Just discovered something after 63 years on the planet

[Rufus Stone]

It's cheaper to pay 6 months road tax by monthly instalments than it is to pay 6 months up front.

[charltjr]

Gadzooks! You’re right, although it’s not monthly payments unfortunately, it’s a block payment every six months. No advantage to doing it compared to doing regular monthly payments either, but what an oddity.

What it really shows is just how incredibly poor value it is to pay every six months by card. Actually, maybe discussing “good/bad value” when it comes to road tax is a poor choice of words? Even more of a rip off is more accurate.

I get the option to pay by card:

6 months by card: One payment of £418.00
12 months by card: One payment of £760.00

Or by DD:
Monthly Direct Debit payments (approximately £66.50 each month) totalling £798.00 per year
I want to use Direct Debit but pay at 6 or 12 month intervals
By Direct Debit: Repeating payments, once every 6 months of £399.00 (that's £798.00 per year)
By Direct Debit: Repeating payments, once every 12 months of £760.00

Cheapest way is still to get a year outright.

[Rufus Stone]

charltjr said:

Gadzooks! You’re right, although it’s not monthly payments unfortunately, it’s a block payment every six months. No advantage to doing it compared to doing regular monthly payments either, but what an oddity.

What it really shows is just how incredibly poor value it is to pay every six months by card. Actually, maybe discussing “good/bad value” when it comes to road tax is a poor choice of words? Even more of a rip off is more accurate.

I get the option to pay by card:

6 months by card: One payment of £418.00
12 months by card: One payment of £760.00

Or by DD:
Monthly Direct Debit payments (approximately £66.50 each month) totalling £798.00 per year
I want to use Direct Debit but pay at 6 or 12 month intervals
By Direct Debit: Repeating payments, once every 6 months of £399.00 (that's £798.00 per year)
By Direct Debit: Repeating payments, once every 12 months of £760.00

Cheapest way is still to get a year outright.

I only want 6 months for the summer though. I wonder if the cheapest is to buy 12 then when SORNed in 6 months time they give you back 50%?

[charltjr]

Rufus Stone said:

I only want 6 months for the summer though. I wonder if the cheapest is to buy 12 then when SORNed in 6 months time they give you back 50%?

Yes, that’s the cheapest way, although I’m sure someone will be along shortly to talk about the lost opportunity cost on how you could have invested that money rather than having it sat in the government’s pocket blah blah blah

I’ll be taxing mine for 12 months from the start of May and will then SORN it after a bit of spring/summer fun.

It’s not really consequential in the scheme of things but it is the cheapest way to do it.