Another alternative credit score is an insurance score.  Just like a credit score, an insurance score is based on information contained in your credit report.  However, it is calculated differently.

The insurance industry uses your credit report to calculate an insurance score to help determine underwriting risk and sudden financial stress that might lead to insurance fraud.  As a result, this insurance score is used, in part, to determine your rates and detect possible claims fraud.

Many states prohibit the use of your credit report by the insurance industry for setting rates or fees.  Regardless, insurance companies are allowed to check your credit report and insurance score if you make a claim.

Who can look at your insurance score: insurance brokers, insurance underwriters and you.

Where allowed by law, insurance companies may use your credit report, and calculate your insurance score, when you apply for insurance.  They will check every time you apply for life insurance over $150,000.  They may check upon annual policy renewals and before a claim is paid.  The amount of a claim and the frequency of claims are major factors determining if an insurance company will check your insurance score, and examine your credit report, looking for possible fraud.

You are giving your permission for these checks with your initial insurance application.

You can view your insurance score by becoming a member of SmartCredit.com Whenever you update your credit report, all your credit scores are updated as well, including your insurance score.

Click here for more information on Insurance Scores >>

What can you do?

With identity theft the most common crime in America and errors on many credit reports, it is possible your insurance score could be artificially low resulting in higher rates or delayed payments on your claims.

You need to be proactive and use SmartCredit.com

Ensure all your credit scores are the best they can be.  Smart Credit’s patent-pending Action buttons communicate directly with your creditors for anything you need, including improving your insurance and credit scores.

It’s simple.  Just use Smart Credit’s innovative credit report and click on action buttons to talk directly with your creditors to get better interest rates or ask your creditor anything.  No need for phone calls, writing letters or looking up account numbers.  You can fix credit report errors, get goodwill corrections, recover from identity theft, replace a lost or stolen credit card or settle a debt all directly with their creditors.  It’s fast and effective!

Plus, Always Active Complete Protection gives Smart Credit members the most complete credit monitoring and identity protection available.  Having only one or the other is not enough.  It also includes our Mobile Rapid Response action button in alerts for the fastest way to stop identity theft.

David B. Coulter – Founder and C.E.O. of SmartCredit.com

There are many types of credit scores.  Most people are familiar with FICO’s credit score, mainly used for mortgages and refinancing home loans or home equity lines of credit.   However, there are many other types.  For example, there are alternative credit scores for auto loans, insurance and even to determine employment status.  All the scores are based on your credit report information, but are just calculated in different ways.

The auto score is a very popular alternative to the standard credit score and it is important consumers understand who can look at it.

The auto lending industry uses a specialized auto score, usually from FICO.  It’s called the Auto Industry Option Score.  Approximately 90% of auto loans use this auto score instead of the more familiar credit score.  The auto score judges your credit risk more heavily weighted to your prior auto loan or lease payment history.

Who can look at your auto score:  auto lenders, auto dealers and you.  Your permission is required, in the form of a signed credit application, for an auto dealer or lender to view your auto score.

You can view your auto score by becoming a member of SmartCredit.com Whenever you update your credit report, all your credit scores are updated as well, including your auto score.

Be sure you understand there is a difference between your credit score and your auto score.  Confusion often is to the advantage of the auto dealer.

Click here for more information on this Auto Scores >>

What can you do?

Be proactive by using SmartCredit.com and ensure all your scores are the best they can be.  Smart Credit’s patent-pending Action buttons communicate directly with your creditors for anything you need, including improving your auto and credit scores.

Its simple.  Just use Smart Credit’s innovative credit report and click on action buttons to talk directly with your creditors to get better interest rates or ask your creditor anything.  No need for phone calls, writing letters or looking up account numbers.  You can fix credit report errors, get goodwill corrections, recover from identity theft, replace a lost or stolen credit card or settle a debt all directly with their creditors.  It’s fast and effective!

Always Active Complete Protection gives Smart Credit members the most complete credit monitoring and identity protection available.  Having only one or the other is not enough.  It also includes our Mobile Rapid Response action button in alerts for the fastest way to stop identity theft.

David B. Coulter – Founder and C.E.O. of SmartCredit.com

If you tune into the Oprah Winfrey show today and for the next three Wednesdays, you’ll catch The Debt Diet and watch me help Lisa and Steven Bradley, a North Carolina couple, get their lives back in order.  That’s not an overstatement.  Many people are in the same boat the Bradleys were in a few years back.  They are spending more than they are making, feeling ashamed and embarrassed and are not sure what to do to right their ships.  Their credit reports are a mess and their credit scores in the tank.  They need help.

