I'm a student and don't have a TV for the very reason that I cannot afford to shell out £150 a year for the privilege of owning one.Since I need internet for my uni work, and I'm paying for that, I may as well just watch catch up and use things like Netflix - at £6 a month, it's half the price of a TV license, also advert free and has far more things that I actually WANT to watch, rather than the drivel that's on BBC these days. If they can survive as an optional subscriber service on half the price of a compulsory TV license, then I feel the BBC is pulling a fast one.My husband is American and when I said about the TV license, he decided that it was 'ridiculous' and 'archaic', and 'why didn't we just have adverts? Everyone's used to adverts by now'. Pretty sure that the BBC would make so much more money if they just had adverts and stopped charging people the license fee.

I was recently contacted by a DCA with regards to an outstanding loan from 5 years ago which was taken out with Abbey, now Santander. The DCA were very unforthcoming with any information so I went to Santander to ask what the hell was going on. The guy I spoke to was really nice and gave me the number for the fraud team. I called them, and they were also nice, and told me to put down in a letter all the facts I knew and they would sort it out. I did so, including the fact that at the time the loan was set up and payments were made, I was living and working abroad and didn't have UK banking arrangements (and can confirm this from my employers at the time). Anyway, they wrote to me saying that 'you set up in.... and set up a payment plan in... after corresponding that you had moved addresses and not received statements. We are now removing all stops on this account and you are now liable for the balance overdrawn' I wrote back to them and said basically that this account was not set up by me, and I can't have taken it out since I wasn't in the UK, and that whilst I don't dispute they have information of that nature on file, what I am disputing is that it isn't me and I believe that it could be a case of mistaken identity since I have had things appearing on my credit file for someone of the same name (it's not an uncommon name) and DoB but with a different year (and that was easily sorted out), and this loan account has never appeared on credit reports I've had before. They then wrote back and said that their decision still stands and I was welcome to make a further complaint to the complaints department. And could complain to the Financial Ombudsman if I wanted to. Their argument is that the pattern of correspondance and payment doesn't add up to it being a fraudulent account. Which is not what I've claimed - I've said either it has to be fraudulent if it is me that they're after, or mistaken identity as I haven't taken it out. Nowhere have they asked me to prove any of my ID or proof of my addresses or my non-UK bank accounts and jobs etc. I have been very careful in referring to the account as 'the account' whereas Santander refer to it as 'Your account' and 'you', despite my telling them it isn't mine. Any idea as to what I should do now? I'm gutted, tbh, since according to the DCA the last payment meant that it was becoming statute barred in 2012 and now Santander have taken stops off the account. I do not want to be responsible for someone else's loan, or for a fraudulent loan (if that's the case).