How do i renew my Car's license plate sticker in Ontario and when is a good time to do the renewal?

Question

Just a few months ago, my dad gifted me a Dodge Caravan Minivan since he wasn't driving much and he is getting too old to drive anyways. I am quite glad to receive the car as a gift and i had been wanting to buy a new car for myself, but i could do with a gifted car even though it is a bit old. I was wondering when i should be renewing my Ontario license plate sticker and what are the steps to do the renewal?

One of my friend did not renew his license plate sticker and he was driving around his dad's car all this while, until one fine day, he got stopped by the cops. Luckily for him, the car belongs to his dad and his dad was out of country at that time. That friend of mine still got a ticket in spite of the good reason and when he went to fight the ticket in the court, the judge had to dropped the ticket against him because the car belongs to his dad and the renewal dates was supposed to fall on the birthday of his dad. So my friend wouldn't necessary remember to inform his dad to renew the license plate sticker every time it is due for renewal. So the fault somehow lies with his dad. If the Car had belonged to him then the renewal date would fall on his birthday, and he could remember to renew his license plate sticker.

Answer 1

In Ontario, the easiest way to know if your car is due for license plate sticker renewal is to follow your birthday dates. You can either renew your license plate sticker for 1 year validity or 2 year validity depending on your choice. So when your birthday arrives, you would know that it is already time to renew your license plate sticker. Service Ontario actually allows you to renew your license plate sticker 180 days or 6 months before the expiry date. However you should have paid all your outstanding defaulted drivers fines before you want to renew your car license plate sticker.

There are two ways of renewing your car license plate sticker:

1. Online at Ontario License Plate Sticker Renewal.

2. At a ServiceOntario Centre near your place.

Either way, you will need to follow the steps below to successfully renew your license plate sticker:

1. Provide your vehicle permit number. This number starts with a letter followed by 7 digits. Example: A1234567

2. Provide your license plate number. Example: ABCD 123

3. Provide your insurance company name and policy number.

4. Provide your vehicle's odometer reading. {The number of kilometers that your car had traveled}

5. Provide your drive clean information such as your vehicle inspection certificate number and drive clean 6 character security code. (I have noticed that these days, you do not have to provide this information because it seems like when you do the drive clean test in a mechanic garage authorized to do the test, he would have already uploaded the information into the computer system connected with the Ontario Drive test system. So when you go for your renewal, they don't usually ask for this information as it has already been uploaded into their system by the mechanic)

If you happen to renew your license plate sticker at the very last minute before the sticker expires, you can print out and carry your extended vehicle validation period receipt in your car. This receipt is valid for 10 days after the expiry date until you receive your new sticker in the mail. If a cops happen to pull you over for expired license plate sticker and you provide this printed document receipt, then you should be okay.

Answer 2

Watch video on "How to prevent theft on your car license plate and the plate stickers attached on it" :

Answer 3

A lot of people asked about what they should do when they received their car's license plate sticker in Ontario?

The answer here below will help them with affixing the license plate sticker on their vehicle.

1. This is what you will get when you get your car license plate sticker on the mail.

2. You will stick the colored bigger license sticker on the rear license plate (For personal use vehicles) of your car. The license plate sticker should be placed on the upper right corner of your rear license plate. You will know this big license plate sticker when you touch it because it feels like a smooth colored plastic sticker.

3. The other smaller white paper type sticker is for sticking onto your green vehicle permit document. Although they have provided 2 of these paper type sticker, you will only need to affix one of them on your vehicle permit document. The other one is probably a spare one for you to keep in case the other one gets misplaced.

Answer 4

What is the new ontario license plate stickers requirements being removed all about?

The Ontario government had announced effective 13th March, 2022, for owners of passenger vehicles, light duty trucks, motorcycles, and mopeds, they will be not be required to have their license plate sticker affixed on the rear license plate panel top right corner anymore.

However, caution should be noted that all vehicles license plates will "Still" have to renewed prior to its expiry date for another 1 or 2 years. The only difference this time, is that renewal of license plate is "Free" of cost and can be conveniently done online through ServiceOntario Website or In-person visit at their local ServiceOntario centres. Whereas previously this same license plate renewal would have cost about $120 per year for owners of vehicles (Southern Ontario).

Many people wrongly assumed that since there is no need to affix any license plate sticker to the rear license plate anymore, there won't have to worry about license renewal anymore forever. License plate will still "Continue" to be required to be renewed for a period of 1 or 2 years for all vehicle owners but now without any charge or cost at all. 

The reason why license plate renewal is still required although it is free of cost now, is that the ServiceOntario wants to confirm the validity of auto insurance of the vehicles owners, any outstanding highway tolls have been paid or not, any municipality fines have been paid or not. 

Before renewing your license plate, it is very important for you that the above mentioned tolls and fines have been paid up to date, auto insurance is valid, your most recent address change have been updated. 

In case if you need to change and update your current address, you can do so at Ontario.ca/addresschange or call ServiceOntario dedicated line @ 18883330049 .

For those people who have already paid for 2 years license plate stickers, before this new policy changes took place on 13th March 2022, the Ontario Government will refund by cheque in the mail, for the remaining unused portion period of the license plate stickers validity to vehicles owner. 

Remember to keep a record of the date you renewed your license plate, and for whether 1 year or 2 year option you chose. One easy way to remember this, is to remember your birthday "Day" and "Month". 

Example:- If your birthday Day, Month is 13th March and you renewed your license plate on 13th March 2022 (If you chose One years option), then the next renewal date will fall on the 13th March 2023. (If you chose Two years option), then the next renewal date will fall on the 13th March 2024.

Upon successful license plate renewal done online, you won't receive any new Plate Stickers in the mail like you used to receive in the past. Instead you will receive an email "Receipt" of your transaction and acknowledgement of your license plate renewal completed on such time and date. 

Keep this email as record, because you will need it to remember the date, to renew your license plate, 1 or 2 years later depending on the choice you made. It is always better to choose 2 years renewal option, so you don't have to worry about renewal every year.