The Debt Diet, for the Bradleys and so many others, was the right tool.  It taught them to face their problems, to take action (a concept the Smart Credit users are right at home with) to move their balance sheets in the right direction, and that having some cash in the bank feels SO MUCH BETTER than having yet another pair of shoes in the closet or another trinket on the shelf.  If you need personalized Debt Diet coaching, you can find it on my website JeanChatzky.com.  And, of course, if it’s your credit score that needs work, I hope you’ll activate the Score Builder app included in your SmartCredit membership.

Jean Chatzky – financial expert and partner with SmartCredit.com

Jean Chatzky has partnered with SmartCredit.com to bring you her Score Builder App, a personalized program for 120 days to a better credit score.  Jean also has a powerful Debt Diet program that helps people get out of debt.

Jean is America’s favorite money coach, an award-winning magazine and newspaper columnist, and the best-selling author of seven books, including Money 911: Your Most Pressing Money Questions Answered, Your Money Emergencies Solved, Pay it Down! Debt-Free on $10 a Day, and The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in Even the Toughest Times.  You can visit her web site at www.jeanchatzky.com

The government has broad access to your credit report, but rarely does.

Local, state and federal governments have broad rights to access your credit report and in some cases, put things on it.  However, you might be surprised how few times the government actually looks at your credit report.  They mainly use it to aid in verifying your identity when you apply for a government service or job, which is entirely in your control.  It is also used by the courts to post judgments, including small claims cases, but these are infrequent as well.

The Internal Revenue Service can access your credit report in asset searches or to report notices of tax liens.  Contrary to popular belief this is also infrequent and only when they conduct an investigation.

Law enforcement has instant access to your credit report to aid in their investigations.  The U.S. PATRIOT Act, as modified in 2003, under section 126 expands the Department of Home Land Security, Federal Bureau of Investigations and other law enforcement agencies ability to obtain your credit report by simply certifying they will use it “in connection with their duties to enforce federal law”.  Note the use of the word “federal”.  States have their own rules to access your credit report as well.  Section 126 does not require any investigation be related to terrorism or a violent criminal offense.  There is also no notice of law enforcements access to your credit reports that are permitted under 15 USC §1681b(a)(1).  This means you will not get a credit monitoring alert and your credit score will not be affected.

Other ways government agencies can use your credit report is to judge your credit and verify identity for such things as student loans and loan guarantee programs as well as ways to verify your information if you apply for governmental assistance programs, such as disaster relief, welfare or Medicaid.

State and local governments generally use your credit report for criminal investigations, warrants, court judgments, small claims, bankruptcy, collections for child support, and your employment.

How can SmartCredit.com help?

Not all judgments and liens, especially from the Internal Revenue Service, are accurate.  Smart Credit has both identity protection and credit monitoring to keep you informed.  Be proactive about your credit report; make sure it is the best it should be before you apply for a government service or job.

Smart Credit not only includes all your credit scores, but includes our exclusive Jean Chatzky Score Builder App, which is a personalized 120 day plan to better credit, for the credit-challenged or those going from good to great credit.

Use Smart Credit’s innovative credit report and click on action buttons to talk directly with your creditors to get better interest rates, or to ask your creditor anything.  No need for phone calls, writing letters or looking up account numbers.  You can fix credit report errors, get goodwill corrections, recover from identity theft, replace a lost or stolen credit card or settle a debt all directly with your creditors.  It’s fast and effective!

David B. Coulter – Founder and C.E.O. of SmartCredit.com

Many people use credit monitoring to alert them when someone has looked at their credit report.  Others use an identity theft protection service to alert them of a new application for credit in their name.  Some use both.  A key part of controlling and protecting your credit score is to know who is looking at your credit report and why.

Here are the three main ways others can look at your credit report:

1.  Those you give your permissions to.

If you give your permission to a third party to access your credit report they still need a permissible reason, such as, when you are applying for a credit card, auto loan, mortgage or a job.

This is called a hard credit report inquiry and this will lower your credit score, except in the case of your job application.

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Most understand their credit report is used to calculate their credit score which in turn is used to grant new credits or loans.  However, many people struggle to accept the importance of their identity information contained in their credit report.

Even more people disregard the importance of having the identity portion of their credit report current.  After all, some say, “my credit score is calculated only by my credit history”, or, “when I need credit, I can simply show my driver’s license to prove that I have moved”.  This is partially true if you are applying for credit in person and then at the discretion of that lender.  However, it’s not that simple if you are applying for an auto loan or credit card on-line.  Why?  Because Identity Theft is a big deal and most of it is committed on-line.  Creditors may be wary enough to hold or decline credit if there is a mismatch of identity information on your application versus your credit report.
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