Tv license help???

[firsttimemxm]

Our tv license expired end of july thought my dh had automatically renewed it but with a lot on recently it slipped his mind and they visited when i wasn’t home and have 1 week to sort it. Tried to set up direct debit online but it is trying to get us to pay in 3 instalments until Jan 23 which amounts to £159 thereafter from jan its £13 a month, but its £159 for a year so shouldnt we be paying the £13 a month from year until next july and understandably pay a one off £39 for the jul-oct payments?

This is from the TV licence website.

"We'll spread the cost of your first Direct Debit licence over six months, at around £26.50 a month. From then on you'll pay around £13.25 a month."

So that's right.

If you pay in installments, they make you pay a higher amount until you've paid for the full years licence, then drop it down so you'd pay the next licence over a year, but you are always paying in advance.

It's annoying, but they've done it that way for over a decade so I doubt they will change now.

www.tvlicensing.co.uk/pay-for-your-tv-licence/ways-to-pay

What are you hoping to find out, it's right that you have any some in advance before you go monthly

Right no need for the cheek clearly i’m hoping to find out why i’m paying for a year between july to january when it should be until next july , then starting to pay another year beginning january. Clearly i wouldnt be on here asking if i knew you paid more doing DD

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer / clarify, it’s appreciated!

You don't pay more you just pay some up front.

Can you afford to pay the years total? If it hasn't automatically renewed you must have done that last year.

It's always been that way, we've paid our TV licence by DD for nearly 30 years and I remember having to pay more in the first year all that time ago.

It’s like nearly £100 more lol?

www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ305

Enquire with them about the simple payment plan.

You end up paying quite a bit upfront

I've just cancelled mine and they've refunded me £66

This annoyed me too, if you have a tv license until you die you'll never get that overpayment back!

I pay quarterly DD which doesn't require the upfront cost.

If you were already paying by DD you wouldn’t have needed to renew it, so it would still be valid. Assuming that you weren’t, given that it has expired, can you use your previous reference to renew rather than set up from new? Alternatively pay it all up front, since the cost £159 is the same. Otherwise you need to set up new DD which as PP have said involves paying more initially.

Do you need a tv licence? Maybe pay what you owe and then cancel it?

I don’t need a tv license as I genuinely just use Netflix, prime video and YouTube. I don’t watch live tv or bbc content

I hadn’t realised this but apparently you need a TV Licence to watch live on streaming services (e.g. ITV Hub, All 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now, Sky Go)
www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one

I don't know what's funny, it's en explained and links have been provided. I guess if you won't accept what the actualb tv licence website says there isn't much point to the discussion

Only if you watch programs live on you tube , which we don't