TV licence - when is a year not a year?

Sophie4120

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone might be able to give some advice. Our household bought our one year TV licence on 20th June 2011. However, we have been sent a reminder telling us that our license expires on 31st May! Upon querying this, they have said "A new licence is dated to expire twelve months from the first day of the month in which it was bought, and when you renew it the original expiry date is retained".
So they are essentially 'cheating' us out of 3 weeks. We paid for a year - surely a year is a year?

I guess my real question is, am I likely to get away with waiting until the 19th June to renew, despite 'officially' being expired, but technically still having paid for those weeks? In principle I want to wait until the 19th, but i'm not sure what the consequences might be!

Thanks for any advice

McKneff

Just out of curiosity, why do you want to wait till 19th June, it's only a couple of weeks or so.

You havent ;technically' paid for those weeks, you lost those 2 and a bit weeks when you bought it last year. You should have waited till 1st July last year.

Your licence expires on 31st May, full stop.

What the consequences would be I have no idea, but it if expires on 31st May they may send you a reminder in June, so you could technically get away with it.

Personally, I would just get it renewed on 1st and its over with.
I do mine quarterly by DD so I dont have to think about it.

Sophie4120

McKneff wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, why do you want to wait till 19th June, it's only a couple of weeks or so.

Mainly the principle of it. we've paid for those (almost 3) weeks, so why can't we have them?

Secondly, we're students. I'd rather put that extra few quid towards a pint

ETA: Thirdly - i'm on a Money Saving website for that very purpose! Doesn't seem very money saving to go paying for things twice.

McKneff

Sophie4120 wrote: »

Mainly the principle of it. we've paid for those (almost 3) weeks, so why can't we have them?

Secondly, we're students. I'd rather put that extra few quid towards a pint

ETA: Thirdly - i'm on a Money Saving website for that very purpose! Doesn't seem very money saving to go paying for things twice.

Like I say, you havent paid for them, you lost them, It's in the terms and conditions which you agreed to when you bought the licence, same principle as car tax.

JimmyTheWig

Sophie4120 wrote: »

I guess my real question is, am I likely to get away with waiting until the 19th June to renew, despite 'officially' being expired, but technically still having paid for those weeks? In principle I want to wait until the 19th, but i'm not sure what the consequences might be!

1. No, you can't get away with waiting until 19th June. Chances are you'll be hassled by TVL for watching TV with no licence.
2. Even if you did wait until 19th June, you'd be buying a licence in June which will expire (wait for it...) on 31st May 2013. So yuo wouldn't be gaining anything.

You're not paying for a year, you're paying for 12 calendar months. You just didn't use it much in the first of those calendar months (June 2011).
As McKneff says other things work in the same way, like car tax.

Sophie4120

McKneff wrote: »

Like I say, you havent paid for them, you lost them, It's in the terms and conditions which you agreed to when you bought the licence, same principle as car tax.

I have spent quite a long time looking through the site, and nowhere can I see anything resembling 'terms and conditions' - particularly not at the point of sale. I'm just not sure how they expect us to be aware of this clause?

Edit - Just to be clear, i'm not arguing with you - I accept that this is the case - just venting my annoyance that the website doesn't imply this term in any shape or form when you agree to pay for a year. How on earth do they get away with it? I always thought terms and conditions had to be obvious to the consumer?

With regards to car tax - I found the information regarding starting on the first day of the month within about 20 seconds of landing on the direct.gov homepage. They make it very clear.
I don't know why it's wound me up, but it has!

McKneff

Calm down dear, it's only a licence:D

(no offence) just my sense of humour.

McKneff

I just went onto the site and asked 'paying for a licence mid month and it comes up near the top of the page.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/search?q=buying+a+licence+in+the+middle+of+a+month

Sophie4120

McKneff wrote: »

Calm down dear, it's only a licence:D

(no offence) just my sense of humour.

I've had a coffee and some chocolate, so feeling a bit calmer now

McKneff wrote: »

I just went onto the site and asked 'paying for a licence mid month and it comes up near the top of the page.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/search?q=buying+a+licence+in+the+middle+of+a+month

Ah yes, but to find it you had to know exactly what you were looking for! Unfortunately i'm not clairvoyant - i'd have won the lottery a few times by now if I was :beer:
Like the good citizen I am, I have now renewed the licence - but kept a sharp eye out throughout the entire application process. Just before you pay, there is a 'terms and conditions' button - so I clicked to read - and quelle surprise, nothing about mid-month payments and starting from the beginning of the month :doh:
Either way, it's now paid - but i'm still left feeling a little bit indignant

McKneff

Sophie4120 wrote: »

I've had a coffee and some chocolate, so feeling a bit calmer now




Ah yes, but to find it you had to know exactly what you were looking for! Unfortunately i'm not clairvoyant - i'd have won the lottery a few times by now if I was :beer:
Like the good citizen I am, I have now renewed the licence - but kept a sharp eye out throughout the entire application process. Just before you pay, there is a 'terms and conditions' button - so I clicked to read - and quelle surprise, nothing about mid-month payments and starting from the beginning of the month :doh:
Either way, it's now paid - but i'm still left feeling a little bit indignant

I'm old and lazy, I just took the easy way out.
In the top right hand corner it said 'ask TV licencing a question'
So I did.

Life's too short, in the not too distant future this will come under the heading of 'trivial pursits' good luck with your studies.
Annie

JimmyTheWig

McKneff wrote: »

I'm old and lazy, I just took the easy way out.
In the top right hand corner it said 'ask TV licencing a question'
So I did.

But you had to know that it was something to ask about.

The OP's point is that they were buying a licence for a year. They didn't know if made a difference if they bought it mid-month. So why would they ask the question?
Should they have also asked the question about buying a licence on a Wednesday in case there were any special rules? Or buying a licence in the morning, in case that was different to buying one in the afternoon?

I agree that the rule is quite clear if yuo look for it, but without looking for it it doesn't appear to be quite so clear.

I'm sure that having bought it the licence itself would have had an expiry date on it, however.