TAMPA - Florida residents no longer have to pay a $3 "convenience fee" to renew their vehicle and boating licenses over the Internet, state and local officials announced Wednesday.
The change, which went into effect Oct. 1, was made possible through an agreement between the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the state's tax collectors.
Renewals are available online through the Internet site www.GoRenew.com The new policy eliminates the $3 fee for motor vehicle registrations, disabled parking placards and driver's licenses.
The fee has historically been charged although online renewals are actually cheaper for government. For instance, it costs the Hillsborough County Tax Collector about $8 in overhead to handle a typical motor vehicle registration for someone who goes to one of its offices. The same renewal handled online costs about 90 cents.
In return for eliminating the fee, the state' tax collectors agreed to give the state a greater percentage of the fees they normally collect for renewals.
About 100,000 people renew online each month in Florida.
Officials say they hope that dropping the fee will persuade more people to renew online, which in turn could reduce lines at offices, said Hillsborough Tax Collector Doug Belden, who is president of Florida Tax Collectors Inc., the state association for tax collectors.
