The California Vehicle Credential is a new way to keep information about the vehicles you own in your CA DMV Wallet. It lets you see your vehicle information and share it digitally with certain people or organizations to prove your ownership and the status of your vehicle.

You should take steps to protect your digital wallet if you lose your phone. The most important step is using a strong phone lock, like a PIN or biometrics. You should also lock your phone remotely and sign out of your accounts.

If someone else gets your phone, they may be able to see your information. You may need to remotely wipe the device or contact issuers to cancel/revoke the cards. With proper setup, like passkeys and cloud backup, moving to a new phone is usually easy and helps prevent misuse.

Once a vehicle title transfer is recorded in DMV systems, the old title in your wallet will no longer be valid. If someone tries to check the old credential, it will show as revoked.

While vehicle credentials can be more private and easier to use in some cases, you should always keep your California title or ownership certificate in a safe place. You should also carry your physical, government-issued identification so you can prove who you are when needed. Not all businesses, government agencies, or law enforcement can accept or use digital documents yet.

You have full control over your personal information. With tools like “selective disclosure,” you can share only what is needed. For example, you can prove you are over 21 without showing your exact birthday. 

It is free to add your vehicle to the CA DMV Wallet. 

A vehicle can only be in one owner’s CA DMV Wallet at a time, even if it has multiple owners. The ownership information will still show all the owners’ names.

Currently, only vehicles registered in your name and linked to your driver’s license can be added to the CA DMV Wallet.

California DMV is leading the industry in creating safe technology that lets people download, save, show, and verify vehicle credentials right from their phone.

Digital credentials use advanced encryption and cryptographic signatures, which make them very hard to fake or change. Features like biometric authentication (i.e., fingerprint or facial recognition) make sure only the owner can use them. This gives better protection against theft or misuse than physical cards or passwords.

As a business entity or an individual, you can verify credentials issued by DMV by going to verify-credentials.dmv.ca.gov and selecting “Verify from Wallet”, then selecting vehicle credentials from the drop-down menu. The person holding the digital vehicle credential can scan the QR Code from within the DMV Wallet App to share the specific vehicle title with you. 

The business entities or individuals who accept digital credentials can display a QR Code for you to scan to share your vehicle title credentials. As a credential holder, after scanning the QR-Code, you can select Accept to share your vehicle credential with the requestor.