Tv Licensing Renewal

pinkstars0310

I have just received an e-mail to notify me that in 14 days my tv license is due for renewal, i clicked the link straight away so i can renew it now before i forget.

However, shelling out £145.50 is a bit much for us at this time of year with christmas coming up so i opted to pay monthly.. now £145.50 paid monthly should come to roughly around £12, but when i proceed to choosing to pay monthly my payments came up as this;

30/11/2010 £20.82 22/12/2010 £20.78 24/01/2011 £20.78 22/02/2011 £20.78 22/03/2011 £20.78 26/04/2011 £20.78 23/05/2011 £20.78
22/06/2011 £12.18 22/07/2011 £12.12 22/08/2011 £12.12 22/09/2011 £12.12 24/10/2011 £12.12 22/11/2011 £12.12

which comes to just short of £220?? Now i don't know whether I am completely missing something here but that is extortionate!!!

Is there a hidden charge for paying monthly, obviously i'd be better shelling the £145.50 or would you recommend i get in touch with tv license customer services as maybe its an error?? Thanks in advance for any advice or help.

maninthestreet

You're paying the 6 months in advance, 6 months in arrears. If you buy a TV licence for £145.50, you're paying 12 months in advance.

MX5huggy

From the website

You'll usually pay for your first licence within six months, in instalments of around £24 per month. (If we have to spread the cost into four or five monthly instalments, the cost may be slightly higher). From then on, you pay for your licences in 12 monthly instalments of just over £12 - six before your licence is due and six after.

Basically if they let you pay over 1 year they would not get the benefit of the money when they expect. So to off set that they collect the 1st years worth over 6 months so from then on you pay half a year early and half the year late.

pinkstars0310

Thanks, so basically there actually not taking more off me than they should be, but still, the best option would be the pay the balance in full?

elsien

Yes, that's what I had to do in the end, only way to get it at a reasonable price.

lucylucky

pinkstars0310 wrote: »

Thanks, so basically there actually not taking more off me than they should be, but still, the best option would be the pay the balance in full?

Another option would be to stop watching live TV in which case you would not need to pay anything.

There is (used to be) the option of a quarterly direct debit if that was a better option?

MX5huggy

You pay instalments of around £37 every three months. By paying quarterly the majority of your licence is paid for on a pay-as-you-go basis. This differs from our other instalment schemes, where at least half of the licence fee is collected in advance. As a result, quarterly payments incur a small premium of £1.25 per quarter which is included in your payment.

Basically pay for the full year, maybe wait till it has expired and they send you another reminder to help with cash flow.

pinkstars0310

Ooh i couldnt live without watching my tele i dont mind paying it i just want the cheapest possible way and so i'm not being ripped off.

I looked into the quarterly direst debit but they charge you £5