I note that the PayPoint site given by Dave says:
Quote:

This implies that they may not accept them directly for other transactions.  Maybe you have to use your debit card at the PayPoint to get cash - for which there will no doubt be a commission charge - and then use the cash to pay for the TV Licence?

If I paid for the foreign currency by debit card, they would treat it as a foreign purchase on the debit card and charge a percentage commission (for the transaction - not for the currency).
But if I used my debit card to withdraw the requisite amount of cash (which I can do free of charge because smile bank has an arrangement with the post office), and then used that cash to purchase the foreign currency, there would be no charge!  

But not, I think, with the Nationwide debit card.

... my understanding is that you can currently pay for a TV Licence with ANY debit card at the post office, but it appears that you may not be able to with their 'new, improved' service at PayPoints.   

Source: Oxford Mail - Letters

http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/letters/display.var.2081885.0.free_number.php

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Free number

How kind of Pipa Doubtfire, the head of revenue management at TV Licensing, to clarify that the BBC and not the Government transferred a contract for TV licence fee collection to PayPoint from the Post Office (Oxford Mail, February 21).

It hardly matters who was responsible for the deed. Most people are aware the Government and BBC are inextricably linked.

I am in favour of making life easier for all the captive customers of the monopoly organisation TV Licensing, so why take away, completely, the option of payment at the post office?

I do not frequent shops with PayPoint and would have to actively seek them out. However, I attend the post office regularly.

As for many others, it is nearer than any PayPoint to me. Were we consulted on this change? Of course not.

As for the £100m saving over six years, it would be more helpful and believable to give more information on the sort of programmes, plus services, we are likely to be subjected to in the future, rather than the inevitable repeats.

Ms Doubtfire quotes two telephone numbers for contact and information.

One (the rebate/revenue share number) begins 0870 and the second 0844. But why would anyone use these numbers when TV Licensing can be contacted for information and payment free on 0800 917 1490?

ALAN KERRY Cowley Road Littlemore Oxford

4:23pm Thursday 28th February 2008

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject:      0870 - Cheaper Than The Cost of A Stamp - Gratuitous and Inappropriate Comments
Date:      Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:47:06 +0100
To:      Eddie Mair at BBC Dot Co Dot UK (real email address removed to stop Spambots)

Dear Mr Mair,

Claims that calling a BBC 0870 covert premium rate number is "cheaper than the cost of a Stamp" - PM - Friday 11th April 2008 - 5.53pm

I wanted to complain in the strongest possible terms about the gratuitous statement you chose to make when promoting a BBC 0870 number on your show around 5.53pm tonight (Friday 11th April 2008) that it was "cheaper than the cost of a stamp".

The cost of stamps is surely immaterial to the matter.  The relevant comparison is with normal priced UK phone calls on which many UK fixed line and mobile telecoms consumers now have inclusive call plans that cover all calls to numbers starting 01/02/03 for a set amount per month but these plans do not cover 084/7 calls on which the BBC, and its partners in viewer and listener telephony extortion Capita and Cable & Wireless, collectively extract a revenue share.

You said, in your on air statement, that calls to 0870 numbers cost "up to 8p per minute" but this is not true as a huge volume of UK daytime calls are made on mobile phones and on a mobile phone an 0870 number is always excluded from bundled inclusive call minute packages and costs up to 40p per minute to call from within the UK.  It costs even more to call an 0870 number from overseas and they may not be contactable at all, which could well be an issue for overseas web and satellite radio listeners to your program.

Please can you tell me where you got the phrase "cheaper than a stamp" from today and can you indicate if it is your own personal invention or a new BBC policy line to defend the continued use and abuse by the BBC of 084/7 numbers.

The Central Office Of Information has just published the Third Edition of its Better Practice Guidance for Government Contact Centres at www.coi.gov.uk/documents/gcc-third-edition.pdf ; Since the BBC is a public sector and not a commercial organisation to my mind it is therefore bound by the advice given in this guide and if you read the Cost to the Citizen section starting at paragraph 3.51 on P.35 of the Guide (P.36 of the PDF) this will surely tell you why the BBC's continued love affair with 0870 numbers (that is now even extending to 0871 numbers - eg Question Time audience participation line) is wholly inappropriate.

Some months ago a Mr Michael Stock, a senior member of the management team in your Marketing, Communications & Audiences division, contacted to tell me that the BBC was contemplating a possible switch to the use of the new 03 number range introduced by Ofcom that are only charged at the price of a normal landline call (and are included in fixed line calling plans and bundled minutes on mobile phones) but since then I have heard nothing further from Mr Stock.  So can I assume that the BBC is now backtracking on its plans to get rid of 0870 in favour of normally priced 03 prefixed phone numbers or is the good news on this from the BBC only just around the corner?

I look forward to your comments.

Regards,