If you’ve been in a little bit of hot water, if you’ve got a few moving violations, if you’ve had some trouble making your insurance payments on time, then you may find yourself in the position of wondering whether or not your driver’s license is worth the paper it’s printed on. Good news! There’s ways you can check your Florida drivers license before you get back into traffic! Here’s how!

Step One: Go Here.

And there you are, you’re good to go!

It will tell you if you’re valid or invalid. It’s free, it’s simple, it takes fifteen seconds, or less if you’re a fast typist.

If you’ve misplaced your license, you still might have the number somewhere. Search your emails for mentions of it, look at old applications and paperwork, see if you still have the temporary paper ID they sent you. The website probably doesn’t care where you get the number.

Ordering your report from the official website for Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the state’s DMV, will help you to get your information quickly. Note that there are a ton of unofficial websites clearly designed to trick users. They have URL’s like TheOfficialForRealDMV dot net with tiny disclaimers reading “Your (unofficial) guide to the DMV!” We can’t vouch for any of these sites. Maybe they’re on the level, maybe they really are useful guides. Or maybe they’ll ask for your credit card number and set you up with a ton of monthly fees to pay if you don’t catch on and have the payments blocked.

If a website doesn’t end with dot gov, then it does not represent a government agency.

The downside to checking your license through flhsmv.gov: You need your license number. If you’ve lost your driver’s license, then you’re going to have to figure something else out. You can contact them to make an appointment to make it easier, but you’re going to have to make an appointment. Of course, it’s just as well, since you’re going to want to get a new copy of your driver’s license before you go driving around, anyway.

Unless you’ve got a friend at the agency that can hook you up, you’re going to have to pay some small fees to get a hold of your records.

Fees
• 3 year driver history records – $8
• 7 year driver history records – $10
• Crash reports – $10
• Replacement license or ID card – $25
That’s really all you need to know: If you have your license number, use the website. If not, make an appointment and go in to check your license’s status.

HEY WAIT A MINUTE WHICH NUMBER DO I PUT INTO THE WEBSITE?

Your driver’s license is covered with numbers. The number you want to put into the website is the one on top (or at least that’s what Florida driver’s licenses look like as of the time of the writing). It probably looks something like this:

DRIVER LICENSE CLASS D
S582-848-72-828-0

Just put in the number, not the “DRIVER LICENSE CLASS D” part.

It really is as simple as that.

Checking without the driver’s license number on hand is a bit of a pain in the neck, but you don’t really want to be pulled over in traffic and not have your license on you anyway. You may have to go to Florida traffic school to dismiss the traffic violation and pay an additional fee for not having your license on you.

NOTE: You don’t need your driver history report in order to check the validity of your license. All you need is your license number and the link provided above.