Late and/or failed payments affecting credit score?

GSDog

I'm a student who unfortunately was not aware that late payments on utilities or mobile phone bills could affect my credit rating. A couple of times I have forgotten to pay my gas bill and it has been overdue by a week or two; one time it was paid over a month after the bill was issued. I have only just found out this week that it can cause a bad credit rating on my credit file and I have applied to view my file with Experian; they are now waiting for me to prove my identify before I can view it.

My question is, a couple of times I didn't have enough balance in my current account for my monthly O2 direct debit to be taken and the payment has failed. I have always paid within a week of this happening by debit card online. Do you think this would show on my credit file? Would the late payments to British Gas (I think I paid late twice, one was a week and the other just over a month) show up on my file?

Any advice would be appreciated. I will definitely ensure that all my bills are paid on time from now on. The annoying thing is that I have always had funds available to pay the bills, I just either forgot or forgot to transfer enough money into the accounts in time. I wish someone told me about this so I could have avoided it!

Thrugelmir

Pay your bills by direct debit. Then you won't get forget.

Transferring money between accounts to earn a few pence sometimes isn't worth the bother.

Personally we have a bills only account where we maintain a sufficient balance to pay utilities and the like as when they arise.

Don't get hung up about your credit score. Look forward and don't make the same mistakes again.