# Paying bills monthly (tv licence?)



## mi2008

We're doing a budget for the first time and our number one hurdle is to pay as many of our bills monthly as we can - makes for a simpler life if the budget is as simple as possible.

Does anyone know if the tv licence is paid in arrears or in advance, monthly? Ours is due the end of next May and I've filled out the direct debit mandate, but don't know when they'll start taking the amounts from our account...

Thanks


----------



## MeathCommute

Hi. I pay my TV licence in a lump sum yearly. I wasn't aware you could pay it monthly


----------



## niceoneted

I think you can buy 5 euro stamps for it. I remember seeing something of this nature at the post office mind you it could have been years ago. You just need to check with the post office to be sure. Well done on getting a budget going.


----------



## mi2008

http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/tvlicence.htm?tools

Click on "payment methods" under the heading 'About TV Licence'. Then hit the link to "direct debit mandate" - when you download the form, you've the option to tick Annual, Bi-annually, Quarterly or Monthly.


----------



## marksa

An alternative is to open an account for annual bills, and transfer 1/12th of the amount due into the account each month, and then at the end of 12 months withdraw the money. I do this for a whole range of items that are annual payment - house insurance, car tax, car insurance, tv license etc. If you take up the offer of any party that allows you to do monthly you will see in the fine print that they often charge you an APR of 20%+ so really paying through the nose.


----------



## rmelly

I stick approx 350/400 a month into an 'annualised' account to cover tv licence, car tax, insurance, breakdown cover, health insurance, management fees, all the 'one off' anticipated items, makes it a lot easier to budget & you're not left short one month because of a couple of large outgoings (e.g. car tax & insurance).

As marksa says, if you opt for monthly or instalment payments many services will charge extra - car tax certainly does, as do some car insurers, Quinn Insurance do if you pay quarterly for health insurance (I think?) so TV licence may be the same.


----------



## mi2008

Thanks marksa and rmelly - really great plan to open another account....we're only starting our budget so if we can avoid paying penalties like higher fees for the 'pay monthly' option, that'd be better.


----------



## marksa

Another thing to think of as an annual "bill" is Christmas! We save monthly for this too, so no big hole in the credit card bill in January/February.

It used to be a very old fashioned thing to do, but makes senses to put aside an amount every month towards xmas pressies, turkey, drinks etc. It also acts as a useful way of measuring exactly how much do you want to spend overall on xmas.


----------



## net64

You can pay your tv licence monthly and it is paid in arreears. That is the way that I do mine.It works out at e13.16 per month and you can get the form from your local post office.After the first instalment they will send out your tv licence and no more worrying about the tv inspector calling!


----------



## Breffni12

you can get a savings stamps book in post office stamps are 4euro each so u can collect them during the year.


----------

