BMV Asking Customers Not To Pay In Cash During Coin Shortage

Justin Hicks

Don’t plan to use cash to pay when you go to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles any time soon.

That’s what the BMV is asking Hoosiers amid a nationwide coin shortage.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is experiencing the coin shortage because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses where coins typically enter the system – retail shops, bank lobbies, transit authorities and laundromats – were temporarily closed. And coins that normally would have been received as change were not circulated back.

READ MORE: The Latest Pandemic Shortage: Coins Are The New Toilet Paper

As a result, the BMV has been unable to access additional coin inventory, leaving it unable to provide people with correct change when they pay in cash. The agency is asking customers to only use cash when they can provide exact change.

There’s no timetable from the Federal Reserve when the coin shortage will be over.

Contact reporter Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.