eircom Phonewatch

We've just moved into a second hand home that has eircom phonewatch already installed. Shortly after we moved in, a letter arrived to say that the premium on it was due for renewal.

If we don't renew the premium, will the alarm still work as a "normal" house alarm or will eircom disconnect it or anything like that?

Depends if it has a ringer bell or just a dummy. Phonewatch told me I didn't need to pay for a ringer as the alert would be enough, just get a dummy box to show burglars you're connected, they said. If it's a real bell it will go off but obviously there'll be no-one monitoring the phone signal.
Also depends on your setting - rural or urban, neighbours around all day to notice stuff or not, past burglaries in the area etc

Have one now and also in my last house. Will work whether you pay the monitoring fee or not. However if its only an internal sounder it probably wont be heard outside the house (last house was a semi and alarm went off all day once -- went next door to apologise that night and they said they hadn't heard it)

Consider installing an outside bell in the eircom box if this is the case.