Who is insuring your ride?

[Blade1668]

I wonder the same thing. Insurance isn't a line of credit. I will not end up in a position where I owe you a balance, you'll just cancel coverage. Why does my credit score matter?

I equate this to the b.s. practice of riding a bicycle drunk = points off your license. They shouldn't be linked.

I'm in agreement with you and I have a good credit score. In many cases insurance is not based on person or location for risk.

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[Tar Heel Wrangler]

I was too loyal too long to a company and decided to see what better rates I could get. Did 5 online quotes for 4 vehicles (3 teen drivers) and bundled home owners insurance. Progressive beat them all by a lot. Switched and started saving $1500/yr.

Progressive's customer service has been excellent. If that continues, I will probably not want to switch (it's a lot of work), but I know I should compare rates again in 2-3 years (everyone should really do that). I know they'll raise my rates in the meantime, but I'll at least have some data points to try to get them to lower my rate.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Indeed, I understand the risk situation. But for credit scores, a very reliable person can have a low credit score because a spouse maxed out multiple credit cards and disappeared. I've seen it happen multiple times and it ain't pretty.

Some of that can be changed these days.
The industry is learning.

For my wife and I - she's 2 points ahead of me.
According to our credit union, she has the highest score of any of their customers. Damn. Then along comes my 39 year old son - and he's like only 10 points behind us.
My wife is shooting for a perfect score. (if there even is such a thing - but she's sort of that way, she strives for perfection (and yet she settled for me? Yikes)

The credit union issues us each a debit card for the same account, but the numbers of the card are different and the PINS are different so I suspect some banks are trying to get away from the ability of one person to impact the score of another. They can track who did what based on those numbers. So if I tried to drain our accounts - they'd know it was me and not her. Heck, I can't even remember our account numbers half the time so fat chance.........
So it looks like the industry is aware of what you mentioned happening.

 

[sharpsicle]

The credit union issues us each a debit card for the same account, but the numbers of the card are different and the PINS are different so I suspect some banks are trying to get away from the ability of one person to impact the score of another.

This is really about card security, not about assigning accountability. You simply can't have 2 cards with the same number, especially these days with chip security. They also know that cards on joint accounts can and will be shared, so they're still going to hold everyone accountable. They aren't doing this to "keep you separate" from each other.

If you have a joint account, you are jointly responsible for every and all transactions. If you don't want that, you need to have separate accounts.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

This is really about card security, not about assigning accountability. You simply can't have 2 cards with the same number, especially these days with chip security. They also know that cards on joint accounts can and will be shared, so they're still going to hold everyone accountable. They aren't doing this to "keep you separate" from each other.

If you have a joint account, you are jointly responsible for every and all transactions. If you don't want that, you need to have separate accounts.

The credit cards do have the same number and same CVS/CVV
That's what I find interesting - debit cards - different yet credit cards, identical (except for the name on them) We can use the credit cards interchangeably.

The chip security is not perfect. We're on our third set of credit cards because they've been hijacked that many times. I'm not the only one reporting it according to some news stations.
It's supposed to encrypt the information when you insert the card but that only works on readers that are secured and not left unattended. And it does nothing obviously for online transactions.

Separate accounts? No worries about her......... she's the sort that would disappear and leave it all behind.

 

[Klutch]

- Each credit reporting agency uses different formulas to calculate credit scores. So, your score is likely somewhat different for each agency

- You can get a free credit report every year, but if you want your credit score, you must pay for it. Yeah, it's stupid that you must pay for information about you. The last time I did it, the cost was around $5.00

- Mrs. Klutch has worked at banks for over 25 years. During that 25+ years she has seen fraud almost every day. And it gets worse every year. Credit card fraud, debit card fraud, checking account fraud, wire transfer fraud, online selling fraud, telephone scams; it goes on and on

- Credit agencies might be getting better about fixing errors, but they still suck. A friend of mine just last month resolved an erroneous overdue debt on his credit report. It wasn't his. It took him many years of fighting to finally get it removed. In those years, every time someone pulled his credit report, that erroneous, overdue debt came up and he had to explain it. He considered simply paying that debt for someone else, but he found out it would hurt him even worse because he would be essentially admitting that it was his debt

