Direct debit was introduced to the Polish clearing system in 1998. Although it has been used for more than 7 years, this way of settlements is still not very popular as it constitutes only 1.3% of all transactions settled by the National Clearing House. It is far less than in other European countries where it reaches even 50%. In the past, lack of IT systems, which would automatically generate ELIXIR messages in banks in order to settle transactions in an electronic way, constituted a barrier for the popularization of the direct debit. At present low popularity of direct debits among customers is due to several factors: lack of information, both in professional literature and popular magazines, the habit of settling mass payments in a traditional way and distrust towards creditors. This state of affairs persists despite the efforts by the Coalition for direct debit and the National Clearing House who strive to popularize direct debit. It seems that at present a too low awareness of opportunities related to direct debit constitutes the main barrier. Only big telecommunication and power industry companies as well as cable TV owners encourage their debtors to use it. Moreover, in order to popularize direct debit it seems necessary to change regulations regarding this form of payment. The idea is to change the way in which the debtor authorizes the creditor to debit his/her account (among other things, via the Internet), to reduce the number of authorizations to one, to create possibilities of settling debts on credit card account by means of direct debit, to shorten the period authorizing the debtor to withdraw a settled transaction, to differentiate types of direct debits and to leave banks and NCH with more choice in this field. Smaller creditors who have a few dozen or a few hundred debtors making regular payments to settle their debts should also be made interested in direct debit (and benefits resulting from this way of settlement should also be shown to them).