How can you have a great financial credit score but a lousy home insurance credit score?

Question

My wife and I are in the process of buying a house. We were able to get an 80/15/5 mortgage totalling about $450,000 with no problems since our credit scores are both in the 780s. However, when we applied for home insurance we got rejected. We were shocked to find out the "insurance" credit score in New Jersey is about 790 which is in the bottom 20%. We have never owned a home before and never filed a claim under renters insurance. I tried looking up an explanation online through truecredit.com and some of the reasons made no sense such as I have not had the same credit card for at least 18 years. That would have meant that I would have had to have a credit card since I was 16.

Can someone please explain the madness? The insurance agent, our real estate lawyer, and the bank have never heard of such an instance where the mortgage was no issue but the insurance due to credit is.

Answer 1

The length of time you have a credit account ADDS points to your score for every year. Additionally, for every two consumer initiated credit checks in six months, your score gets DECREASED by 20 points (mortgage is the exception - all mortgage inquiries within a 30 day period are treated as ONE inquiry).

Because of that, if you shop out your Mastercard every six months, to four different vendors to get the cheapest rate, and switch it over, you get ZERO points added, and 40 points taken away. Also, all those store cards where you "get 10% off if you open an account now" ding you 10 points a pop, if you add those dings to the shopping out the mc dings. All those 90 days same as cash deals, those are actually CREDIT ACCOUNTS.

So even if you carry a zero balance, have 10 store cards with $1,000 available each, two major credit cards with $5,000 each, you aren't getting any POSITIVE points added, but you have $15,000 available credit to subtract from your potential income.

Now, if you go to a company like Travelers, they WILL look at the raw data, and make exceptions - overridding credit score for "common sense". But that's the only company I know that makes exceptions like that.

If I were you .. . I'd cancel all the store credit cards. Stop shopping around the Visa/Mastercard, stick with one and keep it. Pay off the balance each month. And lastly, look for a small, regional insurance company that works through independent agents - try another agent! - for a quote without credit scoring, or an underwriter review.

Also, go pull a copy of your credit report (free at www.annualcreditreport.com) and cancel all those zero balance, open accounts! It could make a HUGE difference.

Answer 2

Shop for insurance. Not all companies use credit scoring for insurance decisions. Frankly, yours is the first I've ever heard of coverage being denied due to credit scoring. I'd demand a detailed explanation from them -- sounds like an underwriter has his head on backwards. Or stuck in his lower anatomical region...