Car insurance credit check?

Fisher652

Hi All, I have been taking the moneysavingexpert's advice and shopping around for my car insurance. A financial adviser has told me that some compare sites credit check you on each quote you get and this can affect your credit rating. Is there any truth in this? I have had 6 quotes so far and its made me nervous.....:(

InsideInsurance

Certainly some insurers do do credit checks and use the results either in the rating of the policy or just in the provision of monthly instalments.

If you look at your credit fine then exactly what is stated varies between insurers. Some it is done as an unrecorded query but others state they are for insurance purposes. Ultimately it is up to the lender how they treat these second ones which they will be able to see. The guidance from the reference agencies is to ignore them but lenders make their own choices.

lisyloo

You could always get your credit report free from noddle.co.uk
It may take a little while for the checks to show up though, these things don't work in real time.

Personally I find that if I search, they don't always always credit check and I end up with 1 or 2 which are usually unrecorded or marked for insurance rather than as an application for credit.
In general I don't think you need to worry too much, but if the report is free then why not sign up. It's NOT a free trial where they take money from you after a certain time period - it's free for life.

TDPIX

If you're purely browsing for quotes and not seriously buying (as in, not about to hit the purchase button), perhaps enter a silly name and the address of a few doors up? (Be sure to uncheck the 'Yes, send mail to my house' option though )

Not sure if you're 'meant' to do this, but it's what I do if I'm ever just browsing for quotes.