is autopay your friend?

Here's an interesting topic my mom and I discussed over our lunch (my early bday lunch!) today: Does autopay help you or hurt you? She worked for a short time at a bank and processed information for people applying for mortgages. She remembers that back then (has been many years now) lenders didn't look fondly upon your payment history if your bills were paid with an autopay system because they viewed it as no real indication that you were paying your bills on time - you were just relying on a system and you yourself may not indeed be as trustworthy or responsible as said system. I think that totally stinks but she says that's just the way it was.

So is that true anymore? Now that everyone is paying bills online and autopay is so much more common is it still a bad idea?

I certainly hope not seeing as how I have now set up almost every single bill (with the exception of utilities that vary from month to month) for an autopay service. 

I guess I can ask the mortgage guy we are meeting with Friday and if he says it's not such a good idea then I can always go back and opt out.... hmmm.