Does insurance searches affect my credit rating?

Yazmin_A

Ive decided i want to improve my credit rating, ive already started to increase my payments to help clear my debts (only £699 left! go me:))

Im not looking to apply for anymore credit anytime soon, just use my credit card to help build my credit rating, forjust incase in future if i need credit.

I recently signed up to a credit report site, and noticed that on my search history, i have like 7 entries from when i was looking for insurance quotes (even the pet insurance is there as well!) and im just wondering, that i know that the amount of times you apply for credit can affect ur rating, but can insurance searches affect it too? My brother is going to buy me a car once i pass and he gave me a few choices of cars (as he does this for a living) and i was just checkin which car had the cheaper insurance rate for me. I didnt think it would come up on my credit report as i was just searching for quotes.

TIA x

sharpy2010

It's known as a table 2, or "soft", search which will only show to you, and not anyone who may lend you money.

Its quite safe and not a problem :-)

Yazmin_A

Also i suffered from debit card fraud in january 2011 where someone had used my card for £800 worth of insurance and that, i had it investigated and got the money back, will that affect it too, and can i contest against it?

sharpy2010

You need to check your credit file and see if there is any adverse information on there regarding the fraud. If there is, you need to get confirmation from the card company that the issue is resolved, and forward it to the three credit reference agencies. They will then ensure that the adverse information is removed.

InsideInsurance

sharpy2010 wrote: »

It's known as a table 2, or "soft", search which will only show to you, and not anyone who may lend you money.

Certainly some do a soft search and it is recorded as such when you view it. Others do a search that is recorded not in the normal soft search way but states it is "Insurance Quotation" instead.

During my conversations with one of the big three CRAs their RM was unable to guarantee that these second type would have no impact on someones credit rating. I didn't explicitly ask if they'd be visible to other companies.

My assumption has alreadys been that these second type would be visible to other parties however due to the reason for the search being stated as Insurance Quotation rather than credit application or something else then most underwriters would ignore it for the purposes of lending decisions however ultimately it would be their decision if they did that or not

Would be interested if you know otherwise and from what source you know that

YorkshireBoy

InsideInsurance wrote: »

My assumption has alreadys been that these second type would be visible to other parties however due to the reason for the search being stated as Insurance Quotation rather than credit application or something else then most underwriters would ignore it for the purposes of lending decisions however ultimately it would be their decision if they did that or not

Would be interested if you know otherwise and from what source you know that

Your assumption is wrong.

http://www.experian.co.uk/downloads/consumer/experian-YCRE.pdf (page 5, 2nd para)

InsideInsurance

Sorry, dont see the connection. These are not noted as unrecorded searches (though some insurers do do these types) but are noted as a search for insurance quotation

YorkshireBoy

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Sorry, dont see the connection. These are not noted as unrecorded searches (though some insurers do do these types) but are noted as a search for insurance quotation

Ah ok. Then see page 16, para 3.

But in order to get an insurance quotation search as a 'recorded' enquiry (ie seen by other lenders) I'd imagine the applicant has requested to spread the cost over the 12 month insurance period, ie payment terms? A simple quote should result in an unrecorded enquiry (not seen by other lenders) since no application for credit has been made.

InsideInsurance

The search was being done to generate a credit score which in turn would be used as a rating factor (if your score is low your a fraud risk and premiums increased basically) but it was not being used to decide on if to offer installments or not.

As I say it was a long time ago and so I cannot remember all the discussions clearly but there was some reason why we were told by the CRA that it could not be put in as an unrecorded search but instead as "insurance quotation". That said they were one of the first to introduce it as a rating factor and so the CRAs stance may have changed since then.

At the time we sort guarantees from the CRAs that it wouldnt impact someones chances of getting lending and the best they would say is "it shouldnt" rather than it definitely wouldnt... it was almost the breaking point and then it went higher than me to resolve and not lose all the money we had invested in developing the systems and techonlogies etc

When I look at my credit file however I do still see some "unrecorded" searches with the names of some insurers against it and others showing as "insurance quotation" so that part hasnt changed.