Vehicle Excise Duty or Car tax as it’s commonly called

mudgy

I bought a car last week and as it was close to month end I SORN’d it so that I could tax it from the beginning of the month to save me around £30. I know it’s possible to tax a car early if you are renewing but it’s I get to the part where it says your car will be taxed from 1st March and it’s now 29th March! Ok I can wait a day or two as the car is at my home. But what happens if it’s a distance away?
Then there’s the rip off with Direct Debit charges. Ive never seen anywhere else where it costs more to use DD. They’ve got us over a barrel

MyRealNameToo

The managing agent for our flat charges more for SO or DD so the DVLA arent totally unique though imagine different motivations

Car_54

You only pay more if you opt for instalments, which seems fair enough as there is a cost to providing credit.

There is no charge if you pay for a year in full by DD.

Mildly_Miffed

VED is monthly. Always has been, since it was introduced over a century ago.

If you have the car on the road in March, you pay for March.

For it to be £30/mo or so, it must be one of the highest of 2001-2017 CO2 bands, or pre-2001 bigger engine? Everything new in roughly the last decade is half that, unless it's <5yo and was £40k+ new.

born_again

Only thing is that by waiting till the 1st April to pay VED you are now going to be paying the new rate each year. Had you taxed so renewal was 1st of March, you would be paying the old rate.

So std rate £185 25/26

New rate £195 26/27.

Carry that forward over a few years & you would have saved money 🤷‍♀️

paul_c123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81943534#Comment_81943534

Which tax band is currently £185 and going up to £195?

I can't see any tax bands which are currently £185, nor new ones which are £195.

Most of them are going up by £5 (which means, you'd need 6 years to make it worthwhile renewing a month early to achieve the lower cost) and some of them (the £20 and £35 ones) aren't going up at all.

facade

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81943534#Comment_81943534

Only the increase on the last year that you keep the car.

Assuming you keep it taxed continuously you are always paying "last year's rate", so your final tax saves you the difference between the old & new rates, all the other years cancel out, you just defer the increase to the next year.

Mildly_Miffed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81943578#Comment_81943578

Standard post-2017 VED is going from £195 to £200.