Insurance tips: Credit scores and insurance scores

Many insurers use a credit-based "insurance score" as a factor -- a major factor, often -- in setting your rates. It's a quick way of quoting you a price, and insurers maintain that there's a correlation between these credit-based scores and a person's claims history.

Washington state limits how insurers can use these scores, and Commissioner Kreidler has repeatedly pushed for legislation to ban their use completely.

In Washington, insurers cannot hold the following things against you:

• The number of credit inquiries
• Collection accounts identified as medical bills
• A loan if it's the initial purchase or finance of a vehicle or home.

In Washington, insurers must also tell you if you didn't get the best rate due to your score. If this happens, you're entitled to a free copy of your credit report from the credit agency that your insurer used.

What goes into an insurance score? Here's the breakdown of a score from FICO, one of the biggest companies generating these scores for insurers:

• Payment History (40%) – How well you have made payments on your outstanding debt in the past

• Outstanding Debt (30%) – How much debt you currently have

• Credit History Length (15%) – How long you have had a line of credit

• Pursuit of New Credit (10%) – If you have applied for new lines of credit recently

• Credit Mix (5%) – The types of credit you have (credit card, mortgage, auto loans, etc.)

How can you improve your score? The same way you'd improve your credit score: make payments (bills, taxes, fines, etc.) on time. Keep credit card balances as low as possible. Think carefully before opening new lines of credit, such as a department store charge card, just to get a discount.
 
You can check your credit reports from the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies annually at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. If you find errors, contact the credit reporting company to have them corrected.
 

Insurance and vintage or antique cars

Q: I'm rebuilding my antique car and my grandfather's one-seater vintage biplane in my garage. Will my homeowners policy cover all the parts if they are stolen?

A: Probably not. Most homeowners policies exclude autos, aircraft, other motorized vehicles and their parts. You might have coverage for, say, a riding lawn mower or golf cart, but you'd be wise to talk to your agent and insurer about separate coverage that may be available for the parts during the rebuild process and after completion. Most antique cars and plans can be covered on specialized policies designed for their generally limited and unique use.



Note: This is one of a series of common -- or in some cases, particularly unusual -- questions received by our consumer advocacy staff, who answer questions from consumers.
Got a question or insurance problem of your own? If you live in Washington, feel free to give us a call, toll-free at 1-800-562-6900. We'll do our best to help. (And if you live in another state or territory, here's a handy map that lists the contact info for your local insurance regulatory office.)

Coming this fall: Agents and brokers in WA can submit fingerprints electronically

In Washington, as in most states, we require insurance agents and brokers to submit their fingerprints for the required background check.

For years, this has been done on paper cards, on which a worker rolls the applicant's inked fingers. It's messy, but more importantly, it's difficult to get good, usable prints. In fact, there's a 30 percent rejection rate by the State Patrol, meaning that the applicant has to go through the whole process again. We know it can be a pain, but we haven't had a good alternative.

So, good news: Starting late this summer or early fall, we will begin accepting electronically submitted fingerprints. We strongly encourage our resident applicants to use the service.

Why?

For one thing, the rejection rate is much lower. Instead of 30 percent, it's less than 3 percent.

It will also cost less. It now costs $42.50 to submit a paper fingerprint card. It will cost $32.50 to do it electronically.

It takes less time. In fact, in some cases, it could mean getting your license issued weeks earlier than with a paper card.

And there's probably a location close to you. More than 30 locations in Washington state can provide the fingerprinting service. Pearson Vue exam centers offer the service when applicants take the insurance exam, and the company also has a third-party vendor, Morpho Trust, that offers fingerprinting at several additional locations. You can find links to both on our new web page about electronic fingerprinting for insurance licensees.

Lastly, a question I know we'll get: Are electronic fingerprints required? No, not at this point. But we intend to require them starting during the first half of 2013.

Open letter from Commissioner Kreidler to Premera and LifeWise policyholders

Our office has denied requests from Premera Blue Cross to strip some of the company's health plans of vital prescription drug coverage.

Premera filed a request with our office in late April, seeking approval to remove all prescription drug coverage from its small employer plans. These are plans sold to employers with 1-50 employees. Premera subsidiary Lifewise filed a request to remove drugs from all of its catastrophic (meaning high-deductible) plans.

Commissioner Kreidler disapproved those requests. Here's an open letter from the commissioner to Premera and Lifewise policyholders. From the letter:

Let me be clear: Contrary to what Premera has implied, your health plan can keep generic drug coverage and even require you to use a generic drug first. Nothing in my recent decision restricts your health plan from covering generic drugs.But if you get sick and a generic drug doesn’t exist for your condition or doesn’t work for you, your health insurer must let you try a brand-name drug that could work.


I understand that generic drugs may work for many people most of the time, but it’s my job to protect all insurance consumers. There are some diseases for which generic drugs may not work, such as certain cancers and mental illnesses, diabetes, MS, certain types of arthritis, and AIDS.

Legally, if a plan has prescription drug coverage it cannot restrict someone’s access to a prescription drug that could be vital to a medical condition that’s otherwise covered by the plan and for which they’ve paid a premium.

New insurance bills take effect tomorrow

Four new insurance-related bills take effect tomorrow. None were insurance commissioner request legislation, but they will impact consumers starting June 7.

Whether you'd like to share your car or get evacuated home from a trip, there's something for everyone. Want to know more? Here's the complete list:

Usage-based insurance

Car sharing

Air rescue

PEBB ombudsman for retired state employees

Insurance and sleepovers

Q: My daughter's having a friend over for a sleepover. If the friend trips and falls or something, would my homeowners policy cover her medical bills?

A: Generally yes, since most modern homeowners policies have what's known as "guest medical" coverage. This is designed to pay the medical bills -- up to a specified dollar limit per accident -- for accidental injury to guests. But it doesn't cover you or other resident family members.

The coverage is a no-fault type of coverage that is designed to apply to accidents with no determination of fault or negligence on your part. Your insurer will still do an investigation to gather the facts of the accident.

Note: This is one of a series of common -- or in some cases, particularly unusual -- questions received by our consumer advocacy staff, who answer questions from consumers.
Got a question or insurance problem of your own? If you live in Washington, feel free to give us a call, toll-free at 1-800-562-6900. We'll do our best to help. (And if you live in another state or territory, here's a handy map that lists the contact info for your local insurance regulatory office.)

Washington state insurance markets: Our annual report

Each year, we issue an annual report summarizing the insurance markets in Washington state, selected financial statement data, authorized insurers by line of business, top companies, top groups, company changes, etc.

Get 'em before they're sold out. (That's a joke. They're online only, and we have no shortage of pixels.)