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Information that property and auto insurance companies use in a controversial scoring method that helps them set your car insurance rates is now available to you for a fee.
ChoicePoint has now made available to consumers their "insurance score" at its ChoiceTrust.com web site.
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A company that creates insurance scores for more than 400 companies is
making that information available to consumers for a fee. |
ChoicePoint provides scores to more than 400
insurance companies and 80,000 insurance agents nationwide. It
maintains a database of 16 billion public records. But that does not
necessarily mean your data will be available through ChoicePoint.
"You would have to address with your own
insurance company whether or not they use our consumer database," says
ChoicePoint spokesperson Chuck Jones.
Some insurance companies use their own
scoring systems and do not contract with third-party information
companies like ChoicePoint.
The insurance industry uses insurance scores
because it says a high degree of correlation exists between a person's
overall credit history and the likelihood that he or she will file an
insurance claim. Some state insurance commissioners and consumer
advocates insist the method is discriminatory.
"We've worked with industry and government leaders
for nearly two years to find a way to give consumers easy access to
their own insurance information," says David Lee, executive vice
president of ChoicePoint's insurance services bureau. The company will
charge consumers $12.95 for the ability to access their insurance
scoring records for 30 days. Consumers are also able to obtain a free
credit report and learn how their scores were calculated and what they
mean.
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