Homeowners Insurance Score

[Calculon]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but here I go.  Feel free to move if necessary.  I bought a house a few years ago.  My parents bought a house a few months before I did and paid like 10x what I did, but I found out they only pay a few hundred more a year for insurance than I do.  I spoke with my agent asking aboiut the difference.  They said credit score was an important factor.  I'm sure my parents is over 800 if not better.  Mine's not bad, but admittedly thin.  It rubs me the wrong way a bit, though there's nothing I can do about it right now.

Recently my I signed up for Credit Karma.  My scores were good except for my homeowners insurance, which it said was poor.  Can anyone explain to me how this works and if there's anything I can do to help myself?  Thanks for any help.

[user5387]

I would suggest pulling an actual FICO score, and not looking to CK for guidance about scores.

Even better, you might consider ignoring scores for a while, and instead pull an actual report, and evaluate what's on it according to this article:

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

[Calculon]

Thanks for the reply..  I get my score from my Discover card.  The only things on my credit reports are my three CCs and my car loan, which I paid off already.  I know this because I got the free credit monitoring from Target.  I've been a bit peeved I'm paying almost as much as my parents when their house is worth a lot more.  When I bought my house a few years ago, my real estate agent was surprised I was paying so much.   The funny part is a called around to three different companies asking for a quote and my company right now was still the lowest by a hundred or so.  Seems I can't win.   Thanks again.

[bch238]

You haven't given enough information to draw any conclusions.  For example, do you live in Florida or Texas while your parents live in the Northeast?  That would explain the discrepancy in premium right there.  If you both live in the same area, their property might be newer construction with certain mitigating improvements (storm shutters, storm glass, roof reinforcements, monitored fire and theft systems, etc.), or it might be located nearer police and fire departments.  Also, insurance premium is not based on the size of the lot, but on the replacement cost of the building.  So if your parents' property value is signficantly weighted toward land value, then it won't necessarily be reflected in their insurance premium.