Quick one - I am paying Billag each quarter. I want to get some digital TV in the house (naxoo / cablecom/bluewin) for the HD channels.

Question - does any of the fees for digital TV replace the billag ransom or are they in addition to the Billag fees? Thank you

In addition.

Hi,
Does anyone know how change of address and Billag works?
Should I inform them change of address by sending them a letter? or is it taken care, area/ zone wise?
I was lucky enough for a year in my last appartment, untill the billag person arrived and I was charged then on..
So I am wondering if I should wait for them to arrrive at my new place or should I simply inform them. I dont want to proactively ask them to start charging me . But I dont want to avoid it, if it's a compulsory thing.
Thnx

Did you take a look at the Billag website? (www.billag.ch)

There's an online change of address form: https://www.billag.com/web/de/adressaenderung.html

Inform them - they will not be so generous the 2nd time around... this time you cannot claim not to know how it goes anymore..

Hi you have to pay for Billag evenif you have no TV.We are having only cablecom connection,but they are charging 48chf quarterly

If you do not watch TV, you can have your socket sealed, which proves to Billag that you cannot watch TV. Unfortunately they also classify computers as capable of receiving TV signals. Plus most likely you *should* still pay for Radio, if you have a car with inbuilt radio or a mobile phone that can receive those signals too..

The cablecom and billag fees have nothing in common. Billag charges you for the right to receive/watch/listen to Swiss public broadcasting.

I think you're onto something here. Unless you actually admit to not paying the fee although you ought to, the onus of proof is on Billag and there is no way they can do that short of forcing their way into your appartment and searching for equipment (and that would be illegal). So their only tactic is to scare people. If you don't want to pay, just avoid talking to them and never answer any questions, however innocent they may seem. It's your right. It also helps if all of a sudden the only language you can speak is Manx.

I was living on my own and paying the Billag charge until mid 2008. After that I sent them a notice that I was moving and no longer needed their service. I sent them my new adress. I moved into a flat where the guy who was the main renter paid the Billag and we all split the bill. I lived in that flat for 20 months until I moved into my own flat and applied for Billag.

Now i received a letter from them that says I have to pay for the service for the period I lived in the flat plus the 4 months I have lived in the new places.

What can/should I do. I thought Billag charged 1x per household.

That's actually what I understand from their website

Now did the guy declare you on his billag's bill ?

You should write them to explain it clearly and ask for an explanation.

Write to them, sending them copies of the letters you sent them. It seems that they've no case unless they don't consider a flatshare to be a household.

It says in the Billag Site

Haushalt / Betrieb

Die Empfangsgebühren werden pro Haushalt bezahlt, nicht etwa pro Gerät. Familien, Wohngemeinschaften oder Paare, die im selben Haushalt leben, bezahlen die Gebühren nur einmal.

Which roughly translated means that the charges are paid per household, not per 'device', so families, WGs (people sharing a flat) or couples, who live in the same household, only pay the dues once.

It is one fee per household unit. Since apartments don't have numbers, when you shared an apartment they have no idea that the bill was paid under someone else's name where you lived. Since you have been very up front with them by giving them a new address before and now, I would just explain to them that you were not living on you own, and show them a copy of the bill that was paid where you were living. Since the lease does not appear to have been in your name, if you have anything to connect you to that flat, a flatshare agreement with the other tenant, present that to them. Just something that shows that the person who was paying the billag bill for those 20 months was the person you were sharing a household with. Otherwise get a letter from the main tenant who was billed by Billag saying you lived in his apartment and give the dates.

Hope that does the trick.

I don't have contact with the main Mieter because he also moved away. I know when I had to register with the Kreisbüro, I had to give my adress with a preface: "bei XXXXXX" where the X is the last name of the renter. This was done because I didnt have a contract with the renter. I guess I will visit the Kreisbüro and ask for some sort of confirmation of my residency there.

I just signed up for Billag and noticed the email i used now gets spam email every 5 minutes. This happened almost immediately after signing up. Did anyone else experience this?

Billag seems to have revised its FAQ; last time I looked I recall it did not include mobile phones because it said their reception quality was limited. Now it says otherwise: http://www.billag.ch/web/fr/fragen_u...en/geraet.html

Since I am still domiciled outside of Switzerland I am waiting until my 91st day of presence before paying the fee...

I am told that if I rent out my flat at all, that counts as "commerce" and I'll have to pay Billag.

you don't pay for using the service , you pay for the possibility that you can use the service(when you got a pc /mobile with internet access, there is a possibility).
Pay the 42.25 sfr every 3 months to get not caught.........

Ok, so which of the EFers did it...with all the posts here and complaints about them??

http://www.swisster.ch/billag-faces-anthrax-scare.html

So that narrows it down to 40,000 or so!

Wasn't me. I simply left a pamphlet when they didn't answer.