I found this email from a Biased BBC reader interesting…
“Just renewed my TVlicence. Last year I paid in full in one payment. This year I decided to renew online.Went on the web site and what first struck me was that the site seemedto promote the monthly direct debit option. I clicked on this method of payment.However going through the process it seemed that the monthly payments shown onthe screen did not add up.I was paying around £25 for the first 6 months andthen around £12.50 each month thereafter. You pay the full fee in the first 6months and then keep paying.
I phoned the licence people. The reason they do it like that is so that you are”always in credit”. “So when do you get the overpayment back?”
“When you stop using a TV”
“That is usually when you die”“But we will refund the overpayment if we are asked”
How many people think to reclaim this overpayment when a relative dies? Theyare clearly making a nice secret profit out of this.
There is an upside to this. Once you have paid your first 6 monthly instalmentsyou can cancel any time and you do not need to start paying again for 6 months.There must be millions paying on direct debit. If they all stopped paying andtook the 6 month holiday that the system allows, it could seriously damage theBBC.It is a double whammy. Expose dubious financial malpractice and at the sametime inflict serious financial pain.”
Good post David, I find that once you put your “implied right of access denied to Capita” notice up, you don’t have to pay anything.
And neither do I have any worries about them hassling me.
Are you readers and subscribers to this great blog going to promote this and do the same?
Don’t wait for the coalition to disband the BBC, it ain’t ever gonna happen.
Only you can force this by cancelling your direct debit now. You can watch without the fear of the Capita salesmen knocking on your door.
2 years, 30 letters of faux threats (that your licence fee is paying for), 2 Capita salesmen forced a retreat from my property on reading the notice, and not a fictitious detector van in sight.
So easy, wish I’d done it a decade ago and saved myself almost a grand.
Another odd thing I discovered recently when we bought a TV licence after a gap without one is that we paid the 12 months’ fee but received a licence for only 11 months. For some reason, instead of counting forward 12 months from the date of payment, they counted it from the end of the previous month. I had no idea that this was the case when purchasing and paying for it over the telephone and only discovered it when the licence arrived in the post.
i learnt this when i cancelled my licence last year. i got a refund and i could not initially understand why until i dug further. i cancelled my licence and my anger at their bias and excesses are reduced as i feel that i am not personally paying to promote this. stop paying your licence. if you want to watch some programmes get on the iplayer. use a bluray player like sony and get these services for free and legally
A fine money saving tip!
Yet not seen in the Guardian or Indie when it comes to “thrift as middle class war effort” piece…wonder why?
MoneyBox?…Watchdog?…no sign!
Why no funding of true undercover exposes like this of our new cub reporter Mr Vance!
Belive there may yet be a TVS award going spare to a genuine piece of reportage…it could be YOU, David!
Having voted for Kennedy, the dead are now helping fund al-Beeb and its multifarious parasites ?
Is there no end to the capacities of our cadaverous overlords ?
(Oh, and cj: TVS doesn’t exist anymore. We have Meridian now).
Suitably incensed I checked my bank statement only to find that they take 12.37 per month, it seems that the 6 month payment for the full year is for the first year, so they dont screw us quite as badly as I thought. Personally I wouldnt bother with a licence, as I never watch the damned machine, but my good lady frets..
Matt cartoon:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/?cartoon=8576414&cc=8560581