How To Shop For Home Insurance When You Have Bad Credit

If you are shopping for home insurance and you have a bad credit score, you may be fearful of receiving high quotes. It's true that many home insurers take your credit into consideration when calculating rates. However, it's also true that you can take measures to mitigate the effect of bad credit on your rates. Here are some of those measures:

Identify the Insurers That Don't Use It

Some, but not all carriers use credit scores as a factor in rate determination; some states don't even allow it. Therefore, if you know you have bad credit, talk to your agent to help you identify those insurers that don't use it. If you don't have other issues affecting your rates, buying from such insurers may be the best way to land home insurance coverage at a great rate, even if your credit score is low.

Remove Unauthorized Inquires

Improving your credit rating is usually a long-term project; for example, it involves paying off your debts on time and building your credit history with a credit card. However, there are a few things you can do to improve your rating sooner than others. The most obvious one is to remove unauthorized inquiries from your credit report.

This will help because if you have too many inquiries on your report, creditors may think you are in deep financial trouble. Get your credit record and identify those inquiries that were made without your authorization and ask the relevant parties to remove them.

Ask For an Exception

Some insurers will grant you an exception if you can prove that your rating tanked after a major life event that you couldn't have prevented. For example, divorce can affect your credit score negatively, but there is nothing you can do to prevent your partner from divorcing you if they want to do it. This is different from, say a person who damages their credit by using their credit cards to shop for household items; that is something that can be easily prevented. Therefore, if your rating plummeted after an unavoidable major life event, talk to your agent to help you get an exception.

These are just a few steps you can try. In home insurance (and any other form of insurance), information is key; the more you know about home insurance with bad credit, the more you are likely to enjoy reasonable rates. Therefore, talk to an agent at an agency like Kuresman Insurance, explain your situation, and let them advise you on the way forward.


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