General Chat

Don't pay it
Go to jail and watch for free :-D :-D :-D

Not paying fopr a TV licence when one is required will remain a criminal offence until at least 2027.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-decriminalising-tv-licence-evasion/consultation-on-decriminalising-tv-licence-evasion

Detector vans have not been in use for years and years.
They cannot detect flat screen TVs.
The primary data source is the electoral register but they have other sources for gaps such as ISPs. Anybody who watches live tv from any source on any device is legally liable to pay the licence fee. If you are watching tv that was live via catchup that counts as live too.

Some countries such as France, Germany just add the fee for independent TV onto the equivalent of council tax which achieves the same result and is impossible to avoid. Hardly any paperworkl as well - no tv licence is needed.
The BBC objects to such a scheme as they say it would remove their claimed independence from the govt.

We paid ours by direct debit and had an email with the licence as an attachment.

I don't know about detector vans, but I read somewhere that non-payment is no longer a criminal offence, so there isn't much point in having them.

We paid ours in one go after which (and, surprisingly, within a couple of days) we received what looked like a letter - Dear M ... but it was headed 'Here's your TV Licence'.

The lower third of the 'letter' has the details - payment, name, address, payment method, due date and Licence number.

Joan, if you have proof of payment going through bank or receipt of some sort, I wouldn't worry about it. If you are concerned still, why not ring them and remember to get a name and make a note of time and date of call.

PS - I phoned to make our payment.

Joan - if you paid your licence in one go then the licence is usually attached to the bottom of the letter they send you requesting payment and doesn't come out separately (although we do pay by direct debit so that may make a difference).

We've just paid ours this week.

They are also trying to get everyone to go paperless.

Kath. x

We paid up too, Joan, but not until this month, not that the later payment will make a difference to the renewal date as I think it has been set for us as 1 July......

..... so wasn't it heartwarming to find that G Lineker had forfeited £400 k of his annual payment. ;-)

There is another scam refs TV licence .emails. .phone calls.ignore them do not get involved wait for your official letter Thanks Barbara