Experian Credit Report Freeze
2010
Frozen Credit Report/Insurance Premiums?
Does having a frozen credit report affect my insurance premium?
Progressive, my insurer, pulls Experian. I have frozen EX, since they no longer allow me to access my own FICO score. I understand that credit card companies I have an open trade-line with are able to “soft pull”, & access my reports, regardless of a freeze.
Does the same apply for Insurance companies I have a current relationship with?
I have FICO scores between 759-780, & I would hate to have my premium INCREASE, simply because Progressive could not access my report. I’m sure they would then lump me into the “Bad/No Credit” category.
Should I just lift the freeze before I renew my policy, or are they able to soft pull, even though they are not technically a “creditor” on my report?
Thanks for the help!
Aly
They should still be able to pull your credit report if they need to. If they have a problem it would be on Experian’s end.
Keep in contact with the insurance company. If they have any problems you can thaw the report and ask them to try again or you can ask them to pull a CRA that isn’t frozen.
The ability to freeze reports hasn’t been around all that long and there are still some glitches in that part.
I doubt the insurance company would penalize you for any problems if there are any. I’m sure they’ve seen any and all of the glitches at one point or another.
eta
Obviously Sgt does not know much about freezing, failed to fully read the EX site about freezing and failed to fully read your question.
From EX’s site about freezing and existing account relationships:
A security freeze generally does not apply to circumstances in which you have an existing account relationship and a copy of your report is requested by your existing creditor or its agents or affiliates for certain types of account review, collection, fraud control or similar activities.
I have had a couple of my credit reports frozen for quite some time. Over that period only one creditor has had problems accessing soft pulls on one of my reports. Instead of it creating adverse action with that creditor, the creditor switched to soft pulling another report. My insurance company, which is different from yours, has had no problems what so ever.
All of the other creditors/companies I do business with are merrily softing my frozen reports to their hearts content.
Like I mentioned above, you might keep in contact with your insurance company or you might thaw your report, whichever makes you feel more comfortable.
In a past question of yours, you said that your state is VA.
It appears that you can thaw your report any time you wish to at no charge.
Freezing laws are governed by state, not federal.
You can find your states freezing laws through the Experian website but I’d thought I’d go ahead and add a few points from the VA freezing laws.
Virginia Security Freeze Process
Consumers may place a “security freeze” on their credit reports, which will prohibit us from releasing any information in their credit reports without their express authorization, except to those with whom the consumer has an existing account or a collection agency acting on behalf of the existing account, for purposes of reviewing (account maintenance, monitoring, credit line increases and account upgrades and enhancements) or collecting the account.
If you place a security freeze on your credit report, your information also may be used for the purposes of prescreening as provided for by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, even if a security freeze is on the report.
To temporarily remove a security freeze for a period of time in order to apply for credit or for any transaction that requires that another party access your personal credit report, log on to www.experian.com/freeze or call 1 888 EXPERIAN (1 888 397 3742), then enter your identification information and PIN.
There is no fee for temporarily removing a security freeze. To temporarily remove a security freeze for a specific party, provide your PIN to the party you wish to grant access to your report.
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Reading Q&A’s in an OPEN forum is not snooping and OFTEN helps the OP’s. Try it.
Picking a single inaccurate comment out of a completely inaccurate post will not help save face, nor help the OP.
Sindicato Experian en el 1° de Mayo 2009 (p.10) / Experian Labor Union on May 1° 2009(p.10)
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