Just renewed my rego and have been seeing a lot of promotion on short term rego by Vicroads . Totally understand it's an easier option and you don't have to pay a lot up front but why would they promote it when it means less revenue coming in for them upfront . Hoping to hear your thoughts in case there is something obvious I'm missing.
Because people want it and they are listening.
The cynic in me thinks it's because they want it to lapse more and fine people more. The realist in me is that there was no reason for a year, breaking up a big bill is good.
Vicroads don't make any money off people getting fined for driving unregistered vehicles.
But vicroads is government run. It is run with taxes and other government revenue which include fines.
As someone who's worked in government departments, that's not how it works. Vicroads will get a set budget every year, which doesn't depend on people getting fined.
What you're saying is the same thing as teachers, for example, (who are government employees) will also want you to be fined more too.
Because winter is coming (economically)
Because they make more money from short term renewals. They inflate license fees every year, if you locked in for 10 years they miss out on this inflation payment.
More chance of the driver forgetting to renew if its quarterly.
Because it means they can keep increasing it at the current rate. So in a few years time they can say "oh it's only $300 a quarter" rather than $1200 annually…. Makes it sound cheaper.
Sounds a lot like rates doesn’t it?
It's not the registration fee goes up as much, it's the TAC fee. With the road trauma rates we have, TAC fee will keep going up.
The road toll was down 17.4% last year in VIC. You can be sure the TAC fee won't drop this year in response.
The death toll might be down, but what about the injury rate and total accident rate?
@Euphemistic: I'm going to assume the TAC fee's are going up each year simply because they can. But happy to be shown that the road trauma rate, total injury rate and total accident rate is increasing as the road toll is decreasing. But I couldn't find anything to suggest that's the case.
I just want a digital licence
Just a random guess - they could be getting too many requests for rego refunds, either from people who have lost their licenses for traffic offences, writeoffs, and or people who simply can't afford to maintain their cars anymore.
The administrative costs of refunding might be high and there may be the indirect benefits where people don't bother seeking a refund for smaller amounts.
Or they have simply decided to get with the times to allow periodic payments like every other service provider and make some profit from the additional $2.45 fee for each renewal.
I don't think you can get it unless you give them your Credit Card details.
Def some great comments validating exactly what I was thinking - thanks guys
and yet despite knowing this, people still voted for this govt. Stockholm syndrome methinks.
You could just continue paying your rego yearly if you want…?
why would they promote it when it means less revenue coming in for them upfront
Its not LESS revenue, they get the same amount per car per year, just spread over upto 4 payments.
As its all digital, its no loss to them. Its all automatic anyhow.
Due to Apex gang carjackings.
Given Vic has no annual rego inspections like NSW and all you need to do is keep paying the rego why shouldn’t you be able to pay in instalments over the year? Direct debit, set forget.
NSW has the option for 3, 6 and 12month rego, but requires the annual inspection as well so it kinda makes sense to pay once per year (plus the shorter options cost a bit more). I recently renewed our vehicles for 6 months to get the big rego payment away from Christmas and reverted straight back to annual rego. I’d rather keep the money in my offset account and reduce the mortgage than give it to the government in smaller instalments and lose the offset. I can understand why people who live pay check to pay check would do it in the smaller instalments more regularly though.
I’d rather keep the money in my offset account and reduce the mortgage than give it to the government in smaller instalments and lose the offset.
Rego is paid in advance, so you're better off paying it in smaller instalments.
Is the payment split to the same portion of the annual fee. Ie Do they charge you extra for paying it in instalments. I need to push back our rego between cars so I don't get 2 rego bills in the same month. If it doesn't cost me anything to make it as a 3mth payment as its just 1/4 payments of annual then that would be good.
So weird. Daniel Andrews just did a Facebook post about this today. Looks like some of their social media staff are on OzBargain!
It was a government initiative for those who need a vehicle but can't afford the big one off payment (~$800). Makes sense to me. Press Release from 2017