Is it common practice for Go service personnel to conduct ‘credit checks’ on people buying internet services from them? I’ve recently been subjected to a so-called ‘credit check’ when I visited a Go outlet to renew an internet connection.

There was a phone call, my ID number was passed on without my acknowledgement or consent and the call ended without incident. Apparently, my ‘credit check’ had checked out. Aye for me.

Article 9.7 of Go’s terms and conditions (extracted from their website) states:

“We reserve the right to carry out a credit check on you at any time. In default of payment of any amount due to us, we shall be entitled to give your details to one or more credit reference agencies, their members and any third party to whom we are obliged or authorised to transfer such credit-related data by or under any law.”

What I’d like to know is: are these ‘credit checks’ random or was it something about my face that the Go representative did not perhaps deem solvent or trustworthy? Was it because I was not wearing a bowler hat, waistcoat and cravat?

Or was it because I had just flatly turned down her sales pitch for a two-year fixed contract that would supposedly cost me less than the three-month deal I was angling for?

More importantly, how does Go plc have access to people’s credit scores and how are the banks and financial institutions involved in all this?