Direct debits - credit worthiness?

zudecke

Hi guys,

I have not been using direct debit to pay my o2 phone bills for the past 18 months and instead been paying by card at every month.

When looking in my credit reports, I cannot find any section that highlights extra brownie points for using the direct debit mechanism and instead can only see boxes that indicate whether payment was made or not.

Just wondering, as there seems to be a lot of people who say direct debits are imperative to improving ones credit score.. But I can't see how when looking at my digital and paper based credit reports..

Z

Gordon_Hose

Didn't realise there were extra brownie points for using DD? Surely the most important factor is paying the account, regardless of payment method.

I don't use a DD for O2 either, instead opt to pay by card every month. This is because they tried 4 times to set up a DD and failed miserably everytime. So I decided to remove the chance of them messing up anymore than they already had. Been paying online via card for years now and it suits me fine.

abby1234519

All they mean is that a DD means you can't forget to pay so payment will always go out so you won't miss a payment.

By making card payments you could miss a payment (ie by a day still counts as a missed) for instance if you were taken into hospital or something like that

zudecke

so if I miss even by a day an o2 payment, that gets logged on my credit profile? surely not..?

Gordon_Hose

Not necessarily, no. Depends on O2 really. They'd almost always send out a reminder first.

MoneyWasting_Expert

Yeah DD will not improve your credit record, it just means if one is set up and there is always enough funds in your account, you will never miss a payment and not put a mark on your CF.

zudecke

Thanks all for the replies .

palaran

anadelB - you do realise that this is a UK based web site don't you, referring to UK consumer credit. Not US.