Insurance Companies searching my credit report

JasperJackson

Our car insurance is coming up for renewal on 18th March and we keep getting alerted that insurances companies are searching our credit report.

This happened even before we started looking for quotes.

In addition none of the companies searching are ones we've used before and we don't even pay our insurance in installments - we always pay the full amount up front.

Are insurance companies allowed to do this without our knowledge or permission?

born_again

Yes, soft search mean nothing.

As aside, have you used comparison site, lately or in the past. As they will generate quotes & this causes soft searches.

Ayr_Rage

It'll all be locked deep inside their Ts and Cs.

Once you allow cookies and agree to their terms without opting out of further marketing they have you by the short and curlies for years to come.

I find this quite useful as some are currently sending me car insurance offers without have to go back and amend the whole quote from last year.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6656462/insurance-companies-searching-my-credit-report

Ever used confused.com or CompareTheMarket or similar? These guys typically run quotes based on your prior quotes before then sending you an email about what ball park price they can probably achieve for you. Some insurers on their system will do soft ID checks before quoting and hence you get the searches showing.

It was all in those T&Cs you clicked the button to say you agreed to without actually reading the T&Cs. Soft searches dont have any impact on your, even less so when marked for insurance

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6656462/insurance-companies-searching-my-credit-report

Yes, that is allowed and not surprising.

The searches and quotes will be generated based on last year's enquiries and may include companies you are not familiar with because of possible previous use of comparison sites and / or different brands within the same group as the insurers you have used.

In the case of insurance, the offer of insurance sometimes directly involves a credit option (monthly payments) so a credit search is relevant. I do not know for sure, but I always assumes that the credit search may feed into the risk profile as well and impact potential premium.