FICO Scores Used By Hospitals and Insurance Companies
by John Alesi, Mission Viejo REALTOR®
Mission Viejo CA Real Estate
January 8, 2008
As part of our weekly sales meeting, our local loan broker has a few minutes to update the agents with the latest loan programs and home loan interest rates (you know…the ones that seem to change at a moments notice). In addition to his usual spiel, today he casually mentioned that FICO scores are now being used by life and auto insurance companies and more recently by hospitals!
My immediate reaction was surprise as to why my auto insurance company would even consider my FICO score when establishing a premium, but after a brief internet search I found a few articles that confirmed that this is really happening. Thismatter.com, a repository for articles about earning, saving and investing has an article telling how insurance companies have performed actuarial studies that correlate lower credit to higher insurance risks and consequently higher premiums. A similar article from the Health Populi blog discusses how hospitals use FICO scores to manage their financial risks with patients.
I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with these policies, but I think we all should know the far reaching ramifications of our credit history. Naturally, it is in our customer's best interest to establish excellent credit, but I think everyone is impacted by the quality of their FICO score as you will see from these articles.
So as not to end on a negative note, you can read (and recommend to your friends and customers) the following articles from About.com regarding increasing your FICO score: Nine Ways To Improve Your FICO Score and Four Reasons Why You Want To and How To Improve Your Credit Score.
Just remember, when it comes to credit scores, BIGGER IS BETTER!
John Alesi, Mission Viejo REALTOR®
949-510-2154
John@YourOCHome.com
www.YourOCHome.com
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