Insurance companies inquiries

[Anonymous]

I was informed by an insurance company that they will run my credit in order to give me a quote on car insurance.

Do insurance companies inquiries count as credit inquiries as far as the FICO score?

Do they affect my score?

[Tuscani]

They are generally soft inqs which do not impact your scores. Check out the Scoring 101 thread.

[Anonymous]

Just to be on the safe side, I checked with Equifax directly. 

They informed me that an inquiry by an insurance company counts the same as any credit inquiry.

[SoulSmilen]

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Porscheturboman wrote:

Just to be on the safe side, I checked with Equifax directly. 

They informed me that an inquiry by an insurance company counts the same as any credit inquiry.

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For the record, I've never had a hard pull from any insurance company - always a soft pull that doesn't affect the score. If in doubt, ask the insurance company, they'll tell you!

Maybe someone from the insurance biz will chime in here, but there is no reason for them to check credit with a hard inquiry; they're not actually extending credit, they're only checking for predictive claim probabilities.

[Anonymous]

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Porscheturboman wrote:

They informed me that an inquiry by an insurance company counts the same as any credit inquiry.

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EQ doesn't know squat about FICO scoring. They are just the monkeys who store the data. I daresay no one at EQ couldn't find out your FICO score if they wanted to--at least not legally.

Insurance is almost always a soft pull so it will not affect your credit score.

Are you checking your CRs thru any online service? TrueCredit, ScoreWatch, CreditExpert, etc. If so, then once the inquiry hits, you can check yourself and see whether it's a hard or soft pull.

[m_jonis]

Liberty Mutual inquiries for insurance DO count as a hard pull

I just got dinged one point because they did a hard pull when shopping for auto insurance.

[CreditAble]

Hartford pulls hard

for the initial app.

Subsequent apps are soft.

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[lil_bo_peep]

I know that Farmers insurance does not pull a hard inquiry only soft and its almost always Transunion....this is in AL.

lil_bo 

[smo65d11]

Allstate countrywide only soft pulls (I work for an agent)

I requote my auto every 6 months with at least 3 companies to see how competetive we are (or are not!) and in the past year I have been soft pulled by Liberty Mutual, Progressive, Prudential, State Farm, Columbia and Geico.  Never had an insurance Hard Pull.

[CreditAble]

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@smo65d11 wrote:

Allstate countrywide only soft pulls (I work for an agent)

I requote my auto every 6 months with at least 3 companies to see how competitive we are (or are not!) and in the past year I have been soft pulled by Liberty Mutual, Progressive, Prudential, State Farm, Columbia and Geico.  Never had an insurance Hard Pull.

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That is very useful information.

I might actually do some insurance rate shopping.

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