RI DMV Plate Cancellation: Affidavit, TR-3 Receipt, Transfer

Cancelling your Rhode Island DMV plates means physically returning them to the DMV, or filing a sworn affidavit if they’re lost, so the registration is officially closed on the state’s books. Selling the car, moving out of state, or dropping insurance does none of that on its own. Until the DMV processes the cancellation, your plates are active, your excise tax keeps running, and your insurance obligation stays in place.¹

Cancel the Plates Before You Drop Insurance

This is the order that saves you money. Rhode Island’s Insurance Verification Program matches every active VIN against insurance records. If your VIN goes unmatched for four consecutive weeks, the DMV mails a verification letter. Ignore it, and your registration is revoked.²

Restoring a revoked registration costs $253.50, and the DMV puts you on a 12-month monitoring period. Another lapse during that year is an automatic revocation with no hearing rights.² The underlying statute also allows fines of $100 to $500 for a first offense and a license suspension of up to three months.³

Return the plates first. Call your insurer second. Once the VIN leaves the DMV’s active list, the verification system has nothing to flag.

Three Ways to Cancel

Online

The DMV’s online portal is the fastest option. You enter your name, address, plate number, registration type, and the last six digits of your VIN exactly as they appear on your registration certificate. Dual registrations must be cancelled one plate at a time.⁴

Online cancellations post within 24 hours and cannot be reversed. If you submit by mistake, re-registering the vehicle from scratch is the only path back, with new fees. Check every field before you hit submit.⁴ The online method finishes the paperwork, but if you still have the physical plates, you need to return them separately by mail or drop box.

Mail

Send the completed Affidavit for Cancellation of Registration, the plates themselves, and a photocopy of your photo ID to DMV headquarters at 600 New London Avenue, Cranston, RI 02920.⁵

Drop Box

Every DMV branch has a drop box for the affidavit and plates. It’s accessible during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Allow 7 to 14 days for mail and drop-box submissions to be processed.⁶

What the Affidavit Asks For

The Affidavit for Cancellation of Registration is a PDF on the DMV’s registration forms page.⁷ You’ll need:

Owner or lessee name and driver’s license number
Residential address
Plate and registration number with expiration date
Vehicle year, make, and model
Number of plates being returned
Reason for cancellation (sale, move, scrap, and so on)

Both owners must sign if the vehicle has two registered owners.⁵ A person submitting on the owner’s behalf fills in their own name, license number, and address in a separate section at the bottom.

Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed Plates

The same affidavit covers this case. Indicate zero plates returned and note the reason. If the plates were stolen, file a police report first so you have a report number on hand. Mail-in submissions still require a photocopy of your photo ID; in-person visits require acceptable photo identification.⁵

Keep the TR-3 Receipt for Your Excise Tax

Once the cancellation is processed, the DMV issues a receipt known as a TR-3. Hold onto it. It’s the only document your city or town tax assessor will accept as proof to stop excise-tax billing or prorate a bill you’ve already received.¹

Excise tax is billed off DMV records. If your plates stay active on those records, you owe the tax whether or not you still own the car, and the DMV will not backdate the cancellation to the day you sold or scrapped the vehicle. The cancellation date is the date the DMV receives your plates or processes your online submission.¹ Cancel quickly, and bring the TR-3 to your local tax assessor if a bill arrives with the wrong dates.

Replacing One Car With Another? Transfer Instead

If you’re buying a replacement vehicle in the same owner’s name and the same vehicle type, you don’t need to cancel. Rhode Island lets you transfer the existing registration to the new car using the Application for Registration. Your plate number and current expiration date carry over, so no new stickers are issued.⁸

You have a 30-day grace period to drive the new vehicle on the old plates before finishing the transfer, whether you bought from a Rhode Island dealer, an out-of-state dealer, or a private seller. The 30-day clock starts on the bill-of-sale date.⁸

1
City of Providence. Motor Vehicle Excise Tax
2
Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles. Insurance Verification Program
3
Rhode Island General Assembly. Rhode Island Code Title 31-47-9 – Penalties
4
Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles. Cancel Registration
5
Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles. Affidavit for Cancellation of Registration
6
Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles. Make a Reservation
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Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles. Registration Forms
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Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles. Plate Transfers