How does Bills Protection work?

Important

Please note that Bills Protection is unlike many other credit lines. It's designed to help protect and build your credit score, and acts more like a safety net for bill payments, rather than a line of credit you use frequently to spend on day-to-day purchases. You will need to connect a bank to see if you are eligible, and your eligibility will change each month as we refresh it depending on your most recent bank account information.

How does Bills Protection work?

Bills Protection is designed to support you to make on-time bill payments and help you demonstrate positive credit behaviours, such as responsible credit utilisation, which can help your credit file health and credit score.

You must first connect your bank accounts to the Pave app to check if you are eligible for Bills Protection. 

If you have connected your bank account to Pave, and we spot that you won’t have enough money in your account(s) to cover a bill 2 days before it’s due, we may be able to offer funds towards part of this bill payment if the bill is eligible. 

We reassess which bills are eligible and can be covered every 30 days, or when you disconnect or reconnect your bank account(s).

What bills are potentially eligible for withdrawals?

Council tax, electronics/software or utilities that have been paid on-time and consistently for the past 6 months, either by direct debit/standing order/card payment. 

You can see if we can protect any of your bills by going to the wallet icon in the Pave app and tapping the "Eligible Bills" section. 

How much will I get towards my bill payment?

If we deem that the bill is eligible, you will be given a withdrawal limit for each bill, which can be seen in the app. Your withdrawal limit varies depending on your financial circumstances and is determined by your affordability, which we assess when you connect your bank account.

You can use the £ amount up to this withdrawal limit to help pay for pre-approved bills, if you have one coming up in the next 2 days. For example, if your withdrawal limit was £10, and you have a £20 bill coming up, you can withdraw up to £10 to help you pay that bill. 

The aim of Bills Protection is to help you avoid late bill payments and overdrafts, while making sure you use credit responsibly by only using credit when it's for essential bills. Any usage of Bills Protection will be reflected on the credit account you opened when joining Pave, and positive repayments of it could also help improve your credit score. 

Why did I receive an email about my overdraft? (Bills Alerts)

If you have a bank account connected to Pave, we also analyse your transactions to provide our Bills Alerts service. If it seems that you won’t have enough funds to cover a bill 7 days before it’s due, we’ll first let you know through our Bills Alerts feature so you can top up your account with your own funds.

If we send an email saying you may enter your overdraft, this doesn’t guarantee we can offer funds, as we can only offer funds for specific eligible bills. 

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

Bills Protection targets the top two influencing factors on your credit health which are payment history (35%) and credit utilisation (30%).

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.

This is why we only offer Bills Protection finance when you really need it, as this will help to keep your credit utilisation low and repayments affordable.

There’s no need to worry if you choose not to withdraw, as we’ll still be able to provide you with our regular credit building service through the credit line you opened when you first subscribed to Pave. 

When do I need to pay back a withdrawal?

Before you withdraw, we’ll let you know the date on which we plan to automatically collect your repayment. This should align with when you are paid to give you the best chance of repaying on time. 

Successful collections within 30 days of the withdrawal date will be reported as on-time payments to the Credit Reference Agencies. You’re also welcome to repay manually from the app before this date.  

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