Auto Insurance Scores & Credit Karma Accuracy

[kberly69]

I am REALLY hoping someone knows the answer to this! My insurance score as given by my auto insurance company is 658. This was run a couple years ago before I filed for BK. Now that my regular scores are improving, I'd like to have them run it again to increase my discount. I checked Credit Karma and they are saying my TU Auto Insurance score is 775. My insurance company happens to use the TU score so that helps a little. My Credit Karma regular credit scores have been running about 25-30 points higher than my FICO scores so I wouldn't be surprised if it's not 100% accurate. Keep in mind, this is the insurance score, NOT the auto score for a loan. Does anyone know how accurate Credit Karma's auto insurance score is?
I guess question number two would be, is there another source for this score besides my insurance company and Credit Karma?

[PatG]

The company that I sell insurance for will not rerun your credit unless there was some type of discrepancy when we originally wrote the policy. It cost the company money to rerun the score. It may not be the case with your company. If you are willing to switch insurance companies you may do better with your improved score. The problem right now with auto insurance rates is distracted driving due to cell phone use behind the wheel. Until something is done to address this problem we will continue to see auto rate increases.

[kberly69]

Mine will do it yearly, but only at my request. I got a hold of my insurance guy and he was able to look at it since it has been over a year. It's not as high as I'd like or as I'd hoped, but has improved. I am not sure the version he looked at thought so I don't know if it's a direct comparison to Credit Karma. If it is, then CK is waaaaay off. Like by about 100 points. I was looking at insurance score info and apparently there are two main types and depending on which bureau(s) your company uses, there is variation. He's going to shop around for me and see what he can do. I'm in Michigan, and just learned that we have the highest rates in the country for auto insurance. It's really disgusting how much money I spend a month on the various kinds of insurances I have to carry
Thanks for your reply!

[Chrysalis]

I have a question about this. I have read through posts here about insurance companies raising rates simply because they found out about the bankruptcy. OR -- is it because of the major drop in SCORE due to the bankruptcy? Can you have a recent bk and still get decent insurance rates, if your score goes right back up like this?

[kberly69]

I think it's the score (which, of course is impacted by the BK). It seems most companies don't recheck your score very often (if at all, or only at your request) so whatever you have now may not change. When and if you change companies, you may see a difference. What's strange is that I was seeing a hike in rates with my old company so I switched right before my BK, not really knowing about this score stuff. The new company was cheaper and hopefully as my scores rise, my rates will get better.
I really wish there was more transparency about insurance scores- there's nowhere to get them other than the insurance company themselves and you don't know how they are factored exactly, how old the score is, which scoring method, what bureau, etc.

[Chrysalis]

Thank you, kberly, and I hope you'll stick around. There is so much to be learned from those of you who filed pro se, especially.

The insurance stuff I read really pissed my husband off & gave us one more detail to stress about because it is very *unknown* if it is going to happen to you and to a certain extent *uncontrollable* if it does. We both have been with the same company for over 20 years, and it really sucks that they would do this to us ~ but of course we know they would, because they can. Business is business.

[leonel9]

Don't know if you want to pay the $13 for your report, but I believe Nexis Lexis is the major player in Auto Insurance Scores:

[kberly69]

Thank you, kberly, and I hope you'll stick around. There is so much to be learned from those of you who filed pro se, especially.

The insurance stuff I read really pissed my husband off & gave us one more detail to stress about because it is very *unknown* if it is going to happen to you and to a certain extent *uncontrollable* if it does. We both have been with the same company for over 20 years, and it really sucks that they would do this to us ~ but of course we know they would, because they can. Business is business.

You'll probably be just fine- it doesn't seem they check much, if at all, for existing customers. If you see your rates rise, know that your credit score will climb back up along with your insurance score. And, the circumstances that brought you to BK are dragging your score down now - the BK will give you a starting point to an upward climb.

[kberly69]

Don't know if you want to pay the $13 for your report, but I believe Nexis Lexis is the major player in Auto Insurance Scores:

Thanks! It's nice to know there is a source.

[RetiredArmy]

I had Allstate for my Auto and Home Owners insurance. Once my Chapter 13 was filed, my rates TRIPLED! I was able to switch to USAA for my home owners and used our County Farm bureau insurance for our cars. My rate on 4 cars with full coverage 500 deductible and a female teenage NEW DRIVER was only $325 a month. It pays to shop around and SUPPORT your LOCAL FARM BUREAU INSURANCE! lol

[kberly69]

It does pay to shop, for sure. I was with Farm Bureau for many, many years. They were consistently good for me for a long time, then started upping my rate as my credit tanked so I switched.

I did confirm that the Credit Karma insurance score is not accurate. Mine was indeed off by about 100 points (CK had it higher). My insurance score is more in line with my FICO 8 scores. I am close to reaching the next threshold for further discount, so there's more incentive to work on raising those scores!

[shipo]

Dusting off this thread...

Late last year, a few months prior to the end of my 5-year Chapter 13, I got fed up with the annual increases for both home and auto from Liberty Mutual. My wife and I had been Liberty customers for just over 25 years, and by last fall our auto rates for two cars, a 2006 Acura TL and a 2016 Mazda3, was $2,870, even with spotless driving records for decades. Relative to our FICO scores, she filed for a Chapter 7 in 2014, and as I said, I filed in early 2015, and if I recall correctly, the rate of annual increases didn't change (I'm sure I would have noticed a huge increase), but honestly, I never really thought about one having to do with the other.

Long story short, even though we don't consider ourselves "old", we joined AARP last year and gave the AARP/Hartford home and auto insurance a try; would you believe better coverage (lower deductible and better glass coverage) for $1,112 per year? Yikes, a 61% drop in our annual costs; where do I sign?