A Credit Score Discount On Our Home Owner’s Policy
Back in January 2007, I wrote about a letter than I got from our home owner’s insurance company telling us that we weren’t getting their best rate because of our credit scores. Last week, our insurance agent did an annual review with us, and I guess that our scores have gone up, because now we’re getting their “credit based insurance discount.” We haven’t seen our credit scores since we were applying for a mortgage six years ago, but I’m guessing they took a bit of a beating during our broke years. We never paid anything late, and we never went over a limit or missed a payment, but we did have a lot of debt for a while. We paid off the last of it in August 2007. So I’m guessing that our credit scores must have improved since the beginning of 2007 when we found out that credit scores are incorporated into home owner’s insurance rates. That feels good. Our policy is costing us $546/year now, which is $8 less than last year, and we have more coverage now, since they increase the limits every year to keep up with inflation.
Yet another benefit to paying off debt and improving your credit scores: lower home owner’s insurance premiums.
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Yay! I’m trying not to worry too much about my credit score, as long as there isn’t anything incorrect on my credit report or anything.
I was reading on WiseBread about a website that allows you to view your credit score instantly and for free. If you’re curious about your score, check out their post here: http://www.wisebread.com/get-free-credit-score-monitoring-with-credit-karma
I’m not sure if this is true everywhere, but in my area, auto insurance rates are also affected by credit scores. I was pleasantly surprised when my rates dropped last year, and learned it was due to a good credit score.
I have a problem with the insurance company basing rates off of credit scores, so I’m not happy at all when my rates drop because of good scores, since I don’t think they should be able to look into your credit to begin with.
Repairing bad credit has not been as big an issue in recent years as it is today. For the last few years, it has been possible to get a credit card or mortgage and improve your lifestyle even with a low credit score.