In November, 1988, the electorate in California approved Proposition 103 to prevent the massive increases in premiums that were affecting all consumers looking for insurance. After major litigation to decide whether the Proposition was constitutional, it was finally implemented in May 1989 and rapidly revolutionized the rates of insurance across the state which fell by an average of 45% between 1989 and 2001. It is estimated that up to 2006, Californian drivers alone saved $62 billion on their auto insurance rates. Then the Consumer Watchdog combined with other socially active groups to force the insurance companies to abandon the practice of basing rates on the zip code and not your record as a driver. Now comes Assembly Bill 2800 which emerged from the Senate Appropriations Committee in August 2008.
This is being treated as a slightly more controversial measure. The auto insurance industry is campaigning to allow a switch to mileage and use as criteria for fixing the premiums. It estimates that this could produce further average savings in premiums of about $275 per vehicle. It would work by placing a small monitoring device in every vehicle to assess how far you drive in a year and how well you drive. But this device is viewed as an invasion into the privacy of drivers. As a compromise, the Insurance Commissioner suggests that drivers could allow the insurers to make regular checks on the odometer rather than allowing electronic collection and transmission of data. If the electronic version of the plan does go ahead, it will allow companies to identify consistently low-risk drivers from the time of day they use the roads, the speed at which they drive and the distance they travel. Such drivers will receive the maximum discounts available. Those deemed more likely to have accidents from the way they drive will potentially pay more.
The current system allows drivers to report their own mileage. The industry standard is to offer discounts to drivers who do less than 10,000 miles per year. Obviously, there’s a temptation in difficult economic times for drivers to underestimate their mileage to gain the discounts. This proposed device will reward the genuine drivers and charge a fair premium to the others. It will also help to save the planet because drivers who maintain a lower average speed use less gas and so produce less emissions. For once, the auto insurance industry would be helping to fight global warming which is very public-spirited it.
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Has it occurred to you that it’s not very fair when insurance companies start poking around your life. They want to know how well you drive your vehicle, what you have in your home worth protecting, how likely you are to fall sick and, most cheerfully, when you think you’re going to die. There’s no part of your life they don’t investigate and build into their models for deciding how much to charge you as a premium in your latest policy. So you retaliate. Instead of blindly picking a company out of yellow pages, you use a site like this to get comparative quotes from all the best companies. You then start poking around in their lives. Are these companies financially strong? Will they still be around in a few years time to pay on your claims? You want to choose the best company to insure you whether it’s auto, home, health or life insurance. Why bother? Look around you. Banks and large insurance companies like AIG have been getting bailouts from the federal government. Checking out the financial strength of an auto insurance company is necessary before you start paying them your hard-earned dollars.
So where do you look? There are a number of companies that make their living by rating the performance of other companies. Some are general. So, for example, Standard & Poor rate the whole range of commercial enterprises including those in financial services (see their website at http://www.standardandpoors.com). Others are more specialized like Fitch and A.M. Best which have the insurance industry as their primary focus (see their websites at http://www.fitchratings.com and http://www.ambest.com/). You should also find the website operated by the Insurance Department or Commissioner of Insurance for your own state. The best states not only operate a complaints service, but publish an annual report identifying all the companies against whom complaints have been upheld. This gives you a good measure of how the companies actually deliver on their advertised services.
Then you should ask around all your family, friends and colleagues at work. Check out what the word-of-mouth is on the companies you are thinking about giving your auto insurance business. The everyday experience of these people is a vital source of information. Slightly less reliable are the “complaint” or consumer report sites. Most of the people who put up reports are motivated by revenge. They have had poor service and want the world to know about it. Many commercial sites that depend on commission by selling auto insurance add their own “better” reports to balance out the bad. Read both good and bad with a skeptical eye. When you have rated the auto insurers, decide which one gives you the best value terms and buy.
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The law is very straightforward. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives all US consumers the right to receive one free report from the credit bureaus every year. The intention is to ensure that everyone understands their financial situation, takes precautions to fight identity theft, and gets (reasonably) fair treatment from all lenders. You have no right to receive your credit or FICO score. The problem is that every lender, insurance company and other company that uses the information about your finances applies a slightly different formula to work out your score. There is no one score to give you. All your get is your credit history. That’s all the transactions recorded by the banks, finance companies, insurers, etc. The good or bad news, depending on your point of view, is that up to 40% of all reports contain one or more mistakes. The good news is that you can get these mistakes corrected. The bad news is that everyone has been calculating your creditworthiness and risk profile on the basis of bad information, sometimes for years.
How do you get these histories? There’s a single federal site where you apply: www.annualcreditreport.com. There’s also a toll-free number: 877-322-8228. If you approach the three major credit bureaus directly, i.e. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, there’s a chance you will be asked to pay. If you go to any other website, you will almost certainly be asked to pay to get your “free” reports. Use the federal site only to avoid problems. When you log on to the site, be prepared with your name, address, date of birth and social security number. You will also be asked for some other information only you would be expected to know, e.g. the amount you paid as the last mortgage instalment. Assuming you pass through the security system without problem, you will be give immediate access to your report. If you use the telephone system or write them a letter, expect to wait two more more weeks for a hard copy of the report to arrive.
