I checked my credit file on clear score this week and was alarmed to see that I had an average of 25 monthly uses of ‘buy now pay later’ on my credit file, which can only be down to my use of Monzo Flex for day to day spending which I clear in full every month.
I’m not sure if we’ve been missold this product and it is essentially a BNPL account sugar coated as a credit card, but I assumed the balance and transaction history would be reported as a singular credit reported item and not every single coffee and pint of milk bought showing me as a BNPL borrower (which I am not at all).
Alarmingly, in my experience this kind of modern credit facility is frowned upon by borrowers as the new pay day loan type of borrowing so if this is the case I’m not going to use it anymore.
I’ve subsequently cleared the balance early and gone back to AMEX until I can see this has been explained and why I shouldn’t be concerned.
I dunno. I’d still class Flex as a BNPL product which happens to also have S75 protection. So it’s not surprising it registers as a revolving credit product.
I’ve always paid for my day to day expenses on a credit card and paid it off in full on the due date - prefer to risk fraud attempts and have better purchase protection using credit facilities versus my own money… Pretty common thing to do.
My parents do exactly the same. They get the protection of a credit card, and pay it off each month so it’s effectively just like a debit card to them.
You get purchase protection in the sense that you’re not liable for fraudulent transactions, as opposed to a debit card where your money is gone until you can make a claim. For people using credit cards for everyday spending 32 a month isn’t that many.
I had wondered though how Flex reported to credit agencies and I guess this answers that. Is also why I was never sure about it being marketed as a credit card either as I also always saw it as primarily a BNPL product. It certainly was when it launched.
Just aside from all of the Flex credit score stuff, you really should be using some kind of rewards credit card for this rather than Flex.
If you’re paying off in full every month then you really should be getting rewards for it. Whether that be cashback or Avios.
AMEX have a range of cards that will suit you well. If you’re worried about acceptance (which isn’t an issue, but there’s another thread on this forum for that) then the Barclaycard free Avios card is a good shout.
In the same way having a credit card, or loan would - yea. Because it affects your affordability.
BNPL doesn’t have a negative impact beyond any of the similar.
The reason they mention it, is because most people wouldn’t mention it if just asked “do you have any outstanding debts” - so they have to be explicit in everything they’re asking about.
Flex being reported a BNPL, Revolving Credit, a Credit Card or a Loan would affect you the same. If it was reported as a Pay Day Loan - then it’d be looked on differently.
Flex in the background is multiple loans piled up to one fixed total limit.
So it’s no surprise really.
Also, for those that don’t understand Section 75, your £1,000 Curry’s isn’t covered by section 75 unless one of the items on that list is £100, and only that product is covered, nothing else on the receipt, unless it’s over £100.
