In a not too surprising move by Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Julie Benafield Bowman, she announced her union with 12 other states in an amicus curiae brief in favor of a ruling regarding how credit scores are handled by insurers. According to an article on nationalunderwriter.com this ruling came from a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case against GEICO and Safeco. The ruling states that the aforementioned insurers “willfully violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by not properly notifying consumers when their credit score negatively affected their auto insurance rates.”
Ms. Bowman released a statement that said the reason for filing the brief was to:
“Further their collective mission of protecting consumers by supporting interpretations of the FCRA that put valuable information in the hands of consumers; provide appropriate incentives for insurance companies that use consumer credit information to adopt procedures that assure compliance with the law, and hold insurance companies accountable when they adopt policies that recklessly disregard consumer rights in contravention of the FCRA.”
This seems to be a cut and dry case from a consumer perspective. I’d imagine most people would like to know that their insurance rates increased because of their credit score. Many individuals might not be aware of a change to their credit score unless they are checking fairly frequently.
» Credit Rating and Your Insurance Rate from The Official Insurance Blog::Insurance Headlines, Auto, Health and Life Info and Commentary
The Insurance Policy reports that the Arkansas Insurance Regulator, Julie Benafield Bowman, recently upheld and voiced her agreement with a ruling about how credit scores are used and reported to determine insurance rates. The ruling was a finding ag... [Read More]
Tracked on: January 5, 2007 3:16 PM | Permalink to Trackback