ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 5, 1997 TAG: 9702050056
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Marketplace
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
THE NEW SERVICE makes the often-postponed chore a matter of punching buttons, not standing in line.
Who says the Department of Motor Vehicles isn't out to make our lives easier?
For one thing, the DMV in late December began accepting payment by credit or debit card for any transaction at DMV offices.
But even better was the announcement that came just last week: You now can renew your vehicle registration by phone. The DMV says the call will take only three minutes. As long as you have a major credit card - Visa, American Express, MasterCard, Discover - and a touchtone phone, you can renew your registration from your living room, your office, even (oh, the beauty) your car.
The DMV has come up with a catchy little slogan to promote the service: "Step out of line and get on the line."
About half of the state's car owners currently mail in their registration renewals, said DMV spokeswoman Jeanne Chenault in Richmond. The rest are those of us who wait until the last possible day, then stand in line at the DMV office during our lunch hours. The DMV expects that about 10 percent of its customers will conduct their transactions via phone by July.
"More and more people are using the telephone to do transactions," she said. You can check your credit card and checking account balances, make airplane reservations, even file your federal income tax returns by phone these days, she said.
The new service, which is available 24 hours a day, is entirely automated. You'll be asked to enter all the information you normally would include on your mail-in registration form, including insurance status. Your DMV file will be updated when you call, and the company contracted to provide the telephone service will keep records of all calls, in case you later want to contest something.
If you have a problem with your transaction - if the system won't accept your credit card for some reason - you'll be directed to call the DMV's customer information number, which operates only during business hours, six days a week.
Your renewal information will be sent out the next business day, which means it's a bit faster than the old-fashioned mail-in method. Of course, you can't procrastinate too much. It's still not as quick as visiting your neighborhood DMV office.
"I wouldn't wait until the 31st of January if your car expires in January," Chenault said. "You still need to allow a few days for the mail."
* * *
You may be able to collect some money for your old Bricks.
Not bricks, as in the heavy, red things used to build houses, but Bricks, as in the old Argus Model C-3 camera. The camera, manufactured and sold between 1939 and 1966, was nicknamed "the Brick" because of its square-cornered shape.
Now Argus Camera is offering "rewards" of $20 to $25 for old Bricks that still work and haven't been cosmetically changed. The company, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, wants to collect several hundred C-3s as part of its birthday doings.
If you'd like to sell your old Argus C-3 back to the company, contact Argus for prices, details and shipping arrangements. Write: Argus Camera, 2121 Oxford Road, Des Plaines, IL 60018. Or call (847) 297-8900, or fax your inquiry to (847) 297-8909. You also can e-mail Argus at Argus@Arguscamera.com
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: Call DMV to renew. color. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB