TV licence and water bills payable from UK?

I have a Euro account here to pay ENEL / IMU / TARES bills.  I would like to pay the RAI licence fee and water bills from the UK as well but I've been told the latter is not possible because it can only be paid at the post office and I'm not sure about the former.  Does anyone have any experience in setting up payments for these from the UK?

Hi Neil D,

Whilst not actually having done what you want to do, I'd be stunned if you could not pay Tennacola online (assuming you're with tennacola!), they have a very good website www.tennacola.it and also an email address servizio.commercial@tennacola.it

You will have a Codice Cliente & Fattura reference, they should be all you need ?

Having had a quick look at their website, on the left-hand side there is a list of options that appear to suggest you can pay online monthly ?

V

Our water is a company called ACA and payment is the only one where we had bother, so we now pay by direct debit. The rest we can pay via our online bank a/c and can either have the bill emailed to us or see it online. We don't have a TV licence (or a TV), but these seem to indicate you can pay online LINK 1 or LINK 2

We have had a house for 10 years and this problem, as the TV licence is due in January and we are not there until May.  We just used to pay it late - they used to send us a bill with a late payment charge on it, but I never paid the late payment, just the cost of the licence. 
Then I found out that Rai had a web-site that you can go onto www.rai.abbonamenti.rai.it and pay on line.  You need to have your TV licence number to do this, and you could pay using your Italian bancomat card - not an English card - as I tried using that one.  Did this for a couple of years - all was good.   However this year, when trying to pay I got a message to say that I needed an internet banking bankcard - which the bank won't give me as I have a foreign address (i.e. UK) for my Italian bank account.   I emailed my bank to say could they pay it for me directly, but they need to actual printed payment form that RAI send to me - at my house in Italy. So bank to square one.
My next plan is to see if I can print off this payment form here in the UK, email it to my bank and then ask them to pay. Will let you know how it goes.

Thank you for the helpful replies.  I've gone onto the RAI website, as suggested,  and have sent them an email asking if the abbonamento can be paid by bonifico bancario.  It's not clear whether it can.  However, the water company's website (ACEA) says this method of payment is possible.  I assume that it doesn't matter whether the transfer originates from the UK rather than Italy as long as it's in euros. Grazie a tutti.

RAI emailed me to say I could pay posting a 'vaglia internazionale' - an international money order.  Or I could use an Italian credit card which I don't have.  A bonifico bancario does not appear to be an option.  They don't seem too interested in enabling foreigners to pay the licence fee.  It seems to me that it is a feature of Italian bureaucracy that they are doing you a favour by letting you pay its bills.

Neil why not get an Italian prepay card (Mastercard) from your Bank or the Post Office one, most Banks do them and very handy for all things online or Bill paying.

I haven't heard of this.  What is the Post Office one called?

Neil they have these Postpay LINK , it is VISA, but also think there is/was a MasterCard version. You can get one at any Post Office here, but not too sure if they are accepted for payment of all bills. Suspect they are a bit like "Electron" cards in the UK, but well work looking into...

Thanks for this.

Neil have a look here..PostePay Cards

Thanks, again. I've emailed them about using ePostepay.

i don't know about from the uk but if you have an italian bank account you can pay water,gas,electricity,RAI tv licence and loads of other things by direct debit thru bank as i have a problem with the mindset in the post office and do not use it for anything.Peple will start saying you can't trust them but i find i'm assured greater precision and a lot less fuffing doing it this way.For example the other year we had here a 5 day power cut,a couple of months later i found my account had been credited by enel with a Euro 600 reimbursement withouit any comunications or anything.Anyway anything that keeps one out of a post office for me is good.

The water company, ACEA, hasn't replied to my email from March 9th and the only phone number I can find on their website is a Numero Verde (800) which doesn't work from the UK.  Has anyone found a way of using these numbers from the UK?

There is no way, same as 0800 numbers cant be called from outside the UK

Neil, try to Skype them using the Italian +39

I may attempt this but I'm not sure you can skype numeri verdi from UK.

I thought I had found a solution. I got ACEA's IBAN and BIC numbers and set up an online account where I can view the bills and account details. When I got back to the Uk I paid the latest 'fattura' by 'bonifico bancario' from my UK Euro account. I then checked the online account and found that exactly half the sum I had paid (€13.50, instead of €27) appears against the sum paid column for the fattura. The only conclusion I can come to is that Unicredit, the bank ACEA uses, has a €13.50 fee for bank transfers from abroad! ENEL makes no charge at all. ACEA have been no help but the woman I spoke to on the phone says there is no such charge and she has been at ACEA for 5 years etc. So, who has had my €13.50 and why is it exactly half?

There are some bills that we also have to pay via "bonifico bancario" from home and we have never had charges like the one you mention, Neil. Generally, what we do is to take a copy of the transfer details, a copy of the original invoice and post the two together to the payee to confirm that total payment has been made. Otherwise, your bank may have information. Half of the amount cannot "evaporate" 

Neil D wrote:So, who has had my €13.50?

Where do you think bankers bonuses come from Neil?    

Thanks. I like the idea of posting proof of transfer to ACEA with a copy of the fattura. They don't appear to reply to emails with proof of transfer as an attachment so post is all that is left.

That idea was from the Comune when we went to check with them how to pay for TARSU when we were not in Italy. We thought that it was a great idea and we have done the same with other payees. Never had a problem, so it works...

I pay all my bills through Unicredit through online banking from the UK. To make a SEPA payment - a transfer of money from my account to someone else's account costs the princely sum of one Euro! I suggest you try phoning your branch of Unicredit and asking what has happened to half of your payment. They usually have someone in each branch who can speak some English. The telephone number for your branch will be on the top of your statement, or one the top of your page on online banking when you go in. Hope this helps. PS you can also fill out the modified F24 to pay IMU/or whatever it is now online with Unicredit and this works very well.

mammamia wrote:
I pay all my bills through Unicredit through online banking from the UK. To make a SEPA payment - a transfer of money from my account to someone else's account costs the princely sum of one Euro! I suggest you try phoning your branch of Unicredit and asking what has happened to half of your payment. They usually have someone in each branch who can speak some English. The telephone number for your branch will be on the top of your statement, or one the top of your page on online banking when you go in. Hope this helps. PS you can also fill out the modified F24 to pay IMU/or whatever it is now online with Unicredit and this works very well.

I don't have an account with Unicredit - this is the bank which ACEA uses. I have just spoken to Unicredit head office in Milan and they say they make a charge ('diritto fisso' which I take to be a fixed or standing charge) of €13 for a bonifico so clearly this is not going to be a solution. Nice of ACEA not to inform me of this in advance.