Tax Disc?

six months (130 divided by 2) should be 65 plus an extra 5 percent equals 68.25

68.25 doubled is 136.50 so only an extra 6.50 over the cost of buying a year (130) at one go, which is borrowing at only 5 percent, not too terrible really.

But if you treat it as a monthly tax plus an admin. charge you get:

monthly tax = 9.825 admin fee = 12.1

You may think 12.1 is high but there are overheads every time the tax is renewed, especially when people pay at the Post Office. (Arguably the real anomaly is that there is not a discount for paying online but there wd be political problems with that.)

They should now drop this distinction between 6 and 12 months Road Tax, and just have a monthly charge. The 6 and 12 months obviously harks back to the necessity to print paper Tax disc and have then noticed in particular colours. Modern services now are mostly monthly, like e.g. ISP.

I bet it will be monthly only sooner or later. There are several advantages and easier for everybody, they will be no need for refund hassle, and you could just pay a couple of months in advance if e.g. going on holiday, whether at her majesti's hospitality or otherwise...

[...]

How would that work with those that can't/won't have a bank account? You couldn't expect them to go to a PO each month, surely?

Chris

They probably have similar issues with insurance, then - unless they just pay up, in cash, whatever the local insurance broker says is a 'great quote'.

In a modern world, would someone who (legally) owns a car really not have access to a bank account?

The Boxster is £285 / year. If I pay monthly DD, it's £299.25 / year.

So I'll pay £1.19 / month for the convenience of not having to find £285 on demand. (Yes, I know I can do 6 month payments - but I have a small fleet of roadworthy vehicles, so being able to spread the 'road tax' over 12 months is a very attractive proposition to me!)

Some little old lady who just drives to the nearest town for shopping, and collects a pension from the Post Office? It may not be common, but is still possible, so should be catered for. Although I could not function without a bank account, I don't believe that everyone should be forced to have one if they don't want to.

Yes.

Have you noticed that in these days it's almost madatory for doing any kind of business that you have:

1. Credit or bank card
2. Phone or mobile phone

[...]

Not really, no.

Chris

Nope. It broadens your options and saves money, sure, but it certainly isn't "almost mandatory".

My mother, kind of. She has a bank account but an uncontrollable, Daily Mail inspired fear of Direct Debit and internet shopping. Getting her to pay for her car tax monthly by DD would be slightly harder than pushing your car from here to Uzbekistan with a fork.

Car hire, hotels need credit/bank cards as security to cover for damage...

E-shopping often needs phone number as mandatory.

A very large swathe of the population don't hire cars or book hotels (and if you include those who would only travel as part of a package holiday, which can still be bought at a travel agent, even for real live folding tenners, it's even larger.)

A similarly large swathe don't buy online.

I too have an intense dislike of DD, you have to twist my arm. However, a gov agency should be trustworthy enough.

Whereas, I DD everything I can!

Obvioulsly businesses love DD:

Apart from the ease of extracting money, business also expect less resistance to e.g. annual increases as customers are too lazy to react and shop around when they have DD. And if you die, they will take DD 4ever...

UK banks usually freeze the account when they learn of the death of a sole a/c holder so no DDs or standing orders will be paid. The problem is usually maintain payments which are crucial - eg insurance and utilities for a property.

"usually", i.e not always...