Renewing auto tags online - not for the faint of heart

[dreamshark]

 The current version of the MN DPS website is predictably kind of a mess. If you persist, it is possible to renew your tabs online starting with the URL they tell you to go to, but in retrospect I wish I'd just looked for a stamp and mailed it in. *sheesh*

• To start with, do not be so foolish as to start the process using a Chrome browser. It will fail on the very last step (at least if you are paying by credit card). Just use Internet Explorer and save yourself the aggravation. 
• It is amazingly hard to get to the right location on the website if you start with the URL they give you in the DVS Renewal form. If you do it right you'll have to click 3 or 4 times and scroll all the way to the bottom of the page at least once. 
• If you do it wrong, you will somehow get shunted to an evil, deceptive, ought-to-be-illegal 3rd party "service" called stateregistration.org that wants to "help" you fill out the online form and charge you $20 to do it. I still don't know how I got there. Unfortunately, I gave them my name, address, phone and cc info before I noticed that the amount was way more than the amount on my bill and I wasn't on dvs.dps.mn.gov anymore. Since I didn't submit, I hope they didn't get any of that info. 
• Try this URL to get directly to the renew tabs page
• If you want to pay with a credit card you do have to go to a 3rd party page powered by US Bank, but the service fee is only 2.4%, not $20+