Insurance Score - Support and Opposition

Support and Opposition

The use of credit information in insurance pricing and underwriting is heavily disputed. Proponents of insurance credit scoring include insurance companies, the American Academy of Actuaries (AAA), the Insurance Information Institute (III), and credit bureaus such as Fair Isaac and TransUnion. Active opponents include many state insurance departments and regulators, and consumer protection organizations such as the Center for Economic Justice, the Consumer Federation of America, the National Consumer Law Center and Texas Watch. As a result of successful lobbying by the insurance industry, credit scoring is legal in nearly all states. The state of Hawaii has banned all use of credit information in personal automobile underwriting and rating, and other states have established restrictions. A number of states have also made unsuccessful attempts to ban or restrict the practice. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has acknowledged that a correlation does exist between insurance scores and losses, but asserts that the benefit of credit reports to consumers has not yet been established.