Many people ask who I am because I use a funny YouTube name – ChilliJonCarne.
I have been regularly accused of working for the BBC or Capita (the people who enforce the licence), this does always make me laugh when I see it. If I worked for the BBC or the licence people why would I be taking a lot of my free time to make YouTube videos and put this website together to help normal people like you to cancel your TV licence? Crazy isn’t it.
So anyway, my name is Jonathon. Born and raised in Essex and I work in IT full time, have done for years, and I live in a little place with my girlfriend and my wire haired Dachshund, Vespa.
How this all started with me and the TV licence was years ago. I used to work in retail, and anyone out there in who works in retail will know how terrible the pay is. One day I sat down and worked out my monthly finances and realised I was paying a direct debit every month for a TV licence yet I very rarely watch the BBC, so surely I can cancel this payment right?
I looked in to it for a while and discovered I was already doing what was necessary to not need a licence, I always watched stuff streamed or on demand. I didn’t need one. And I felt very pissed off that I had been persuaded that I ‘must’ pay for it every month.
From that point I completed the no licence needed form on the TV licence website, sat back and felt proud of myself. About a week or so later I got a letter confirming I don’t require a licence for 2 years, a couple of weeks after that there was a knock at my door. It was a licence inspector.
I had watched all those videos on youtube of people arguing and kicking off with these people on their doorsteps or in their front gardens, so I was worried at what might happen. The guy was actually quite a pleasant chap, he asked me if I had a licence I said no, I explained I didn’t need one. He asked to come in and check my equipment, I said no, he asked me to sign a form, I again said no. And that was that.
I admit I seem to have got off light with that visit. I did get another visit a few years later from a different chap, that time I handled it correctly, I said no thank you closed the door as quickly as possible.
I found the whole situation with not having a licence so easy that I wanted to do what I can to help other people save a little money every month too. That’s why I made the youtube channel, and that is why I have now put together this website.
I take a fair bit of time each week to answer questions on youtube, twitter and email helping people with cancelling the licence, and now I have put a lot of time in to creating this website that I hope will help even more people.
If you want to help support me and the costs of this site there are many ways you can do that, the simplest way is liking my videos and subscribing to my youtube, this will help the videos be promoted by youtube to reach more people.
I would love that if you needed an Amazon stick or NowTV subscriptions that you buy them from my links on this site, that will give me a little commission that I can use to cover the costs of this website, allowing me keep it live and improve it to be able to help many people in the future.
