Hi,
Sad to write that I'm introducing myself by way of a warning;
I went fishing in a river for the first time in a long period late last year. I enjoyed myself and went again several more times in the following six weeks or so. I was aware I needed a licence and bought them online; getting first day-licences and then a yearly one. When I checked my bank statements this year it became clear that I'd been tricked. The website I used is called rod licences.net. each time I'd bought a licence they had added a huge commission fee. So the day licences that should have cost me £3.75 were £8.75 each time, and the yearly licence was charged at £47! So for electricity to run their computer while I input my details for maybe ten minutes in total, and the postage to send me the yearly licence, rod licences.net charged me £35.
I've since found out this is a well known bit of sharp practice. Nevertheless, it got me, and I should think any newcomer or returnee to freshwater angling may fall victim. I used my mobile phone to buy these licences, and saw no mention of commission, nor how much extra on top of the licence fee rod licences.net charges. If you look at their website now, on a laptop, there are the details that protect them from legal action. In small writing, there's a notification that a commission will be payable, and an icon will lead you to the charges for the various licences. None of those things were noticeable to me last year on four occasions, using an android mobile phone with quite a large screen. It's unethical however you package it, in my opinion. The website currently lists the rates, commission included, so again, if you're new to angling, you would have no idea just how badly you were getting stung.
Apparently websites like google accept payment from companies to put their websites above government ones and indeed, googling something like 'buy rod licences' online will bring up rod licences.net, with the legitimate environment agency website very close to it. The result for me was that I was under the impression that I was buying my licences from some affiliate of the EA, if not the EA itself.
I usually fish in the sea(no licence required). Seems like the really nasty sharks are inland! Seriously, other newcomers to freshwater fishing should take care.
Sad to write that I'm introducing myself by way of a warning;
I went fishing in a river for the first time in a long period late last year. I enjoyed myself and went again several more times in the following six weeks or so. I was aware I needed a licence and bought them online; getting first day-licences and then a yearly one. When I checked my bank statements this year it became clear that I'd been tricked. The website I used is called rod licences.net. each time I'd bought a licence they had added a huge commission fee. So the day licences that should have cost me £3.75 were £8.75 each time, and the yearly licence was charged at £47! So for electricity to run their computer while I input my details for maybe ten minutes in total, and the postage to send me the yearly licence, rod licences.net charged me £35.
I've since found out this is a well known bit of sharp practice. Nevertheless, it got me, and I should think any newcomer or returnee to freshwater angling may fall victim. I used my mobile phone to buy these licences, and saw no mention of commission, nor how much extra on top of the licence fee rod licences.net charges. If you look at their website now, on a laptop, there are the details that protect them from legal action. In small writing, there's a notification that a commission will be payable, and an icon will lead you to the charges for the various licences. None of those things were noticeable to me last year on four occasions, using an android mobile phone with quite a large screen. It's unethical however you package it, in my opinion. The website currently lists the rates, commission included, so again, if you're new to angling, you would have no idea just how badly you were getting stung.
Apparently websites like google accept payment from companies to put their websites above government ones and indeed, googling something like 'buy rod licences' online will bring up rod licences.net, with the legitimate environment agency website very close to it. The result for me was that I was under the impression that I was buying my licences from some affiliate of the EA, if not the EA itself.
I usually fish in the sea(no licence required). Seems like the really nasty sharks are inland! Seriously, other newcomers to freshwater fishing should take care.
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