- Much of the credit card and debit card fraud these days comes from retailers. Scammers will pay employees to capture card information which is then sold on the Dark Web. So, one day your wife buy's some picture frames at Michael's craft store. The next day someone uses her "card" to buy multiple items at a Walmart in another state. There is no way to protect yourself from this other than using cash. (Of course, cash wont' work for paying for hotels or rental cars.) Then you get mugged in the parking lot and some punk steals all your cash and your credit cards. Welcome to the 21st century. (Uh-oh, now come all the stories from people who carry a gun so they don't get mugged...)

 

[ShadowsPapa]

- Each credit reporting agency uses different formulas to calculate credit scores. So, your score is likely somewhat different for each agency

- You can get a free credit report every year, but if you want your credit score, you must pay for it. Yeah, it's stupid that you must pay for information about you. The last time I did it, the cost was around $5.00

- Mrs. Klutch has worked at banks for over 25 years. During that 25+ years she has seen fraud almost every day. And it gets worse every year. Credit card fraud, debit card fraud, checking account fraud, wire transfer fraud, online selling fraud, telephone scams; it goes on and on

- Credit agencies might be getting better about fixing errors, but they still suck. A friend of mine just last month resolved an erroneous overdue debt on his credit report. It wasn't his. It took him many years of fighting to finally get it removed. In those years, every time someone pulled his credit report, that erroneous, overdue debt came up and he had to explain it. He considered simply paying that debt for someone else, but he found out it would hurt him even worse because he would be essentially admitting that it was his debt

- Much of the credit card and debit card fraud these days comes from retailers. Scammers will pay employees to capture card information which is then sold on the Dark Web. So, one day your wife buy's some picture frames at Michael's craft store. The next day someone uses her "card" to buy multiple items at a Walmart in another state. There is no way to protect yourself from this other than using cash. (Of course, cash wont' work for paying for hotels or rental cars.) Then you get mugged in the parking lot and some punk steals all your cash and your credit cards. Welcome to the 21st century. (Uh-oh, now come all the stories from people who carry a gun so they don't get mugged...)

I worked with a guy who had his CC hijacked - fraudulent charges. He had the card cancelled and got a new one. As quick as it arrived he checked and found - fraudulent charges on the card before he even got it. He started over, and when he got the NEXT replacement, same thing. He raised hell. I can't recall the outcome but the next one was fine and he didn't have issues as far as I recall.

I used to work for a state agency - network and other security. One of the issues we had to watch for was people coming in with an envelope with a few thousand dollars in it and telling the receptionist it was theirs if they'd give them some PII, client info, etc.
WE never saw or had it happen, but other places had and were warning about it.

 

[TrainMan]

My whole family has used Erie Insurance for like 30 years.

 

[mep4wd]

Just went over this with my insurance agent. I was able to get an additional $5000 of coverage for add on items for about $300 per year. However, this is a more complicated subject than you might think.
I swapped out the plastic bumper with a steel bumper. The new steel bumper is covered by my ORIGINAL insurance.
I added a winch. That is covered by the ADD ON insurance.
Bed cover->ADD ON Insurance.
TIRES-covered by the ORIGINAL insurance.
WHEEELS-covered by the ADD ON insurance.
LIFT-covered by the ADD ON insurance.

I put about $7000 into the add ons not covered by original insurance, so in the event of a total loss, I get hit for around $2000.

Talk to a knowledgeable agent.

 

[ShastaJT6]

Followup on this in case anyone is curious.

Ended up going with Farmers insurance. Got much more coverage than I had with Geico (Had the basic 15/30/15 or whatever with Geico, got about double that with Farmers) plus $7500 of aftermarket parts coverage.

Doesnt cover the full list of upgrades (around half of it, actually) so in a total loss situation Ill still be out some cash... but in the event that there is an accident of some sort I believe it will be enough coverage to ensure the vehicle is repaired with the correct parts, rather than them slapping OEM parts on and pretending its fixed.

All told Im at about $60/month more then before, and I feel this is a good compromise in costs / coverage, and certainly much better than what I had.

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