If you find a mistake on your free credit report that affects your credit scores, you should act immediately. Write to the credit bureau and the reporting agency that filed the incorrect information using certified mail with return receipt requested, and explain in detail why the credit report is wrong. Send copies of the relevant bills, statements, cancelled checks and receipts – hopefully, you are well organized and have been keeping all these original documents and records in a safe place. If you are writing to report a case of identity theft with someone opening an account or falsely using your credit cards, make a police report and send a copy of that report to the bank, credit card company, etc. The bureau and reporting agency have thirty days to reply with the results of their investigation. If they agree with you, the information will be corrected. If they disagree, they must given reasons. In this way, you can ensure that all the information about you is both complete and accurate. With your records accurate, your FICO scores should improve.
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The law is very straightforward. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives all US consumers the right to receive one free report from the credit bureaus every year. The intention is to ensure that everyone understands their financial situation, takes precautions to fight identity theft, and gets (reasonably) fair treatment from all lenders. You have no right to receive your credit or FICO score. The problem is that every lender, insurance company and other company that uses the information about your finances applies a slightly different formula to work out your score. There is no one score to give you. All your get is your credit history. That’s all the transactions recorded by the banks, finance companies, insurers, etc. The good or bad news, depending on your point of view, is that up to 40% of all reports contain one or more mistakes. The good news is that you can get these mistakes corrected. The bad news is that everyone has been calculating your creditworthiness and risk profile on the basis of bad information, sometimes for years.
How do you get these histories? There’s a single federal site where you apply: www.annualcreditreport.com. There’s also a toll-free number: 877-322-8228. If you approach the three major credit bureaus directly, i.e. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, there’s a chance you will be asked to pay. If you go to any other website, you will almost certainly be asked to pay to get your “free” reports. Use the federal site only to avoid problems. When you log on to the site, be prepared with your name, address, date of birth and social security number. You will also be asked for some other information only you would be expected to know, e.g. the amount you paid as the last mortgage instalment. Assuming you pass through the security system without problem, you will be give immediate access to your report. If you use the telephone system or write them a letter, expect to wait two more more weeks for a hard copy of the report to arrive.
If you find a mistake on your free credit report that affects your credit scores, you should act immediately. Write to the credit bureau and the reporting agency that filed the incorrect information using certified mail with return receipt requested, and explain in detail why the credit report is wrong. Send copies of the relevant bills, statements, cancelled checks and receipts – hopefully, you are well organized and have been keeping all these original documents and records in a safe place. If you are writing to report a case of identity theft with someone opening an account or falsely using your credit cards, make a police report and send a copy of that report to the bank, credit card company, etc. The bureau and reporting agency have thirty days to reply with the results of their investigation. If they agree with you, the information will be corrected. If they disagree, they must given reasons. In this way, you can ensure that all the information about you is both complete and accurate. With your records accurate, your FICO scores should improve.
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In September 2005, the law passed by Congress finally made it into effect and allowed every person to order one free copy of their credit history a year. Since there are three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – you can order one from each bureau in turn and get a snapshot of your financial affairs every four months. Why should you bother? Well, Congress thought it was a good idea because it helps to reduce the problem of identity theft. If everyone checks their credit history on a regular basis, they should be able to identify any suspicious activity. It’s that, “Hey, I never ordered that new credit card” moment we all dread. Except actually getting a copy of the report is not quite as easy as it’s supposed to be. When the system first kicked into action, the Federal Trade Commission received several thousand complaints from people who could not order their reports. This is an unusually high number. Firstly, it shows how much pent-up demand there was for access to these reports. Secondly, it shows how important it is for officials to get a working system in place from Day One.
So what was going wrong? The most common problem was related to the quality of the information on file. People would submit their personal details and be rejected because their “real” information did not match the “data” on file. Access by the public was set up through a security system that assumed the data on file was always right. Big mistake. The quality of data is only as good as all the people who input it. So although we can applaud a security system that protects us from scammers trying to pass themselves off as us, there has to be a fallback position that allows people to have this faulty data corrected. The second problem was ironic. The security system was set up to ensure that people only got free reports when they were due. So if the scammers got in first, the real people were refused access because “they” had already received their annual report. Very reassuring.
So how do you get your free credit report? Well, avoid all the scam internet sites that appear to be offering your “free” reports but actually charge you through the backdoor. There are hundreds of look-alike sites that try to deceive consumers. Never sign up for any service that asks you for money. The official site runs under the URL www.AnnualCreditReport.com. There’s also a toll free telephone line – (877) 322-8228 – and a real-world address – Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Most of the early problems have now been solved allowing people easier access to their report. So what do you get after you have jumped through all the hoops? You get your credit history. That’s all the transactions recorded against your name by your creditors. You do not get your credit scores. The reason for this is simple. Every lender has a different formula for working out whether you are a “good” credit risk. Getting one bureau’s calculation is no guarantee of how the others will do the math. So work through the credit report and protect your interests.
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