German TV and Radio Licence

Need to cancel my TV Licence payment as they just took another payment from my bank despite me being gone for 3 months. Anyone know who the address etc. That is is in Germany..

The GEZ you mean?

http://www.gez.de/

You need to de register. I would do this in writing and ask for a Bestätigung which I assume they send you anyway!

Also known as the GEZtapo..

I officially get away with only paying for a radio.
I don't understand German TV !!! Not that I watch it anyway..

apparently you still need a TV licence just to watch DVDs on the box - or so my flatmates informed me when they spilt the bill equally between us all

@cammy: can't you just cancel the DD?

I had one of the GEZstapo Guys round one day, as I wasn't paying at all. He said that I had a telly, so I had to pay for a licence. I said and showed him, that I could only get English Telly, as my dish is pointing at a different Satellite.
After about 30 mins I asked him the following:
If I was to come round to your house forcing you to pay for a turkish daily newspaper what would you do ? He said that he would send me away, as he didn't speak turkish. I told him that he was just doing exactly that !!...
He asked if I had a car, I said yes - he clobbered me for the Radio. Thats all !!!

Not sure you can cancel a direct debit. its not a standing order, they come and take it rather than me sending it...

No you cannot cancel it but if you wrtie to them telling them you have left the country and they still take the money out you can take this letter to the bank and get them to stop the transfers!

yes you can. You write them a Letter:

Hiermit entziehe ich ihnen die Einzugsermächtigung für mein Konto zum 31.10.2005
Die Gebühren werde ich zukünftig per Dauerauftrag bezahlen.

M.f.G

The Bank can get the money back for you anyway. Go to the Bank and say that they took the dosh without your permission.

FAX and letter sent

Many thanks for the quick help.

I don't how it works over here but in the UK I always cancel the DD with the company and then cancel it with the bank just to be on the safe side - I've had payments taken out too many times after they have been cancelled! The bank usually check if I have cancelled them at the other end as well.

You do not want to put this. If I have understood correctly you have left Germany and will not be paying the GEZ at all?

Or have I missed something?

How bad is the penalty for not paying the GEZ thing?

I've been here for a year - had the thing all filled out in my office then one of my German colleagues started laughing saying "You're not paying that are you - nobody pays it! They can never catch you unless you invite them into your house"

And so I have happily lived GEZ free for the last year, although they try to send me a new letter every 6 months

I would wait for a letter, we went about year and half before we had to pay! Sucks as we don't watch German telly. I told them 1 TV and 1 radio. I noticed that the price has gone up, its now 50€ a quarter

Stop paying for the Telly, If they come round, play ignorent and let them practice their english !! It works. - Well it did for me !!!

purple muffin you have got it right, about the only one who did...

What a load of crap info given here, just stop payment?!?!?!?!? what a load of
rubbish. You are then still registered with them and one day they will hit you with a very large bill!
Be very carefull, send them a letter stating you are no longer living in germany and want to cancel you GEZ.

far_lands playing ignorant does not stop you from paying! As the German laws say "unwissenheit schutz vor strafe nicht"

Beware they will take you to court! and they will win, its a government thing the GEZ...

I have had the GEZ round to my flat !
I officially only have to pay for a radio !

besides, I cant get german telly anyway. The Arial is broken, and I don't want to get it repaired ... And I don't have a german reciever for SAT !!

He wasn't too happy with the fact that he "caught" me with a telly not able to watch german Telly, but I let him free on the TV and told him to try and get it working. If he could get me Telly that I don't understand, I would have had to have paid, but he couldn't.

I had a letter saying that I had to pay for the Radio ( Backdated to Jan ) And that was it !!

Official and legal !!

I think it high time the GEZtapo was abolished. Most of the channels on tv now are private ones, who get nothing from the GEZ, they are self funding. Fund public tv via public funds - ie taxes. They get advertising revenue too, from all the commercials ARD and ZDF etc carry. People can also watch tv via internet and very soon via mobile phone too. So why should we have to put up with the snooping GEZtapo.

Ok most of the Channels have been privatised. BUT it is still a Telly/Radio License same as in UK.

You technically have to pay GEZ if you have a television Card in your PC and they even wanted to include the Computer screens as a blanket cover.

We have three tellies and four computer screens at home.

My wife was at home when they came round once and asked if we had a telly and radio at home obviously the answer was yes.
"Good" says the GEZatpo. "Are you married?"
"Yes, what the fork has that got to do with it."
"Does your husband drive?"
"Yeeees???"
"Well he can pay for the radio in his car HA HA HA."
"My husband has a motorbike!"
"... Bugger"
Exit stage right GEZ man.

"But he does have a radio on his bike" my wife whispers to herself after he has gone"

hiya to all of you,

basically you have to pay for the tv and radio license as soon as you have the ability to receive the radio/tv signals - every common radio and tv can do so therefore it is legally correct that anyone who owns a tv or radio has to pay.
only way round it is to prove in what way ever the GEZ accept that you can not receive radio/tv (for example the gez can disconnect the receiving electronics in the tv and seal that) now it is no longer a tv - more a screen which is enough to watch video/dvd/satellite-tv

so loopy tell your flatmates to get lost :-))))

in farlands example i take it the gez actually saw he wasn't able to receive anything so therefore he's on the safe side

the gez can only write to you and turn up but you need not let them enter your house and you need not tell them anything, therefore they can hardly do anything
put they will pester you, they are very good at that - therefore the tactic of speaking english to them and telling them you don't have german tv/radio and you don't understand what he's on about is probably the best - maybe u are lucky and they will cross you out on their pestering list :-) but legally you are not on the safe side - the german law will care less whether u can understand the german radio/tv or not...

@Jonnyboy, according to my hubbi, he says they could take away your TV, this would be the worst penatly possible for him because he's a telly addict!

QUOTE
How bad is the penalty for not paying the GEZ thing?

@Jonnyboy, according to my hubbi, he says they could take away your TV, this would be the worst penatly possible for him because he's a telly addict! laugh.gif

There`s a thread running right now about people who are addicts - see "Frankfurt Scum" :-))

Here's my question:

If I'm paying so much for the GEZ to fund the meriad stations that are public in Germany, why the hell do all of those stations show THE SAME TV SHOWS!!! Does Morganmagazin really need to be on ARD and ZDF? What is the point in that? Why do I have 6 channels all showing the 'Riverboat' talkshow? I like Harold Schmidt, but do I need to watch every eposide on 6 different channels?

I see value in public broadcasting (try watching RTL news and it's pretty clear what that value is), but I can't understand why we're paying for so much duplication.