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You may hate your car insurance rates. Especially if you have multiple vehicles, a poor driving history, or teenage drivers in your household. However, you may not know that your credit score can impact your insurance rates. 

On top of your driving history, your less-than-stellar credit score can raise your car insurance rates

Your car insurance rates are a tragically necessary part of driving. After all, you definitely don’t want to need it and not have it. It’s not entirely dissimilar to the vital health insurance you depend on to manage the crippling expenses of medical care in the United States. However, like your other insurance policies, there are factors impacting your rates.

Your history of crashes, age, gender, location, and type of vehicle could raise or lower your rates. For instance, a young male driver in a Ford Mustang is much more likely to pay a higher insurance premium than an older driver in a sensible sedan or SUV. However, your credit score may also have an impact on your car insurance rates. 

Depending on the state you live in, your credit score could have a positive or negative impact on your rates. However, rather than simply weighing your score and changing your rates, your provider could “use information in consumer credit profiles to generate credit-based insurance scores,” per Insurify. 

In the same way that providers predict your behavior and craft your rate with other information, your score can make a difference. After all, your provider wants to forecast how likely you are as a driver to make a claim.

Fortunately, though, improving your credit could “bump your credit-based insurance score and lower your premium.” It’s a similar rate-lowering prospect to going years without a claim or getting older. Don’t believe it? Well, as of this year, the nationwide average for drivers with less-than-optimal credit is about $255 per month for full coverage. However, those with excellent credit, a score of around 800 or more, may pay around $75 or so less than those with poor credit.

Source: Insurify

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Staff Writer

Erik Sherman

Erik Sherman joined the MotorBiscuit team as an Autos Writer in 2022. An admitted petrolhead and an avid motorcyclist, Erik has owned everything from classic cars to motorcycles to modern driver’s cars. Erik also has extensive experience with military and emergency vehicles, ranging from ambulances and fire engines to MRAPs and M-ATVs. Erik is an eager car and motorcycle reviewer with experience covering everything from sports cars to pontoon boats and jet skis.

Erik holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations (IRG) from the University of Texas at Austin and has studied Chinese, Energy, and European Politics at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Erik’s background is unorthodox; he is a United States Marine Corps (USMC) combat veteran, water survival practitioner, and a former firefighter/EMT. Additionally, Erik is a regular volunteer and former instructor with the American Red Cross (ARC).