I just renewed my North Carolina driver’s license. It took less than 20 minutes.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- DMV logged 2 million office transactions last year; nearly 20% could have been done online
- Author renewed license online in under 20 minutes; new card arrived by mail in 9 days
- New law allows two consecutive non-REAL ID license renewals online
In the eight years I have covered transportation for The News & Observer, nothing has generated more calls and emails from readers than the difficulty getting served at the DMV.
Starting in about 2017, with the introduction of the REAL ID, and continuing through the Division of Motor Vehicles headquarters move to Rocky Mount and the COVID-19 pandemic, the long lines and wait times at driver’s license offices have been a source of frustration and dismay to North Carolinians.
So when it came time to renew my license this fall, I was happy that I could do it on my laptop. I didn’t even have to get dressed or leave the house. The process took less than 20 minutes, and my new license arrived in the mail nine days later.
The DMV encourages customers to do their business online whenever possible, as one of many strategies to try to reduce crowding at its offices.
But DMV officials say a significant number of people still visit offices for business they could probably do online.
The DMV completed 2,060,471 transactions at its offices in the year that ended June 30. It estimates that 401,480, or nearly 20% of them, could have been done online.
Some of those drivers may have wanted a new photo, which requires a trip to the office, said DMV spokesman Marty Homan. Or they may have lost their license and didn’t know the number, which you need to order a duplicate online.
But many may simply not have known that they didn’t need to come into the office, Homan said. That’s something the agency would like to correct.
“We want everyone who can do it online to do it online,” he said.
What does it cost to go online?
There is a small cost for doing DMV business online, though I can’t imagine that alone discourages many people. The state contracts with a company called PayIt to process the online transactions, and the company collects a $3 fee for each one, plus a 1.85% card processing fee.
The DMV charges $52 to renew a class C license ($32.50 if you’re 65 or older), so my final cost with fees was $55.96.
There is a 1.22% processing fee for using a credit or debit card at a DMV office, so the main difference is the $3 fee to PayIt — a small price for the time and effort saved. (Note: There are no fees of any kind for online voter registration through the DMV.)
The DMV also offers online transactions on nine self-service kiosks in Harris Teeter grocery stores — four in the Triangle, four in Charlotte and one in Fayetteville. Another contractor, Neumo, charges $4.95 per kiosk transaction, plus a 2% card processing fee.
What can you do online at the DMV?
There are more than a dozen different transactions that people can perform online rather than go to a DMV office. They include license and registration renewals, ordering duplicate licenses and IDs and, soon, upgrading a limited provisional license to a full one.
The General Assembly recently changed the law to give people more opportunities to renew licenses online.
Until this fall, someone with a standard North Carolina driver’s license had to renew in person at a DMV office at least every 16 years. The new law extends that to 24 years for people without a REAL ID. State officials say more than 18,000 people statewide took advantage of that change and skipped a trip to the DMV in just the first two weeks.
People with REAL IDs are still required by federal law to get a new photo every 16 years, which requires a trip to the office. But the new law says customers can renew a REAL ID license online a second consecutive time if they had an in-person transaction where a new photo was taken since their last renewal.
For more information about doing business with the DMV online, go to www.ncdot.gov/dmv/offices-services/online/.
This story was originally published October 27, 2025 at 7:30 AM.
