Vehicle licence renewals can be paid by direct debit from your nominated bank account. Individuals and organisations can select 1, 3, 6 or 12 monthly renewal periods for light vehicles, heavy vehicles and motorcycles, subject to eligibility requirements.
You must apply online through DoTDirect and enter a direct debit agreement with DTMI and your bank. There must be at least one month remaining on your current vehicle licence to be eligible for the vehicle licence direct debit option.
Payments will be deducted approximately 23 days prior to the vehicle licence expiry date. If payment fails twice due to insufficient funds, the direct debit option will be disabled, and a standard renewal notice will be issued.
How to sign up for direct debit vehicle licence renewals
Payments by direct debit are only available for DoTDirect accounts.
- Select your profile.
- Select Accounts – Direct Debits and Refunds
- Select Manage Direct Debits
Who can apply
To apply for direct debit vehicle licence renewal, you must have:
- an active individual DoTDirect account
- a unique email address (not in use by another DoTDirect account)
- a nominated bank account for payments to be deducted from
- agreed to the Direct Debit Request and the Direct Debit Request Service Agreement, and
- a nominated eligible vehicle, of which you are the vehicle licence holder with more than 28 days remaining on the current vehicle licence.
The requirement for 28 days will allow sufficient time before a vehicle licence expires to notify the licence holder if a direct debit payment can’t be processed. If a vehicle has less than 28 days before the licence expires, the vehicle licence must be renewed for at least a 3 month period before registering for this payment option.
The digital billing email address and nominated bank account will apply to all your nominated vehicles on the renewal direct debit payment option.
Eligible vehicles
Direct debit renewals are available for individual and organisation-owned light vehicles, heavy vehicles and motorcycles, including:
- Vehicles in receipt of a vehicle licence fee exemption due to the following eligibility:
- vehicles owned by those on the maximum rate of pension and in receipt of the carer's payment, disability support pension or those determined to have permanent blindness.
- holders of a Veteran Card (Gold) printed with TPI or EDA.
- veterans assessed at 60 or more impairment points.
- those in receipt of Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) special rate of disability pension under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA) or Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA).
- Vehicles in receipt of a vehicle licence fee concession due to the following eligibility:
- vehicles owned by those with a pensioner concession card issued by Centrelink or DVA or a Commonwealth Seniors Health Care (CSHC) card together with a Seniors Card.
Direct debit renewals are only available for customers with up to 50 vehicles. If a vehicle is a part of a fleet, it must be removed from the fleet before it can be registered for direct debit.
Vehicles not eligible
- Vehicles that don’t have more than 28 days remaining on the current vehicle licence.
- Vehicles in receipt of a vehicle licence fee exemption (excluding the exemptions listed in the previous paragraph).
- Vehicles in receipt of a vehicle licence - fee concession (excluding the concessions listed in the previous paragraph).
- Vehicles which must be inspected prior to renewal in accordance with the Road Traffic (Vehicles) Inspection Order 2022 (including without limitation, taxis, buses, PTVs, and driving instructor vehicles).
- Vehicles with an active insurance class of 3(a) to3(g).
- Vehicles that are subject to conditions that would prevent the renewal of the vehicle licence, for example, but not limited to the following:
- vehicles where the vehicle licence is recorded as suspended or cancelled
- vehicles with unpaid transfer fees
- vehicles recorded on the written-off vehicle register
- vehicles or vehicle identification numbers (VINs)/chassis numbers which are recorded as stolen.
Frequently asked questions
No, the direct debit vehicle licence renewal is only available to those vehicles and licence holders that are eligible and have elected to make payments via the direct debit payment option available through DoTDirect.
The vehicle licence fee for a monthly renewal is calculated at one-twelfth of the fee payable for a 12 month vehicle licence (rounded to the nearest 5 cents), pro rata Motor Injury Insurance (MII) including GST, insurance duty and a reduced recording fee of $1.75 per direct debit payment.
For shorter renewal periods, additional short-term charges may apply.
Generally yes, each renewal incurs processing fees, so less frequent payments usually result in lower fees over a 12 month period.
For example, 12 monthly direct debit payments have lower total annual fees than monthly direct debit payments.
Yes, when you enrol in Direct Debit, an email will be sent to you with a copy of the Direct Debit agreement attached.
Yes, 28 days prior to the expiry date of a nominated vehicle, DTMI will email a digital copy of the vehicle licence and MII policy renewal notice advising of the debit date and amount.
A direct debit payment will be attempted approximately 23 days prior to the vehicle licence expiry date. When DTMI receives notification from a customer’s financial institution that the payment is successful, the vehicle licence will be renewed, and the customer will be emailed a receipt detailing the new vehicle licence expiry date.
DTMI will attempt to withdraw the direct debit payment twice. If the first payment attempt fails, the customer will receive an email and have five days to resolve the issue before a second attempt is made.
If the second payment attempt is unsuccessful for any reason whatsoever, an email will be sent to the customer advising that:
- the Direct Debit agreement for the nominated vehicle has been cancelled.
- the payment options are now restricted to 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months vehicle licence renewal options (no direct debit payments).
This message will be sent approximately 14 days prior to the vehicle licence expiry date. A renewal notice will also be generated and sent to the customer based on their existing billing preference.
You may wish to amend the Direct Debit Request at any time by logging into your DoTDirect online account and:
- providing a new nominated bank account number; or
- providing a new email address for digital billing and notification.
Amendments should be made no later than two business days before the debit date for your vehicle licence to allow time for the changes to take effect. Any changes you make to the Direct Debit Request will apply to all your nominated vehicles on the direct debit payment option.
You can log into your DoTDirect account and cancel your direct debit request service agreement at any time, or you can arrange it through your financial institution. A minimum of two business days notice, prior to the debit date is required to ensure there is sufficient time for these changes to take effect.
If selling a vehicle that is registered for the direct debit payment option, the direct debit request service agreement should be cancelled prior to transferring the vehicle to stop further direct debit payments.
If you stop or cancel your direct debit authority and you wish to renew your vehicle licence, a vehicle licence renewal will be generated and sent to you with the options of making a 3 month, 6 month or 12 month payment.
DTMI will cancel a customer’s direct debit request service agreement if:
- the customer fails to have sufficient funds in the nominated account on two consecutive occasions.
- a customer’s vehicle becomes ineligible for registration (for example, due to becoming defective or having outstanding fines).
- a customer’s vehicle no longer meets the eligibility requirements.
- a customer’s vehicle licence is cancelled.
- the customer no longer owns the vehicle.
If you believe there has been an error in debiting your account, you should refer the query directly to your financial institution or you can notify DTMI directly by phone so that we can investigate and resolve your query as quickly as possible.
If your account has been incorrectly debited, DTMI will arrange for your vehicle licence renewal to be adjusted accordingly and advise you in writing of the outcome.
If your account wasn’t incorrectly debited, DTMI will provide you reasons and advise you of the outcome in writing.