Just Renew Online!
Woman in the Middle | October 16, 2017Four years have passed in a heartbeat and it is time to renew my driver’s license. The good news is I do not have to go in to the office, take any tests or, god forbid, get my photo taken. Yay!
The letter the DMV sent me with all that good news also informed me I could renew online. Well, I thought, why not? Save a stamp and get it in the DMV’s system that much quicker. Online it will be! Oh, that at almost 56 I can still be so naive.
Even though they gave me a special number I needed to use to renew online, I soon discovered that was not nearly enough. I had to create an online account. Well, still easier than mailing it in, so on I went. In addition to giving them my name, rank, and serial number, I also had to pick five, yes five, security questions from a long list of questions they provided. You know, everything from the name of the city you were born in to the first name of your favorite school teacher. I stopped at three. That was not good enough. I had to do all five. Keep in mind I had to pick five questions I could actually answer (who knows the first name of their favorite teacher?). More importantly, I had to pick five questions I could remember the answers to! Will I remember the color of my first car when push comes to shove? Will I remember that I put down the city I was born in, as opposed to the city my parents lived in when I was born?
I got all that filled in, finally, hit the send button and…nothing. When I tried to send it with just three security questions, it erased my password. I refilled in the password, picked two more secority questions, and hit send again. Still nothing. I had filled in the date that was on my license incorrectly. This time I lost my password and all the answers to the five security questions. Come on, how hard can this be? I corrected the date, filled in the password again, and answered all the security questions again. Hit the send button…and it still wouldn’t go through.
At that point I gave up. I filled out a check and the stub on the paperwork they sent me, put it in the envelope provided and called it good. I should have done that in the first place!
I’m snorting coffee here! This sounds so familiar. Our DMV is much simpler but there are websites that make me crazy. My bank has implemented such high security (a good thing) but like you I may not remember the answers I give. I selected my high school name. Now will I remember whether I just used the name or the name followed by High School? I noted my answers on my password sheet. You know, the one you’re not supposed to have because someone may break in and steal it? With it I would never be able to access anything! BTW our neighbor has an account on-line that is activated by his voice. If he’s at all groggy, it won’t believe it’s him. Hysterical.
Popped my license renewal in the mail today. So simple….and no security questions at all!!!
Oh yeah sometimes doing it online is easier said than done, I have a computer book where I keep a list of answers to those damn questions
I hope I don’t need to retake my test when mine needs to be renewed. I hope I can just send it in to the DMV. I will do it like you. That sounds so much more reasonable!