TV Licensing APR Shock

TheStationMaster

Love the site, I have been signed up for over a year now. Most of us have TV licences but how many have actually read the letter that TV Licensing send you? I have paid by quarterly direct debit for several years and have just spotted “As you are probably aware, the Quarterly Direct Debit Scheme includes a small premium of £5 per year”. I calculate that this is an interest rate of 23.7%! Any mention of APR? No of course not! Just thought everyone would like to know.

:think:

Smiley_Mum

Thankfully I pay by monthly Direct Debit and pay them around £10.50 a month or thereabouts. Used to buy the stamps but direct debit seemed a better option for me.

greenwich

TheStationMaster wrote:

Love the site, I have been signed up for over a year now. Most of us have TV licences but how many have actually read the letter that TV Licensing send you? I have paid by quarterly direct debit for several years and have just spotted “As you are probably aware, the Quarterly Direct Debit Scheme includes a small premium of £5 per year”. I calculate that this is an interest rate of 23.7%! Any mention of APR? No of course not! Just thought everyone would like to know.

:think:

Strange why they do this. I've been paying by monthly DD for years. The idea there is that you start paying for your licence 6 months before it starts and then keep paying for 6 months after it's started. I've never done the sums to check if that's to my advantage or theirs - the difference is not likely to be worth the hassle of calculation.

MarkyMarkD

Where do you get 23.7% APR from? I make it around 11% which is nowhere near as unreasonable.

TheStationMaster

Oops, you're right its 10.5%! Still rather high though.

System

Buy the stamps - Save money

I do it because I am often in the PO anyway and you just pay your license once a year and forget about it.

MarkyMarkD

Save the money in a savings account, if you want to save money.

BargainHunterCat

Whilst I'm not sure about the APR comment, I do find it outrageous that TV licensing are cashing in once again.
If it wasn't bad enough that they impose this ridiculous license which you cannot opt out of even if you don't want to watch the BBC channels it supposedly pays for.
It's time we got rid of this outdated unfair license...surely a license should be for something that you need training to use?!
I've stopped watching TV and detuned my telly in protest but TV licensing still hound me like a common criminal! :mad:
I've joined a DVD rental club instead and that way I get to watch what I want to see!!
Remember you dont need a license just to own a TV...only to watch broadcasts although they will try to convince you otherwise.

swebb

I pay qtly and enquired about the monthly DD. I was told that I'd have to pay for the licence 6 months in advance and then pay monthly afterwards - therefore effectively paying 6 months in advance. I thought I could save a fiver over the qtly payments, but this seems worse. I did ask the guy on the phone about. He said people pay what suits them.

MarkyMarkD

If you think about it, swebb, if you pay monthly, you pay 6 months in advance and 6 months in arrears of the due date - i.e. the start date of the year of the licence. That's quite fair and there's no net interest cost.

The quarterly payments have interest (read: admin charge) added because you pay in arrears of the due date, i.e. during the year of the licence's currency.

Newbird

I save it monthly (along with all other bills) in the highest interest account I can find with no access probs, just transfer to bank account when due and pay it....you have then in earned the interest on monthly payments over up to a year instead of them...Obviously you need to start to do this from just after you have re-newed it, or divide the payments to yourself over however many months you have left b4 renewal...