TV Licence article Discussion

Dovecott

After being told that there is no extra fee in order to pay my for my TV license monthly I decided to change my direct debit payment from a one yearly payment in full, to a 12 separate monthly direct debit payments.

The information given that there is no extra charge is bogus. In reality what they do is to charge you £145.50 (The full yearly amount) within the first six months of your new direct debit and the following six months they charge you £72.75. This would equate to paying £218.25 for your license over the same Twelve month period.

This smoke and mirror approach is just another overpayment by stealth scam.

I of course rejected this underhand offer but may I also suggest that if the BBC want to promote the public's trust, and prompt payment this is not the way to do it.

cw18

You don't pay any more in the long term. You pay for the first licence over 6 months, then the next over 12 with 6 payments made before it becomes valid and 6 afterwards.

degsy76_2

question if anyone can help. the article says you only need a licence if you want live tv, as its aired. i assume the burden of proof is with me to prove im not wacthing anything rather than the bbc proving i have?
does this mean if i have a sky/bt box they will assume i have the option to watch live tv. im cancelling sky, and i only have bt online so does anyone know if this will win my argument?
personally, i dont think the bbc caters for me. i only watch motd and sportscene, and the odd programme on bbc3. basically i reckon im about a pound a show, if not more, over the year.
hopefully someone on here can give me the answers to this.
thanks

cw18

I don't understand why you'd want a Sky or BT box if you've no licence. You need a licence to watch live on ANY channel, not just a BBC channel.

I've never had Sky / Cable / BT or similar type TV at the property I live in now, so all I've done is disable my terrestrial aerial enough that we don't get a signal through the house - but I could get it up and running again fairly quickly should I ever decide it was worth paying the fee again or if I sell the house.... or when I'm entitled to a free licence, unless they remove that like they want to remove so many perks from pensioners.

dragfoot

I pay monthly by direct debit we go away in the winter for eight weeks the house is not occupied can I get a rebate as I am not watching TV in the uk

PintAndAPie

degsy76 wrote: »

question if anyone can help. the article says you only need a licence if you want live tv, as its aired. i assume the burden of proof is with me to prove im not wacthing anything rather than the bbc proving i have?
does this mean if i have a sky/bt box they will assume i have the option to watch live tv. im cancelling sky, and i only have bt online so does anyone know if this will win my argument?
personally, i dont think the bbc caters for me. i only watch motd and sportscene, and the odd programme on bbc3. basically i reckon im about a pound a show, if not more, over the year.
hopefully someone on here can give me the answers to this.
thanks

The burden of proof is always with the tv licensing authority, there is no requirement for you to tell them anything. It is possible to watch live tv on your laptop, how would you prove that you don't watch live broadcasts on that?
Having the ability to watch live TV is not the issue, you could have wall to wall tv's in every room all hooked up to the aerial without breaking the law, until you watch broadcast tv on them. TV licensing rely on you incriminating yourself, either by being silly enough to have your tv on where it can be seen from the pavement or by you telling them that you are breaking the law when they ask. TVL can assume what they like but no magistrate will ever convict you if there is no evidence that you have broken the law, not that it would ever get that far.

cw18

dragfoot wrote: »

I pay monthly by direct debit we go away in the winter for eight weeks the house is not occupied can I get a rebate as I am not watching TV in the uk

Depends.

They'll only refund for full quarters, so you can cancel it during the 7th month of a licence year and you'll only be refunded for 3 months of the 12. But cancel during the 9th month and you'll still get a 3 month refund. Then when you get back you can buy a new licence, but you'd be expected to pay for the first in 6 payments, meaning your monthly Direct Debit would double at first.

And if you're away for the same 8 weeks every year you're not going to be a full quarter in as you leave the next time, because it'll have been running 10 months before you next want to cancel (which means no refund).

Cornucopia

dragfoot wrote: »

I pay monthly by direct debit we go away in the winter for eight weeks the house is not occupied can I get a rebate as I am not watching TV in the uk

Possibly, it depends on the timing. The licence can only be redeemed for full quarters, so you would need to approach them at that point each year and ask to cancel the licence and apply for a refund.

You could possibly make it work in your favour by being legally licence free for a few weeks around your trip to get up to a full quarter.

The other thing to watch out for when you get back is that (like other taxes) the licence starts from the beginning of the month in which you start it. ie. if you bought one today, it would start from 1st June, wasting part of the month's payment.

bhughes1986

cw18 wrote: »

I don't understand why you'd want a Sky or BT box if you've no licence. You need a licence to watch live on ANY channel, not just a BBC channel.

I've never had Sky / Cable / BT or similar type TV at the property I live in now, so all I've done is disable my terrestrial aerial enough that we don't get a signal through the house - but I could get it up and running again fairly quickly should I ever decide it was worth paying the fee again or if I sell the house.... or when I'm entitled to a free licence, unless they remove that like they want to remove so many perks from pensioners.

Sorry to be pedantic but you could have a Sky subscription for the radio channels - no TV license required.

cw18

As I say, I've no Sky - so no idea what a box brings with it.