pa.gov. There are many impersonation sites online that will gladly take your money and not renew your license/registration.
I just checked and took a screenshot, take a look: https://imgur.com/a/n8R4hJv
Yeah looks like the right site but a "convenience fee" added.
Rates went up January-9th and appears to be retroactive. If you had paid before then, it would be $30.50 as expected. One would think the rate quoted would be what's due, but PA is desperate for revenue. Very shady!
Chalk it up as a learning experience to pay government related bills promptly. Not something I'd given much thought too either. My DL expires in December of next year and is something I will be keeping an eye on. May be worth upgrading to Real ID this year, which may extend another 2-4 years or just renewing early (think one can do so up to around 6 months ahead).
P.S. You could just mail payment in. Presumably, they'd honor the $30.50 rate. Very bizarre situation.
Thank you so much, this is exactly the explanation I was looking for. Just to satisfy my own curiosity, is there a link or article that mentions rates going up? I googled before posting this and found nothing.
No, you went to a third party site. It should be gov not com. Third party site comes up first and you have to go down to search to see the gov site. Basically it’s dmv gov something pa
Ok I just double-checked and saved the screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/n8R4hJv
They are crooks.
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New year, higher fee.
The time I save doing this online is worth far more than $6.
Southboundthylacine t1_j8cu6en wrote
Your time is money and if you go to a penndot location you’ll wish you just paid the 6$