Minnesota drivers license renumbering - new Identy protection features?

Thanks go out to Marit, who forwarded on this info. I knew that MN was redesigning the drivers license, but I didn't know they were renumbering them.

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Two bits of info: Minnesota is changing the driver's license number format and cautions people NOT to have their license number printed on their checks.

Is anybody out there on the verge of reordering checks? (Checks. You know, those rectangular paper things you sometimes use instead of a credit card?)

The spouse got a new Minnesota State driver's license a couple of weeks ago. It came in the mail, he glanced at it, noted a new color combination and put it in his wallet. Flash forward to the other evening: he wrote a check at a restaurant and was asked for a photo ID. The clerk informed him they wouldn't accept his check because the driver's license number printed on the check didn't match the number on the license.

(dramatic pause) "Huh?!"

Sure enough, the number is totally different than it used to be.

I went to the Driver and Vehicle Services website http://www.dps.state.mn.us/dvs/index.html and did some research.

Minnesota is now using a random sequence numbering system to help prevent identity theft. Your name is no longer coded into your driver's license number. Read all about it here.

This new feature was rolled out last December, but I don't remember hearing a darn thing about it. I was still feeling a tad huffy at the thought of the spouse having to pay to have new checks printed and having to explain the situation to every slack-jawed clerk until the new checks arrived, so I called Kristine Chapin, a woman with the bad luck to have her office phone number listed at the top of the DVS press release. She should be lauded as a state employee who actually answers her phone; we had a lovely chat about why no one (retail clerks, banks, the public) seems to be aware of the change and what she might be able to do, being in the communications department, to remedy this.

When we got on the subject of license numbers on checks she could not stress enough:
DO NOT HAVE YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE NUMBER PRINTED ON YOUR CHECKS.
(Many of you don't, but if you do...) Your name is coded into that (old) number and, with the right software, crooks can have a field day with this information. You are welcome to go down to the DMV and get one of the new, more secure licenses whenever you'd like- even if you aren't due for a renewal. (It will cost you $8, but if the idea of identity theft keeps you up nights, it might be worth it.)

She is considering another press release to make the public more aware of the changes and the security reasons behind them (if she can get the media interested in bothering with the story)...I told her I was going to send a mass email to get the word out and she appreciated my grass roots approach, so pass it on.

-Marit
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