At Midnight Nov. 30, the grace period to renew potentially hundreds of thousands of Illinois license plates expired – and many of them may have been completely unaware.
At the end of September, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White suspended mailing out notices of license renewal due to the Illinois budget stalemate.
That action was expected to save about $450,000 monthly in the postal fund so White’s office could continue sending out new vehicle titles and plates and stickers and such.
Vehicle owners do have the option of requesting a reminder by email through the Secretary of State website. A Registration ID and PIN – which can be gleaned from current car registration or by phone -- are needed to sign in.
Illinois automatically allows a one-month grace period to renew license stickers, but anyone who didn’t receive a reminder for expiring October 2015 registration – and didn’t renew their plates – probably owes a late fee in addition to the annual registration fee.
Anyone whose license-plate sticker is for November 2015 has the rest of this month to make them current, but it may be advisable to do that in person at a Secretary of State facility.
Drivers might be well advised to check their license sticker today and enter a reminder into their phones. People who prefer visual reminders may want to write the renewal date on a sticky note, and post it in a prominent location.