Drivers with poor credit scores pay nearly twice as much for auto insurance as their counterparts with excellent credit scores, CBS Money Watch reported.
Those with poor credit pay 91 percent more on average, according to InsuranceQuotes.com. Drivers with average credit pay 24 percent more.
While dozens of factors such as age, driving record and gender also affect insurance, drivers should take a hard look at their credit scores, experts say.
"Considering all of the factors that go into car insurance rates, credit is actually one of the easiest to control," said Laura Adams, senior insurance analyst at InsuranceQuotes.com.
A bad credit score packs a punch in most states. Hawaii, California and Massachusetts are notable exceptions that ban insurers from considering credit scores while setting auto insurance premiums.
InsuranceQuotes.com commissioned Quadrant Information Systems to examine the effect of credit scores on average rates using data from six large carriers in all 50 states, CBS Money Watch reported.
When Hawaii, California and Massachusetts are taken out of the equation, the picture gets even worse for drivers with poor credit scores.
Since these three states don't use credit as a factor, they actually pull down the average rate hike a driver suffers by having bad credit. When those states are excluded, the average cost of a bad credit score is 116 percent, according to a spokesman for InsuranceQuotes.com.
While insurance companies aren't clear on why bad credit and high insurance premiums are so closely related, they do know that bad credit statistically leads to a higher incidence of claims, which leads to higher rates.
According to the CBS Money Watch breakdown, credit should be fairly easy to control. Drivers can have good credit scores by paying bills on time, borrowing a small percentage of their available credit and checking their credit reports annually.
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