To drive on public Alberta roadways you must have a valid driver's licence, vehicle registration, and insurance. Licensing and registration is done at a Calgary registry office, such as Registry @ South Trail Crossing. Both your licence and your registration must be periodically renewed in order to remain valid.
The Government of Alberta, for decades, used to mail out renewal reminders when renewal dates were coming up, a service which cost taxpayers $3 million a year. In an effort to save money, especially given current economic conditions, the government stopped sending out mail reminders on April 1, 2016. Electronic reminder systems for licence and vehicle registration renewals have now been set up instead. Unfortunately, many drivers were unaware of this change and, as a result, have found themselves receiving expensive tickets for driving around with expired paperwork. The current base fine for displaying an expired licence plate in Alberta is $230. Whether you knew about the changes or not, law enforcement has been enforcing the new rules and handing out hefty fines, typically for drivers with expired validation stickers, as they can be easily spotted. There are two exceptions to Alberta's new renewal reminder policy. The government will continue to mail reminders indefinitely to Albertans with disabilities, and until April 1, 2017 to seniors who are over the age of 70. Everyone else, however, is now responsible for either remembering or taking care to set up other methods of reminding themselves when their license and registrations expire. Here are some simple, free, and easy ways to make sure you don't forget: 1. Mark renewal dates in your calendar One easy way to remind yourself that it's time to visit your Calgary registry is to check when your licence and registration expire and mark the dates on a calendar. Depending on its class, your driver’s licence will renew on your birthday every 1 to 5 years. Your auto registration expires yearly, on the last day of a specific month according to your last name. You can check Service Alberta's registration expiry date chart to find your month. 2. Go to our website and sign up for our free, secure, automated renewal reminder service. An excellent option for making sure you don't miss your renewal dates is to sign up for free online reminders. You can sign up for driver's licence, ID cards and vehicle registration renewal reminders by simply visiting our website at www.registrystc.com and subscribe for the reminder service using your email or phone number. On the 15th of the month prior to your vehicle plate renewal month and again on the first day of your renewal month you will receive an e-mail or a SMS text message (your choice) advising you that your vehicle licence plates are due to renew. For your driver’s licence or ID card renewals, you will receive notification on the 1st and the 15th of the month before your expiry month. The service is free, protected by privacy laws and you can cancel at any time. 3. Visit our office and we will sign you up for our free automated renewal reminder service Perhaps the easiest way to make sure that you never forget to renew your licence and registration and to avoid an expensive ticket is to visit one of our registry offices and let us register you in our program. Please feel free to visit one of our two convenient locations, and we'll get you set up with our renewal reminder service today. If you have any questions check out our FAQ page. At Registry @ South Trail Crossing, we understand that the changes to Alberta's renewal reminder system have caught many drivers off guard. We offer our customer’s an automated renewal reminder service that is simple, reliable and private. Let us help you avoid costly traffic penalties.
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