How it works

1
You type your reg
We show your car, the NCT due date and whether the certificate is valid, so you can see we have the right vehicle. If a test now would count as voluntary (more than 90 days before the due date) we say so.
2
You pick up to five centres and a deadline
Pick them from the cards: each shows how long the calendar wait is right now and how many earlier dates opened there last week. The deadline is the last day a test is useful to you. By default it is the day before the earliest date your centres show, and at least a fortnight out, so alerts beat what you could book today; set it earlier if a sale or a trip needs the car tested by then. The guarantee is sized by this window (a week or more: the full promise; shorter: fewer alerts; under 3 days: none), and the box by the Pay button shows exactly which before you pay. If the day passes while your plan runs and we kept the promise, the deadline moves to the last day of the plan and we tell you; if we found fewer than promised in time, the plan ends there and the money comes back.
3
You pay €9.99 once, guaranteed
Stripe handles the card. Alerts switch on the moment payment clears and run for 7 days. Nothing renews. The guarantee: fewer alerts than promised for your dates (3 for a window of a week or more; 7 days or more: 3 alerts; 5 to 6 days: 2 alerts; 3 to 4 days: 1 alert; under 3 days: no guarantee), with alerts left running, and the €9.99 comes back to your card automatically. Alerts start at once, so the 14-day cooling-off period does not apply; if availability cannot be checked for a day or more, your plan is extended by the time lost.
4
We watch
From 7am to 11pm we keep an eye on availability at your centres continuously; overnight a little less often, because cancellations are made by people and people sleep. You can watch the same picture yourself on the centres page, a little behind what alerts see.
5
You get an alert, you book
When a date on or before your deadline appears, one alert goes out within about a minute: the centre, the date and time, how much sooner it is than what the centre showed before, the ncts.ie link and three short steps. Email always; a push notification too if you turned it on in your account, which lands a second or two later and opens the booking page with a tap. If several of your centres move at once, they share one alert, earliest first. Enter your reg on ncts.ie, choose the centre, take the slot.

What we do not do

We do not book NCT tests, and we never take money for booking one. Your €9.99 pays for alerts and nothing else; the test fee goes to NCTS when you book. Tests are booked only on ncts.ie or on the NCTS booking line, 01 413 5992. NCTS has warned the public about websites that charge a fee to act as a booking intermediary and says they have no connection with it; Citizens Information repeated the warning in January 2026. Every alert brings you to ncts.ie, where you make the booking yourself with your own details. We have no connection to NCTS, Applus+ or the RSA.

Why the registration

NCTS shows appointments per vehicle, so alerts need yours: it is what makes the dates we send ones your car can actually book, and it tells us your due date, so the site can warn you when an earlier test would count as voluntary and move your due date. A car with an open fail is watched against its own re-test dates and deadline. The registration is stored with your alert and deleted 60 days after the alert ends.

If things change while alerts run

Every few hours we look at the car itself. If the public vehicle register shows a new certificate, you passed: we say so and alerts end there (any paid days left can be switched back on from your alerts page, free). If ncts.ie starts showing your car a re-test, you failed, and alerts switch to the re-test dates your car can take, with the deadline. If ncts.ie shows a booking for the car that we did not know about, we ask you for the date, so alerts cover earlier dates only. If your own cut-off date goes by, it moves to the last day of your plan. Each of these is one email, and apart from a pass none of them stops your alerts: plenty of people book a far date and keep alerts on to beat it. Stopping is always one tap, on the alerts page or at the foot of any email.

What counts as an alert

A date that was not available at a centre a moment ago and now is, and that fits your filters: on or before your deadline, and if you set them, not before your earliest date, inside your time window, on your days of the week. Quiet hours hold alerts back and send the ones still open in the morning. The same date and time is never sent twice within five minutes, so a slot flickering on and off does not flood you.

Be realistic about the race

An alert is information, not a reservation. Every motorist looking at that centre can see the same date, and so can everyone else we alert for it. At busy Dublin and Cork centres a released date is often gone within a minute or two. Two things help: turn on push notifications, which shave the email delay, and keep ncts.ie signed in on your phone so booking takes seconds. If the date is gone when you get there, the next one is on its way.

Your account

Every car on your email address sits in one account: plans, centres, filters, recent alerts, and how alerts reach you. You sign in with a six-digit code sent to your email, or simply by following the link in any alert. Install the site as an app (there is an Install button in the header) and push notifications can reach you on that device.