| I really can't even believe we're having this conversation: Insurance rates for drivers should reflect how they handle their cars, not their credit cards. Yet auto insurance companies in Michigan want to use credit scores as one factor in determining how much to charge consumers. The practice is wrong at any time, but especially now. In a climate of soaring unemployment and resulting unpaid bills, it unfairly discriminates against residents whose only crime is the misfortune of working for a company swept away in the economic tsunami.
...snip... Among the testimony taken during OFIR hearings on the issue was one insurance agent who said he was forced to give a favorable rate to a customer with “gold credit” but a conviction for drunken driving. Another driver who had a clean driving record, but poor credit, paid more.
Who could have predicted an outcome like this? Who could have predicted that credit would prove to be less accurate than someone's driving record to determine who might be a safer driver? |
