You can legally cancel your TV licence and get a £159 refund before next month’s price rise

The TV licence will be going up in April

The licence fee has often been a fierce source of debate. By law, if you watch any live TV, you have to pay up.

Additionally, if you watch or stream live programming on any online TV streaming service, such as BBC iPlayer or Sky Go, you should be paying for your license.

For the last two years the fee has been frozen at £159 a year, but from April this year it will rise to £169.50.

If you don’t pay the fee, you could potentially land yourself in court and being forced to pay a £1,000 fine, on top of court costs.

Whilst many see the licence as pretty good value for money – it will be just over £14 a month after the price rise – some aren’t so sure and are opposed to paying the fee.

If this is you, and you think you aren’t using your TV for any of content which needs a licence, there is a way to get a refund and not have to pay in April.

But be warned, the TV licence isn’t just for watching live BBC channels. You need a licence by law if you do any of the following:

• watch or record TV on any channel via any TV service (such as Sky, Virgin, Freeview, Freesat)
• watch live programmes on any streaming services, such as ITVX, Channel 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now, Sky Go
• use BBC iPlayer

TV licences cover a house, so you only need one cover all the TVs in your property, unless the property is made up of flats or rooms with separate addresses.

You don’t need a TV licence to watch DVDs or streaming platforms as long as you’re not watching live events. For example, you don’t need a TV licence to watch the Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, but if you start watching live Premier League matches on Prime you do need a licence by law.

TV Licencing explains: “You need to be covered by a TV Licence to watch programmes live on any online TV service – such as ITVX, Channel 4, Amazon Prime Video, Now or Sky Go. You don’t need a TV Licence if you only ever watch on-demand programmes on any TV service apart from BBC iPlayer.”

You can choose to pay your licence in one go every year or in installments such as monthly or quarterly Direct Debits.

However, you can get a TV licence refund if:

• You move to an address which already has a TV Licence
• You move abroad
• You transfer your existing TV Licence to someone else (e.g. when you move out)
• You move into a care home
• You no longer watch ANY live TV on ANY channel, TV service or streaming service (including live content on YouTube and Amazon Prime).

You can apply for a refund if you meet all of the following requirements:

• You won’t need your licence again before it expires,
• You have at least one complete month left on it and
• Your licence expired less than two years ago

The only exception to this is if you are eligible for an over 75 or blind concession, in which case you apply for a refund any time and for any length of time left on your licence,

You can check if you need a TV licence, how to pay and whether you are eligible for a refund by visiting the TV Licensing website here.

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