How does Bills Monitor work?

How does Bills Monitor work?

Bills Monitor is a feature of our Plus and Lite* memberships designed to support you to make on-time bill payments and help you demonstrate positive credit behaviours such as low credit utilisation and on-time repayments which can help to improve your credit health including your credit score. To be able to offer you finance, we open a credit line when you join. Bills Monitor will scan your connected bank account(s) and if it sees that you may not have enough money in your account to cover a bill 7 days before its due date it will let you know so you can top up your account from your own funds in plenty of time. If we spot that you won’t have enough money in your account to cover a bill 2 days before it’s due we may offer to lend you finance towards the cost of the bill depending on the bill value and your balance at the time.

What bills are assessed?

Phone, utility and subscriptions that have been paid consistently on-time for the past 6 months on or around the same date by direct debit, standing order or card payment. We reassess which bills are covered every 30 days or when you disconnect or reconnect your bank account(s).

How does Bills Monitor help improve my credit score/health?

Bills Monitor targets the top two influencing factors on your credit health which are payment history (35%) and credit utilisation (30%).  When you join we open a credit line and each month of your membership we report how you have used the credit line* and let TransUnion, Experian and Equifax know the balance and limit of your account, your ‘credit utilisation’, along with how you have repaid any borrowing. On-time payments and low credit utilisation are positive credit behaviours that can help to both improve your score over time and unlock future credit products which is why we only offer you Bills Monitor finance when you really need it as this will help to keep your credit utilisation low and repayments affordable.

When do I need to pay back my withdrawal?
We will let you know the date on which we plan to automatically take payment for the amount we’ve topped you up by. This should align with when you are paid to give you the best chance of repaying on time to show a positive payment history. Successful collections within 30 days of the withdrawal date will be reported as on-time repayments to the Credit Reference Agencies. You are also welcome to repay manually from the app before this date if you prefer.  If we’ve not been able to collect your repayment within 30 days of releasing funds to you, we will try to collect the outstanding sum automatically until it is repaid.

If your withdrawal has not been repaid within 30 days, we are obligated to accurately report this to the Credit Reference Agencies which will result in a late marker on your credit file which can damage your credit score.

*The credit line for Lite is only available to members who joined on or after the 24th January 2022.
*Credit limits vary and the amount you can withdraw is based on our affordability assessment