Will canceling Direct Debit with O2 affect my credit rating

Dem85

I am usually quite happy with O2, but this time unfortunately it will be nearly 2 months from the opening of the account until I get a line (home/broadband) installed.

I have been issued with an invoice of about £56 which includes the line rental and the charge for an engineer (Open Reach) to come and fix the line. I am thinking of waiting until 20 Feb, when the engineer comes, and if he does not fix the line (for the 3rd time!), I will cancel and go with another provider.

My question is - if I cancel my Direct Debit with O2 and they cannot take the money for the services that they (never) provided - will it affect my credit score? This is what O2 advised I do, as they cannot cancel the invoice apparently...

Many thanks for any useful replies and guidance!

macman

Yes it will-probably the worst thing you can do.
If the line is not fixed, raise an official complaint and ask them to credit you for the downtime.
Switching provider will not help you if the fault is on the local loop, as it will be on the same line, and still require OR to fix it.

Buzby

To clarify the original question - cancelling a Direct Debit has no relevance to your Credit File. As long as you pay your bills, they will show no different than they do now. However, if you do not pay your bills, they will show up as being paid late, or not at all.

Regarding your problem, you cannot withhold payment for an imaginbed inferior service. It is up to you to complain and the company will then rebate or refund an agreed amount, this is the only way of doing this to prevent issues affecting your report.

littlemiss22

Buzby wrote: »

To clarify the original question - cancelling a Direct Debit has no relevance to your Credit File. As long as you pay your bills, they will show no different than they do now. However, if you do not pay your bills, they will show up as being paid late, or not at all.

Regarding your problem, you cannot withhold payment for an imaginbed inferior service. It is up to you to complain and the company will then rebate or refund an agreed amount, this is the only way of doing this to prevent issues affecting your report.

it can affect your score i had the same problem with orange and decided to do this they defaulted the account - this was quite some time ago now, i still managed to get various pieces of credit since so im presuming it doesnt detrimentally affect it but it will be shown on your credit profile. x

Buzby

Payment methods have no relevance to a 'credit score' - which a notional figure dreamed up by the CRA. Orange would not mark you down for changing from DD to pay-by-invoice, only if you were late in paying, or were defaulted due to non payment.