On demand TV licence fee. ❓

ernievan

Is there a way to pay a " TV Licence" fee. For short periods of time. Only when family visit.
For a period of 2 weeks, every 4 or 5 months ❓

Cornucopia

Yes - the minimum length of a TV Licence is now one month, and it has to run from the 1st to the last day of the month (so a period of days/weeks might span 2 months).

You have to begin an annual Licence (which you pay for by instalments) and then cancel it when you no longer need it.  If you have over-paid, you will receive a refund of the excess.

Mickey666

Do the family visitors have their own TV licence?
If so, I think they can watch live tv etc on a portable battery-powered device, eg smartphone, laptop, tablet etc.
That might or might not be acceptable to you and/or the visiting family but it's an option.

mobileron

Why bother,if theres a knock on the door from Capita,say goodbye and close door.

pbartlett

Be careful - I remember in the past hearing anecdotal evidence (i have no link) that if you cancel your TV licence and then say a couple of months later restart it, then they backdate the start date to the date of cancellation assuming you are trying to pull a fast one

Cornucopia

pbartlett said:

Be careful - I remember in the past hearing anecdotal evidence (i have no link) that if you cancel your TV licence and then say a couple of months later restart it, then they backdate the start date to the date of cancellation assuming you are trying to pull a fast one

Yes, they can do that, although if the previous Licence only ran for a month (say), I think they would find it hard to justify that it was cancelled for the purposes of evasion, if you say otherwise.

I would apply for each Licence by phoning the call centre so that any "issues" like backdating can be resolved there and then.   If they refused to budge on backdating (which is not law), then I would tend to say, "okay then, no Licence" and go the no Licence required route (including battery powered equipment for visitors with their own TV Licences).  

You can then try again next time, which will eventually work because the maximum backdating (I was told by TVL) is 11 months.