TV Licence - cheaper by monthly or annual payments?

John_Gray

I asked this question in the relevant TV Licence thread but got no reply, so since it's a techie question (perhaps even using Excel, gasp!) I thought I'd ask it here.

Which is likely to end up costing less -
an annual licence, where you pay the whole amount 'up front',
or monthly payments, where you have a slightly complicated series of payments:

• in months 1-6 you pay for the first year's licence at 1/6 of the licence fee per month
• in months 6-12 you pay, in advance, for the first half of [next] year's licence at 1/12 of the licence fee per month
• in months 13-18 you pay, in arrears, for the second half of [this] year's licence at 1/12 of the licence fee per month
• ... and so on.

The complicating factors are that the licence fee will probably go up in April(?) each year, and this will probably affect the instalments at some point in the proceedings; the interest you might get on the money you haven't yet paid will vary.

Has anyone done the maths, or should I suggest that Martin's fabled "Premium Bonds calculator" PhD gets involved?!

davetrousers

Paying monthly,they are 6 months ahead of you, which is why I pay annually!

John_Gray

I don't disagree with your view, but it would be nice to have some calculations to show just how much cheaper was the annual payment method...!

Blacksheep1979

better off paying in installments then if there's no premium on doing it that way as due to the time value of money (£5 is worth less tomorrow than it is today) the first 6 months means you're hanging onto your money longer than you should have had it and the other two split 6 month periods should balance each other out. Will be negligable ie pence that you will be up though.