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Why you should pay your bills on time
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by Emma Lunn
One in six of us gambled with our credit records last year by failing to pay at least one bill on time
Some 17% of people polled by moneysupermarket.com admitted missing at least one payment during 2010, with credit card repayments the most often skipped.
Missing payments when they’re due can leave a mark on your credit profile and make it hard to be accepted for credit in the future. This could affect your ability to get a mortgage as well as other types of credit.
The financial comparison site found that credit card bills were most likely to be ignored or forgotten, with almost four million Brits admitting to missing repayments last year. Londoners were the biggest offenders, with 11% saying they missed credit card payments, while only 2% of borrowers from Northern Ireland were guilty of doing the same.
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Credit cards
Failing to pay a credit card bill can have an impact on a consumer's credit profile, but the small print on contracts means it could also mean you could lose any promotional rate on the credit card as well as being billed a late payment charge, normally around £12.
Kevin Mountford, head of banking at moneysupermarket, said: "While it's encouraging to see the majority of consumers paying their bills on time, there is still a huge section of the UK population seriously damaging their credit profiles by missing payments.
“Avoiding paying a bill might not seem like a big deal, but the consequences can be far-reaching for your credit rating and can have a knock-on effect when applying for a new card, mortgage or securing any kind of credit."
