The monetary cost is low, but...

It's time again to renew my vehicle registration. Eighty bucks is a pittance, but getting it done costs a lot of frustration. It's as if South Dakota wanted to make their online renewal process obtuse and awkward to discourage its actual use.

First, there was no Renew Vehicle Registration menu item on the home page. Because, you know, no one would ever want to renew their registration.

Then, once I'd read a not-very-prominent paragraph and clicked the correct logo to get to the renewal login, it decided last year's username and password were invalid, so I had to create a new account, with an overly complex password and three security questions. Because, you know, no one would want someone sneaking in to pay their fees for them.

After it emailed me my new username and password, it wouldn't let me copy and paste the password into the login box. And it wouldn't show me what I was typing as I was typing it. I could type or see the actual characters, but not at the same time. Because, you know, who would want to do that?

Then, if there's an error entering your payment information (like not noticing auto fill stuck part of your phone number in the ZIP+4 field) you have to reenter your card number.

But I finally got it done and received a confirmation email. Woo! Legal for another year!

The $1.77 "Convenience Fee" made me laugh. I guess it would be a lot more if the process had actually been convenient.