Canberra's car registration - the most expensive in Australia?

The ACT has always been the most expensive in Australia, why do you think you see so many vehicles on our roads with Victorian or NSW rego?

I’m guessing that ‘always’ must have started sometime after 1990.

Thoroughly Smashed said :

I was going to ask what on earth you drive that costs $850 to register, but having checked the RegoACT website it seems the costs have gone up since I last paid.

You could drive a vehicle that weighs less than 1505kg, that’ll save you at least $120 a year…

I can’t – we tow a boat, car pool with a bunch of people and often ferry tonnes of kids about the place.

bd84 said :

The ACT has always been the most expensive in Australia, why do you think you see so many vehicles on our roads with Victorian or NSW rego?

As for the NSW plates, that might be something to do with the fact that a significant number of Canberra workers live just across the border…

The ACT has always been the most expensive in Australia, why do you think you see so many vehicles on our roads with Victorian or NSW rego?

I was going to ask what on earth you drive that costs $850 to register, but having checked the RegoACT website it seems the costs have gone up since I last paid.

You could drive a vehicle that weighs less than 1505kg, that’ll save you at least $120 a year…

The Axe Man said :

The ACT is the one of the most expensive places to register your car if not the most expensive.
This is partly due to the NRMA; they are the only ones offering CPT insurance.

Its CTP not CPT. Compulsary Third Party. Its one thing to mis-spell it once, but to mis-spell it 4 times in the one post, do you know what the abbreviation means?

I know in the past, my parents would travel to Sydney to buy cars, because if you bought a car with 6 months NSW rego, you could cancel it and the refund would pay for 12 months of ACT rego. Have the prices really changed that much that theyre now in-line, or even the opposite (NSW less than ACT?).

Just for comparison…

NSW: $248 — Victoria: $183.30 — QLD: $308.25 — SA: $201

Interestingly, NSW and ACT are the only states that vary registration fees depending on the weight of the vehicle.

I also just quickly checked CTPI costs in NSW, and for a 1990 model ford, with youngest driver being 30 with no accidents or infringements (none of which is asked in the ACT), the quoted insurance rate is $660-$680. This is more than the entire cost of my ACT rego (incl CTPI).

Looking at my most recent rego reminder, it clearly states in the Payment Details that the process starts with:

1. Select a Compulsory Third Party Insurance (CTPI) provider.

The NRMA is the default CTPI Provider on my reminder. I guess I would have to change my CTPI provider and then get a new registration renewal slip sent out.

I did a comparision with a colleague and yes his NSW was a little cheaper, but when you factor in all the running around he had to do (red slip blue slip, green slip – any other colored slip) compared to what I had to do ie log on to website, pay then wait for the sticker in the post – I decided I was happy to pay my ACT rego.

Been discussed before. ACT NRMA insurance doesn’t seem to include the various discounts that can be applied (age, history, bundling, etc).

I live in NSW, and am happy with the current arrangement. Although getting your car inspected each year is a pain, at least cars are brake tested yearly, and looked over for structural problems.

one good thing is the ACT allows you to pay in instalments of 3, 6, etc months at a time if finances are tight. yes, it costs more in the long run, but if you cant find that huge chunk of cash at the time, its a nice option. i dont know if other states do that.

but agreed, it is too expensive!

I have no idea why there is a little smiley face emoticon next to my last post. I didn’t place it there. The appropriate icon for my post would be a frowny, grumpy face.

It is really tempting to register in NSW; we have plenty of good friends at Jerra who probably wouldn’t mind getting an annual rego letter (and the odd speeding fine :-)) sent their way. Tempting. I do wonder how people struggling to keep on top of their finances cope with such a HUGE annual bill … it seems ridiculously high.

The ACT is the one of the most expensive places to register your car if not the most expensive.
This is partly due to the NRMA; they are the only ones offering CPT insurance.

There are plans to open it up and you will be able to choose your CPT provider though.
The NRMA know this and have raised their cost of CPT because they know their time is running out as a sole provider (all allegedly / my opinion of course. Don’t want to get in trouble)

This is why when you look at your rego renewal notice there is a section that says you can choose which CPT provider you’d like but then it only lists 1 – the NRMA

I can’t remember the reason why there aren’t any others yet but the time is coming when there will be more than the NRMA

Chop71 said :

It is partly due to the ACT governments decision of locking NRMA into being the sole provider of green slips in the ACT, hence charging plenty due to them holding the monopoly. Chop

Precisely Chop! All NRMA members should remember this next time we are asked to vote for the NRMA’s local representative Alan Evans, who presided over this farcical situation, with the NRMA taking ACT members for a ride financially.

At one stage during his disastrous period as NRMA president, plus on the IAG board, I recall he was pocketing almost $300,000 per year.

Chop71 said :

The government is missing out on considerable revenue due to people easily registering ACT cars to a NSW address.
Chop

And more revenue because of the many unregistered cars that drive around.
(Don’t crash into one…)

Pandy said :

What? Other insurers will be approved? Why haven’t I been told?

It was in the paper the other day. One of the pollies announced that Canberrans will be able to choose their insurance provider when paying rego… but I wasn’t aware that no other insurance company has signed up? That’s another win for Govt!

I despise NSW’s annual rego checks, and the green slip competition here is a farce. It still costs more here than it did in the ACT once you factor in pink slip, green slip, and NSW’s absurdly high rego charges. Plus you can more or less guarantee the inspector will find $100-200 worth of work that ‘needs’ to be done.

What? Other insurers will be approved? Why haven’t I been told?

Blingerific said :

Having lived in most Australia States and Territories Canberra isn’t the most expensive, NSW has that honour, but it’s not the cheapest either. Then again we do have yearly rego checks, as lackadaisical as they are, that the cheaper states (NT, Vic, SA) don’t have. Not to mention the absolutely abysmal level of ability of the ACT’s drivers, their absolute dependence of vehicles (highest per capita in the country) and the consequent accident rate…

WTF? we have not had yearly rego checks here for well over 10 years..the only 12 mnth inspection required in canberra is for lpg vehicles and that is only a check on the gas equipment not the entire car …and A.C.T is currently the most expensive place in australia to register a vehicle…..especially commercial vehicles….check a few facts before you mouth off next time

I really like how we get to turn the page to choose our insurer only to find that there is only one approved choice. I suspect they will be forced to go lower next year, when other insurers are approved.

Having lived in most Australia States and Territories Canberra isn’t the most expensive, NSW has that honour, but it’s not the cheapest either. Then again we do have yearly rego checks, as lackadaisical as they are, that the cheaper states (NT, Vic, SA) don’t have. Not to mention the absolutely abysmal level of ability of the ACT’s drivers, their absolute dependence of vehicles (highest per capita in the country) and the consequent accident rate…

It is partly due to the ACT governments decision of locking NRMA into being the sole provider of green slips in the ACT, hence charging plenty due to them holding the monopoly. I contacted AAMI after they offered me a deal in registering a new car and they said the policy had now been changed yet they had “forgot to put in the form” to request for them to be added to the ACT’s green slip program.

I was amazed thet that response and she checked with her supervisor and yep, that was the excuse they stuck with.

Lets hope other insurance companies can break open this monopoly and reduce the costs.

The government is missing out on considerable revenue due to people easily registering ACT cars to a NSW address. If they had prices inline with NSW people would not go to the trouble of trying to dodge the system.

Chop