TV licence query

dtaylor84

There is no error.

Instead of paying for your TV license 6 months in advance & 6 months in arrears, you have just paid for all 12 months in advance.

For the first year, the "6 months in arrears" payments are doubled, since you haven't made the first 6 months worth of advance payments.

Tigsteroonie

As the above poster said.

You have just chosen to pay the entire year upfront. If you do the same next year, you will have paid a total of £291 in just over one year (a year and a day). On the direct debit scheme, you would have had an extra 5 months (to October 2012) to pay the same amount.

aod19851

dtaylor84 wrote: »

There is no error.

Instead of paying for your TV license 6 months in advance & 6 months in arrears, you have just paid for all 12 months in advance.

For the first year, the "6 months in arrears" payments are doubled, since you haven't made the first 6 months worth of advance payments.

There are no arrears. I have just moved in. A TV licence lasts for a year from the date you pay. Hence the fact that paying all on one go gives me a TV licence from now to April 2012. paying next year will give me a licence to April 2013. £291 over two full years compared to £291 for 18 months by DD

This payment scheme gives me a licence to November 2011 for the same price as a licence to April 2012. There is a clear incongruity of 6 months.

For them to assume I am in arrears to the tune of 5 months just because I pay by DD (and haven't paid for the first 'half' of the calendar year when I owe them nothing for it) is nothing short of ridiculous. This would appear to be the source of the error, their assumption that I am in arrears and so charging me 12 months for a licence for 6.

brewerdave

Instead of paying up front for your first licence you pay interest free over 6 months. You then start paying for your second licence in advance,so that on renewal date you have paid for half of the licence .You then pay the balance "in arrears". In return for this arrangement you pay no interest. So whats the problem??

bitemebankers

I don't have a TV, and after 9 months of increasingly aggressive letters from the TV licencing authority, I was most surprised to get a visit. The bloke who called was quite surprised when I said I didn't have a TV and he was so polite, I did actually let him in. He literally put his head around the front door for a few seconds, gave my cat some fuss, then left. It seems their bark is very much worse than their bite.

Incidentally, I didn't reply to any of their letters as it seems pointless to do so: as previously mentioned the small print on the back of each letter explains that they'll call around anyway, even if you do claim to not have a TV, so what's the point in informing them?

Mistral001

Should have been "Without warning" in title by the way

I have been paying my TV licence by 5 monthly payments for years. Five payments of £29.10 = £145.50 for licence running from September to August. That is fine.

My last payment of £29.10 was paid in February this year as usual and I thought great I have it paid off for this year. No more payments until september or October!

But not this year. This year the payments continued to come out of my bank account only at a reduced rate: £12.18 in March and £12.12 in April. I did not give any instructions for this so I thought it could be fraud or intentity theft - a bit worried - but maybe it was just a mistake by the bank or even a mistake by the licencing people. I rang up the licencing people and found out that it was not a mistake by them or the bank but done deliberate by the licencing authority.

After explaining to the licencing people I would in effect have paid one and half times what I normally pay for a licence costing when my licence expires in August this year, they explained that they had changed to a policy of paying six months in advance.

It probably is covered by the small print somewhere, but having to pay an extra £12.12 every month for next years licence fee, is a strain at the minute. I think actually it cost me a bank change for going into the red with my bank in March this year, but getting that back from anybody is not going to happen.

I cancelled the direct debit and the licencing people told me that they would refund the two extra payments I had paid.

I know the reason they do want people to pay 6 months in advance. It is so that no interest is charged on the DD's. I would be quite happy to pay a little extra for paying over 12 months instead of paying a lump sum in advance. Instead they arranged to take over £70 from my account starting 6 months before my licence was up for renewal.

The thing I hate about this is that they seemed to have done this without permission from me. I did not instruct them change the method of payment.

I suppose the people in power just do not get it. These things matter. Ask permission before doing it next time. That is the way it is done everywhere else.

brewerdave

They have been doing it this way for years and years -my financial records go back to 1996 and it was like that then !!- you pay for your new licence 6 months in advance and six months in arrears with no extra charge over the one off payment. AFAIA its explained on the appropriate web page.

bella2121

yes it has been this way for years I worked there over 6 years ago and it was the same then 6 months in advance 6 months in arrears, if you consider if you pay for a full licence you pay 12 months in advance so 6 months isnt really that bad, I personally pay quarterly I dont mind paying an extra £5 per year I like to just pay for my 3 months at a time its easier to work out what you are paying for

HappyMJ

That's a lot of hassle doing it your way. Paying £29.10 for 5 months then ringing up to cancel the DD then setting up a new DD to again pay 5 months at £29.10. Wouldn't you rather pay an even amount of around £12.12 throughout the year? Personally, I prefer quarterly in advance although there is a fee to pay using that method.

Mistral001

brewerdave wrote: »

They have been doing it this way for years and years -my financial records go back to 1996 and it was like that then !!- you pay for your new licence 6 months in advance and six months in arrears with no extra charge over the one off payment. AFAIA its explained on the appropriate web page.

I see. The problem probably in my particular case is going from 5 monthly payments a year to 12 monthly payments a year.

When you set up the paying in advance did payments start coming out of your account 6 months in advance or was there a lump sum of half the fee followed by 6 months payments for the other half?

I suppose my gripe is that nobody asked my permission to change the method of payment.