I have been a customer of American Family Insurance for 7 years now. I have never had a claim, or had my policy cancelled due to lack of payment.
I purchased a home in 2002 and added my home to my policy. My first year was about 295.00 a year, then my policy went up to almost 400.00. This summer I receieved a notice from my mortgage company about my escrow account being to low and found out it was due to my insurance rate going up. I received nothing ahead of time from American Family.
I immediately called my agent and was told, the new rates were based on credit reports and that my new yearly policy rate was almost 600.00.
I have a credit score over 650! Its not perfect but I have raised a family on my own and had some small problems throughout those years. I don't have huge debt, my actual credit report has maybe two things on it that are very small, one is a charge I have disputed since the beginning. The other one I am working on its a dental bill.
I have a perfect driving record, work full time and I think this is unfair.
I never gave American Family permission to access my credit information, I believe that is a privacy issue. I understand accessing my driving record, but this is just plain wrong.
The most upsetting part of the whole thing was what my agent told me.
She stated " People with low credit scores are more likely to file a claim"!
I think that is no better than people who racially profile. Like saying if you're a certain race you are more likely to commit a crime, if you're female you are more likely to call in sick to your job, or miss work due to sick children.By the way I called her Friday after work, she was irritated about it being close to 5pm but I had just gotten home from work and found the notice from my mortgage company. She promised to call me Monday and let me know exactly what the details were and she never did.
I plan to continue to voice my disgust to anyone that will listen and change insurance companies ASAP! I will post it all over the net, email it to all my friends and family and ask that it be forwarded on.
I was told by one person that due to the natural disasters in recent years like Katrina, floods etc. That insurance companies needed to bring in the money! Too much going out, well thats not fair. I've had things happen around my house where I could have filed a claim, I fixed them myself.including lightning striking my air conditioning unit. But, I did not want to raise my rates or have claims on my policy. Now I wish I had!
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