Car insurance and credit check?

[ragazzo]

I got a quote from Geico and not long after, they sent me an email to tell me that I had too many credit checks done. Is it normal for car insurance to do a credit check on a quote?

 

[woowoo]

Yes
A lot of insurance companies base your rates on your credit score.

 

[ragazzo]

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of shopping around for quotes??? :/

I asked for a quote from Geico, Metlife and I'm about to submit one for NJM...

 

[DaWhim]

you shop around because you the quotes you get from different companies are YMMV. they pull your credit to see if you pay on time.

 

[ragazzo]

So how long do credit checks stay on your credit report? In other words, how long before I can shop around for more quotes w/o worrying about "Too many credit checks"? Thanks.

 

[DorkBoy]

Originally posted by: ragazzo
So how long do credit checks stay on your credit report? In other words, how long before I can shop around for more quotes w/o worrying about "Too many credit checks"? Thanks.

I believe it's up to 1 year.

 

[CChaos]

Originally posted by: DaWhim
you shop around because you the quotes you get from different companies are YMMV. they pull your credit to see if you pay on time.

That's his point. Shopping around = multiple credit checks.

 

[frankie38]

theres differences in types of credit checks.

find out if they are doing a hard pull.

if so, then get quotes all on the same day since the bureaus dont all update at the same time.

btw: nj dept of insurance has a good website for comparison shopping.

NJM has poor reputation for cust svc.

I like AMICA. www.amica.com