Insurance Rate

[babbles]

Just heard a caller on a radio state that Geico will or could increase or adjust your auto rates based on a college background or not.  Has anyone else heard something like this?

[cdtotten]

This is a hot topic currently in the insurance field. Currently, yes, a lot of insurance providers do consider your education, credit history, and profession in determining your insurance rates. Using a persons age, marital status and gender is all perfectly legal, but the previous mentioned factors are borderline.

It is illegal for insurance companies to use income as a basis for determining insurance rates, as courts have ruled that income is a proxy for race. Obviously education and profession are additional proxies for race, if using that lax standard. There are bills currently being considered that would eliminate these practices, but for now they will continue. Not all lenders use this information, almost all use credit checks though.