Surviving Mexico

Since we were getting all our ducks in a row with our vehicles and had successfully navigated renewing my husband’s tarjeta de circulación (permission to circulate) for his motorcycle and registering my moto in my name, we decided to tackle the truck papers.

Some years ago, the government decided it would be a good idea to send the tarjeta de circulación in the mail instead of giving them to each person in the office. We never got that envelope. Shocking, right? Anyway, we continued to pay the fee each year without the tarjeta, but since in May we’ll need to make a trip to San Miguel de Allende and we are always stopped in Celaya, we needed to get that card.

When we asked, the same girl at the Oficina Recaudadoras we spoke to before said we would need two letters, one from Moroleon, one from the state of Guanajuato that said the vehicle had no outstanding traffic violations. The local Constancia de No Infracciones could be obtained at the Seguridad Pública Transito y Transportes office which is located at the jail near our house. So we went there. There were several large, gun-toting police officers just shooting the breeze at the entranceway. We walked past them to a short guy with the sign-in book. My husband signed in and we walked to the back of the compound past all the police vehicles, some of which were running without a driver in them. I guess since they don’t pay for gas, there’s no need to worry about it. 

Inside, my husband explained what he wanted and gave the clerk the old card. She handwrote a receipt for 60.75 pesos and told us to go around the front to pay. So we left the compound, past the vehicles which were still on and more police officers standing at the door, walked a block forward and entered the Barandilla Municipal. There my husband paid an officer near the door who wrote us another receipt to take back to the clerk. The clerk gave us a letter valid for 30 days saying that there were no outstanding tickets and we left. 

The second letter can be requested online. However, since I don’t have a way to pay for things on Mexican websites now that Paypal has decided to do whatever it is it is doing, that wasn’t an option. This second letter cost 69 pesos. The enterprising ciber (cyber cafe) across from Oficina Regional de Movilidad de Moroleon offers to obtain Constancia de No Infracciones for 150 pesos per letter. Since there wasn’t another option, that’s what we did.

Armed with these two letters, we returned to the Oficina Recaudadoras and the girl said that my husband had two outstanding debts that needed to be paid before we could get the reissued card. One was for a vehicle we sold about 8 years ago to someone from Michoacan and the other was for my first motorcycle that we junked after the meat truck hit me. 

Since Michoacan and Guanajuato are not the same state and the truck was not registered to the new owner in Guanajuato because he lived in Michoacan, we owed over 5,000 pesos. We didn’t have the two license plates or the tarjeta de circulación to prove we didn’t own the vehicle anymore because they went with the vehicle to Michoacan. 

As for the motorcycle, well that would be more than 2,000 pesos. We still had the license plate so that was in our favor, however, my husband was unable to locate the card. I’m pretty sure he threw it out in one of his cleaning frenzies. I mean, we haven’t had that motorcycle for over 5 years. So back to the Seguridad Pública Transito y Transportes office we went. 

The clerk on this day was feeling generous and only charged us 60.75 pesos for both letters. So that was something. Apparently, there are three types of letters, one that is because the tarjeta de circulación is lost, one because one or both of the licenses plates has been lost, and one if both the tarjeta de circulación and the license plates are gone.

Since I couldn’t request the State Constancia de No Infracciones online, back to the cyber cafe we trekked. Unfortunately, the official site wasn’t working so no letters for us.

It took several trips into town to find someone manning the cyber cafe to get those letters. Although in theory, those letters can be obtained at any place with computer capacity, only this particular cyber was willing to do it (and charged heftily for their expertise). Finally, we managed to get there when the place was open. We watched as the guy used his iPhone to pay the fee to the state. I’m not sure how someone who works at a cyber cafe can afford an iPhone, but then again, since they charge double for the letter and are the only place in town that provides that service, maybe it’s a pretty profitable setup. 

Anyway, we got the letters and headed to Oficina Recaudadoras. When it was our turn, we explained our dilemma. The woman behind the partitioned and most likely bulletproof glass printed out our payment slips. There was also an issue with the tarjeta de circulación about to be reissued. The old tarjeta had the truck listed as an S-15. My husband says it really is an S-20. In order to make any changes, we would have to bring the factura (original sales receipt). So we went and paid at Farmacias Guadalajara, picked up the factura from home and headed back.

After the woman processed our payment, she handed us two packets of papers that were the “bajas” with “pagado” (paid) stamped all over it. Now, those vehicles will never more appear in my husband’s vehicle file. Then she examined the factura of the truck we still own. Neither the words S-15 nor S-20 appears on the document. It is just generally listed as a “pik-up” (pickup).  I don’t see how it makes a difference, but sure as all get out, some transito will stop us and say that the card does not match the vehicle and impound it, so it needed to be altered to avoid that eventuality. 

The new card had a cost of $264 pesos which we went and paid at Banco Azteca down the street. My wallet was feeling considerably lighter after the day’s transactions but we now have a tarjeta de circulación for the truck. Of course, we’ll have to pay for the three vehicles we still own again in January for 2020’s fees, but it won’t nearly be as much.