There are quite a few people who have bought houses recently or are in the process of closing. I'm trying to find out who you used for homeowner's insurance and if they pulled your CR. I'm starting to shop and won't have much time. Thanks in advance!
IF THEY "PULL" DISPUTE IT!!! They "SEE" how you drive by your credit report??? They "SEE" how yyou take care of your house by your credit report???
I just bought a house, we closed last week. We have a 2yr old BK7, and I will tell you honestly, we had a harder time getting homeowners insurance than we did qualifying for the actual home loan. Idont know your credit history, but if you had a BK, 99% of them will not touch you if your BK is less than 5yrs old, and they will barely write you a policy if its under 7yrs. I called 15 insurance companies, they all asked me if I had any credit issues, when I mentioned BK, they said no-can-do. They almost all run a credit check. We even went thru an insurance broker who finds an insurance company for you, she searched amd searched, and no one would write it. We went thru Nationwide, who has another company they deal with called American Superior, they wrote our policy, they dont pull a credit report, so it was safe. Good luck, I can not believe how hard it was to get insurance. We got a house at 6.5% / 30 yr fixed but had a heck of a time getting insurance for it. My husbands and my scores are both are in the 620's. It was a nightmare, but we'll keep american security until the BK is 5yrs old or more, then we'll shop around again. Jamee
BTW, our rate wasnt any higher going with them vs going with another company, just not very many people have heard of them, kinda sounds subprime, but as long as we are covered, we can switch later on.
I went thru Nationwide directly and have a BK 13 on file from 1996, they pulled EXPN under the alias of Choicepoint Ins/P&C Nationwide. EXPN score at the time aprox 730.
http://www.insurancecreditscoring.com/ You might write to the author. Very friendly. Tell her I said hello.
When we purchased our homeowners policy last August the insruance agent I used (AAA) didn't pull my credit. However, I changed to AMG 2 weeks ago ($200 less a year) and they did ask me if I had any credit issues and I had to sign an authorization form allowing them to pull my credit. They pulled TU, which thanks to Junum is my leanest report.
NEVER had any claim...HOUSE or AUTO...but because you have bad credit YOU PAY DEARLY!!! POOR CREDIT REALLY CAN MAKE SOMEBODY DRIVE SO BAD THAY THEY GET TICKETS AND HAVE ACCIDENTS??? IF SCORE BASED INSURANCE WAS SO GOOD...why are so many states OUTLAWING IT...or CONCIDERING OUTLAWING IT???
When I got divorced from my first wife I decided I wanted a sports car so I went out and bought myself a 1989 300 ZX. I had to go to one of these rip off insurance agents to insure the thing because the company that I had at the time wouldn't touch it. These guys financed the policy for me at an outrageous APR but never pulled a credit report. A year later I switched to State Farm, who happen to beat these crooks by 40%. When I asked them why their rates were so reasonable the agent told me because I was a good insurance risk. I assume she meant no accidents or tickets. Again no credit check and by that time I had filed my BK-7. So George, your right on!
I've heard that Chubb (sp?) is the only insurance company that doesn't use credit scoring in any of it's underwriting. Don't know if they do auto and/or homeowners but keep it in mind.
============================ If score based pricing is such a good thing why isn't everything we buy priced that way???????? LB 59
Preffered Mutual pulled my hubbies EX report 3 monthes after we got the policy for our homeowners. They canceled out the policy because of "poor credit" (he only had a couple of small derogs at the time) It really ticked me off becuase the house is fully paid for & we had car ins. with them for over 5yrs.. no tickets,no accidents & no previous ins. claims, yet they refused to insure..WTF??????
No, but i did take my business elsewhere. I also made it perfectly clear to them that they were loosing a lot considering I was planning on using them for my business insurance policy too. Guess they don't like money. Maybe i should report them... Thanks for the advice......
American Family Insurance has stopped using credit scores and officially doesn't care if you have a BK, at least in Arizona where I live. This applies to all lines of insurance (auto, home, renter's, etc.). I don't know offically, but I am assuming that this is their policy in all states, since it doesn't make sense that they would stop doing it here, where it's perfectly legal, if they aren't going to stop doing it everywhere. I own an insurance shopping service (similar to those you find on line such as Netquote and InsWeb), so it's my job to know what company does what. Unfortunately, my business is limited to Arizona, so I am not familiar with what's being done in other states. Hope that helps.
The two insurers that do not pull CRs are already mentioned--AAA, and American Family. But I found that out by going to my states insurance boards website. (My state is MO). They have a page that lists the top ten insurance companies, if they pull a CR, and how they price with that information. Here's the kicker: the site says that the insurance company does not need authorization to pull a credit report. Below is a pasted quote and the link (snip) Is it legal for an insurance company to access my credit history without my permission? Yes. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act gives insurers access to your credit information without your permission. However, insurers are required to inform you if the use of such credit information results in an â??adverse action.â? (snip) Link to the Credit Scoring FAQ: http://www.insurance.state.mo.us/consumer/faq/creditScoring.htm Link to the Top 10 homeowners insurers, by volume, and their use of credit (as of April 1, 2002): http://www.insurance.state.mo.us/consumer/info/hoCredit.htm
I should have said, the two insurance companies that I know don't pull. I'm sure there are more. Someone in this thread asked why everything isn't priced by credit history. I believe that if we don't fight this tooth and nail, that someday it will. But that is another thread entirely. 30ft (who is a little too creeped out to start a thread about the correlations of FICO scores and the mark of the beast.)
