While taking Interstate 15 to work recently I saw a speeding driver without a license plate narrowly avoid sideswiping another vehicle. Sights like this have become “normal” since I moved to Nevada, and I’m not alone in noticing them.

Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles chief compliance officer J.D. Decker often gets texts from personal friends about the issue, which he says has grown much bigger since pandemic-era state office closures led the DMV to implement a grace period for drivers with expired tags. Afterward, many drivers chose to forego renewing altogether.

Flooded with calls about the trend, Decker’s team launched the DMV’s new online registration spotter system in October to give residents a way to report sightings of moving vehicles with missing, fraudulent or illegal out-of-state license plates. It’s garnered 32,710 responses in four months—with about 80% of them in Clark County. Decker calls it the “first public reporting system in the country.”

“We knew there was some public interest, but we had no idea there was as much as there is, which does validate that it’s a huge problem,” Decker says. “And most people driving around without a plate or a tag are also often the ones you see driving around recklessly. They’re having hit and run accidents and generally advertising that they’ll flee from police if they’re pulled over.”

INSURANCE IMPACT

Because the DMV requires residents to present proof of auto insurance to register a vehicle, Decker says drivers without plates are also far more likely to be uninsured, which only contributes to rising premiums in a state that already ranks among the most expensive in the country.

“The problem is, the people that don’t have insurance in Nevada are not having any less accidents than the people that do,” Decker says. “That means the cost of insurance for those of us that are carrying it go up to pay for all of the things that the people that don’t have insurance are doing.”

Online financial data broker LendingTree ranks Nevada’s auto insurance rates as the highest in the U.S., with an average full-coverage policy of $335 per month—or $370 in Las Vegas—far exceeding the national average of around $200.

According to the Nevada Division of Insurance, the cost of an average policy will go up by nearly 6.5% this year, impacting more than 570,000 policyholders statewide who already saw their average rates increase by 13.7% in 2025. The department’s 2025 Insurance Market Report cites higher vehicle prices, increased repair costs and rising vehicle thefts, auto insurance fraud cases and insurance company loss ratios as key drivers.

Jim Grant, an industry veteran of nearly 30 years and co-owner of the Henderson-based independent agency Get Help With Insurance, Inc., agrees with many of those causes, noting that uninsured vehicles are “one of the biggest drivers of rising prices.”

Drivers can opt for uninsured motorist coverage to protect themselves if they suffer bodily injuries in a collision with an uninsured driver. Unlike in other states, however, Grant says that optional protection—which typically costs an extra $150 to $250 annually—doesn’t extend to vehicle damage in Nevada.

Grant adds that the higher rates are also influenced by the “billions” insurance companies lost during the pandemic, leading them to spend the last few years playing catch-up. Another major factor is that Nevada’s attorney penetration rate on auto insurance claims—or the frequency that lawyers get involved after an accident—is above 75% compared to the national average of 15%. Many companies avoid operating in the Silver State altogether.

“The attorneys’ presence drives up the premiums because it’s going to cost more for the insurance company. The other thing that does is reduce competition. So, although we do have a lot of companies, there’s still not as many here,” Grant says.

In other words, fewer insurance companies, combined with a sizable number of uninsured motorists and the higher frequency of accidents in Clark County, contribute to a cycle that keeps rates high.

INCREASED ENFORCEMENT

For those who can’t afford the costly auto policies required to register their vehicle, driving around plateless—or even using a counterfeit tag—is frequently the alternative. And while the data the DMV collects through its registration spotter isn’t by itself a means of finding and penalizing those drivers, it does offer a starting point through which statewide law enforcement agencies can better collaborate to curb the issue.

“One of the ways we use the data is to collate it by county, which will help the counties identify that there might be a problem locally and potentially justify more resources and enforcement activity in that area,” Decker says.

Decker’s enforcement team of 30 sworn officers writes over 1,000 citations annually, but they don’t have the capacity to tackle the problem alone. Because law enforcement can’t issue a citation unless the vehicle is moving, the DMV shares its database with other agencies like LVMPD for a greater chance to catch violators in action.

“My officers have and regularly will pull information from the database, but we also can’t even get to the vehicles that were reported by the public without getting tied up with the stuff that we see on our own out on the street. The problem isn’t very hard to find,” Decker says.

For drivers who are uninsured, unregistered or both, Decker has a simple message.

“There are mechanisms in the law to encourage people to maintain registration and insurance, and the penalties are designed to make it more expensive to not do that,” he says. “Overall, it’ll just end up costing you more.”

Rate reduction tips

Jim Grant, co-owner of the aptly named Henderson insurance agency Get Help With Insurance, Inc., offers a few pointers for reducing your auto premiums over time.

• BUILD CREDIT

This one might seem obvious, but Grant notes that maintaining “continuous, good credit” is an especially important factor for insuring Nevadans. Based on 2023 data, he says the average premium for an in-state policyholder who had poor credit and a clean driving record was about $3,300, while someone with a DUI conviction and “excellent” credit paid around $2,050. “You would think the person with the DUI would be paying more,” he says. “But that’s just not the way the insurance companies do it in Nevada.”

• HIGHER LIMITS

For those who can afford it, opting for plans with higher liability limits can save money in the long-term. “People who carry high liability limits for a long period of time are going to pay a lot less over the course of a lifetime than people who have the state minimums,” Grant says.

• SWAP SPARINGLY

It may be tempting to switch plans when your current policy expires, but much like a business that’s hiring, Grant says insurance companies value consistency. While it’s OK to browse rates, he suggests waiting a year or more between swapping. “When insurance companies do a quote, one of the questions they ask and find out through reporting is, how long have they been with their current company? The person who tends to stick around for a little longer also tends to get the better rate,” Grant says.

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