Credit searches when getting car insurance quotes

feesy

I've recently followed Martin's guide to getting cheaper car insurance quotations but not appear to have 15 new credit searches on my noddle report. I have used comparison sites before and this has never happened. Is this normal? It's just made my credit file look even worse than it did before.

tasticz

They are soft searches and only you can see them. Next time use a generated name and your neighbours address

feesy

Many thanks

Smithers37

These are soft print searches and don't affect your credit rating in any shape or form. I would also advise that if you were to find a quotation using details other than your own, you may be required to send in proof of your address and / or driving licence if you then decide to change details on that quote. This is due to the fact that insurers can see a cache of information you've entered and may see you changing your address as potentially hiding something.

Hope that helps.

kingstreet

I was talking to one of our BDMs the other day who said they are not all soft searches, or "unrecorded enquiries" for ID/Address verification.

feesy - what are the descriptions next to the searches you refer to?

Just_Some_Guy

Mostly they are soft searches (insurers doing ID and address verification). These don't affect your credit score; you are allowed to shop around for insurance, and insurers are allowed to do their homework on you before offering a quote.

Sometimes if you choose to pay monthly you are actually getting a loan out to pay the annual premium. These result in "hard" searches, because they are formal applications for credit.

tbqh I don't think a bunch of soft searches and the fact that you pay monthly for your insurance would really affect your chances of getting credit. If it does then me and ten million other people are boned