TV Licensing - Switch to DD and Pay a WHOLE YEAR in Six Months!

fallen121

So much for saving money!

When the TV licence reminder hit the dormat on 31st December, rather than shove the £145.50 fee on a card to repent at my leisure as I normally do, I decided to do the responsible thing as I have done with many of my insurance payments and pay by D/D to spread the cost and avoid paying interest.

Last year I paid £142.50 in one lump sum on January 1st with the licence expiring on 31st December 2010.

This year I paid for a licence expiring on 31st December 2011:

£20.82 upfront by debit card

And my future payments will be:

£20.78 on 24/01/2011
£20.78 on 22/02/2011
£20.78 on 22/03/2011
£20.78 on 26/04/2011
£20.78 on 23/05/2011
£20.78 on 22/06/2011

then it changes to £12.12 UFN (unless the licence fee goes up, when this payment will go up too).

TV licence are sneaky b8stards. They've basically taken a whole year's worth of licence fee payments in 6 months, i.e. six months in advance, and I don't actually get to pay 1/12 of the licence fee until month 7. This means that if I moved abroad or decided to give up TV altogether in July, they'd still have 6 months worth of payments in the bag and no guarantee that I'd ever get it back.

I've resisted D/D for years because I consider it akin to allowing companies to help themselves to your Bank Account. Something which utility companies seem to take particular delight in doing.

So much for trying to be financially responsible.

PAH!:mad:

ash28

fallen121 wrote: »

So much for saving money!

When the TV licence reminder hit the dormat on 31st December, rather than shove the £145.50 fee on a card to repent at my leisure as I normally do, I decided to do the responsible thing as I have done with many of my insurance payments and pay by D/D to spread the cost and avoid paying interest.

Last year I paid £142.50 in one lump sum on January 1st with the licence expiring on 31st December 2010.

This year I paid for a licence expiring on 31st December 2011:

£20.82 upfront by debit card

And my future payments will be:

£20.78 on 24/01/2011
£20.78 on 22/02/2011
£20.78 on 22/03/2011
£20.78 on 26/04/2011
£20.78 on 23/05/2011
£20.78 on 22/06/2011

then it changes to £12.12 UFN (unless the licence fee goes up, when this payment will go up too).

TV licence are sneaky b8stards. They've basically taken a whole year's worth of licence fee payments in 6 months, i.e. six months in advance, and I don't actually get to pay 1/12 of the licence fee until month 7. This means that if I moved abroad or decided to give up TV altogether in July, they'd still have 6 months worth of payments in the bag and no guarantee that I'd ever get it back.

I've resisted D/D for years because I consider it akin to allowing companies to help themselves to your Bank Account. Something which utility companies seem to take particular delight in doing.

So much for trying to be financially responsible.

PAH!:mad:

You can get a refund on a TV licence if you move abroad or move into a house that already has one. And various other reasons too.

mickamike404

Yes I agree with you,they are the only one I know who charge you
EXTRA MONEY for paying by direct debit, DON'T DO IT,YOU ARE BEING CONNED.

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brewerdave

Its not a "con" - you are spreading the payments over 6 months for the "first" licence - surely thats better than paying the lump sum now??? Then you pay for the next licence by virtually equal payments spread over 6 months in advance and six months in arrears - in return for this you are not charged for credit -where's the con????

TonyMMM

The con is that they get you into paying for your licence 6 months in advance ...

Kurtis_Blue

Yeah clearly if you are never going to cancel you will always be 6months out of pocket, its not right and I can see no reason for it.
I pay by DD and wish I hadn't now I've realised.

davemurgatroyd

TonyMMM wrote: »

The con is that they get you into paying for your licence 6 months in advance ...

Where is the con in that? You have the choice of this way or paying £142.50 in one lump sum now and another £142.50 in 12 months time which equals £285 in 13 months by paying upfront or £230.58 in 13 months by DD.

davemurgatroyd

Kurtis_Blue wrote: »

Yeah clearly if you are never going to cancel you will always be 6months out of pocket, its not right and I can see no reason for it.
I pay by DD and wish I hadn't now I've realised.

Considering you would otherwise have to pay 12 months upfront every year that is hardly true see my other reply above. From months 7 to 12 you are paying more over all but then from months 13 to 18 you are paying in "arrears". This repeats every year so for 6 months each year you are in front and for 6 months in arrears. Hardly a con.

Kurtis_Blue

davemurgatroyd wrote: »

Considering you would otherwise have to pay 12 months upfront every year that is hardly true see my other reply above. From months 7 to 12 you are paying more over all but then from months 13 to 18 you are paying in "arrears". This repeats every year so for 6 months each year you are in front and for 6 months in arrears. Hardly a con.

I do see your angle Dave and if that is OK with you then cool, but personally I don't like the idea of paying 6 months early, at every point TVL hold 6 months more funds than they are entitled to, I fully understand how paying once a year would function but you would at least be paying for service you a currently receiving such as car tax etc..

Paying once a year or paying monthly as you would with insurance, gym membership, mobile rentals charge, council tax etc.. would be more acceptable, and can think of no other item or service that would be able to charge in this rather strange manner.

brewerdave

Kurtis_Blue wrote: »

Paying once a year or paying monthly as you would with insurance, gym membership, mobile rentals charge, council tax etc.. would be more acceptable, and can think of no other item or service that would be able to charge in this rather strange manner.

But a lot of these monthly arrangements include a charge for credit - insurance deals certainly do, and I suspect that memberships of clubs are generally more expensive when paid monthly (altho' they normally phrase it as a discount for paying annually up front)
I am in agreement with davemurgatroyd - it isn't any form of con, just a different interest free form of credit.

Kurtis_Blue

brewerdave wrote: »

But a lot of these monthly arrangements include a charge for credit - insurance deals certainly do, and I suspect that memberships of clubs are generally more expensive when paid monthly (altho' they normally phrase it as a discount for paying annually up front)
I am in agreement with davemurgatroyd - it isn't any form of con, just a different interest free form of credit.

Certainly wouldn't use the word con but they will hold 6 months money for the entire term, for no technical reason. But like I said others may feel OK with it and each to there own, that's why they get away with it.

I'm sure if you go trough the FOI request answers on the DVL site it will state the amount of people paying by DD (I could but not really that bothered), multiply that by 6 months fees and the amount held on balance must be huuuge, and that is being held for no reason.

Its just not a good deal for me, makes no sense for me or the OP.