No one in Europe really has a clue what this is, but it is a very small sticker on your rear number plate (they don’t have a front number plate) that says to a policeman that your insurance is in order. The equivalent in Ireland and the UK is car tax. You can’t get car tax without having your insurance. This is the same thing.
Each year, the car tag runs out on your birthday.
Impossible to forget this.
However when they arrived in the post the first time to me, I did not know what these little stickers were and threw them away. When a policeman stopped me eventually and explained it to me, it was only when I ended up in court paying the fine that it was really properly explained to me.
However I got off with the fine because the judge weirdly enough had gone to college in Ireland. What were the chances?
Anyway, I never made that mistake again, the car tags change colour every year and that’s how a policeman can spot if they are out or not, they just go on the colour and when they pull you they check it out.
This is another little tripwire that all part of buy your car in the US. People who live in the US permanently do not even like their car parked outside their house unless their car tag is in order.
It just draws attention from the police.