Auto & Driving
Insurance Cost by Credit Score Calculator
Estimates based on Insurify, Insurance.com, and Experian 2025-2026 data.
See how much your credit tier is likely adding to (or saving on) your auto or home insurance premium, and whether your state even allows insurers to use it.
Data sourced from Insurify, Insurance.com, Experian
Estimated annual premium at your credit tier
$0
How this is calculated
Source: Insurify (auto by credit tier), Insurance.com (home by credit tier), Experian (state legal status) · Last updated 2026-08-21 · See how we calculate this →
How credit affects your premium, and where it legally cannot
In most states, insurers use a credit-based insurance score as one of the biggest legal rating factors after your location, often outweighing factors people assume matter more. It is a distinct score from your regular lending credit score, calculated from similar credit report data but weighted specifically toward predicting insurance claims risk, not loan default risk.
Insurers argue, and state regulators in most states have accepted, that it is statistically predictive: people who manage credit responsibly file fewer claims on average.
The size of the effect varies a lot depending on which study you look at and which insurance line you are pricing. For auto insurance, Insurify's 2026 analysis found drivers with excellent credit paying about $1,853 a year on average, compared to about $2,602 for drivers with poor credit, a meaningful gap though smaller than some other studies report; estimates for this specific gap range widely across aggregators depending on methodology.
For home insurance, the gap is dramatically larger: Insurance.com's 2025 data (Quadrant Information Services, 82 insurers, all 50 states) puts an excellent-credit policyholder at about $2,274 a year against roughly $8,315 for someone with poor credit, more than triple.
Not every state allows this at all. California and Massachusetts ban the practice outright for both auto and home insurance, insurers there cannot use your credit history to set your rate no matter what it looks like.
Hawaii bans it specifically for auto insurance, though home insurers there can still use it. Michigan bars insurers from using credit to determine auto insurance rates entirely, while its home insurance rules are narrower: Michigan insurers cannot deny, cancel, or refuse to renew a home policy based on credit, but they can still factor it into what you pay.
This calculator reflects each of those distinctions rather than applying one blanket rule to every state.
If your state does allow it and your tier is costing you, the fix is the same as improving any credit score: pay bills on time, keep credit card balances low relative to your limits, and avoid opening several new accounts in a short window.
Credit-based insurance scores are recalculated periodically, so improving your underlying credit habits should show up in your insurance pricing over time, not just your loan applications.
Frequently asked questions
Is a credit-based insurance score the same as my regular credit score?
No. A credit-based insurance score is a separate score, calculated from your credit report using a different formula than a lending credit score, that insurers use to help predict how likely you are to file a claim. It is not shown on your regular credit report or credit card statements.
Which states ban this practice?
California and Massachusetts ban credit-based insurance scoring outright for both auto and home insurance. Hawaii bans it for auto insurance only, home insurers there can still use it.
Michigan bars insurers from using it to set auto insurance rates at all, though its home insurance rules are more limited (insurers there cannot deny, cancel, or refuse to renew based on credit, but can still factor it into home insurance rates).
Why is the gap so much bigger for home insurance than auto insurance?
The two lines are priced differently and the sourced data reflects that: our home insurance figures show roughly a 3.7x difference between poor and excellent credit tiers, while auto insurance figures show a smaller, though still meaningful, gap.
Different studies report different magnitudes for both lines, so treat these as directional, not exact quotes.
Can I improve my credit-based insurance score?
Yes, the same habits that improve a regular credit score, paying bills on time, keeping credit card balances low, and not opening too many new accounts at once, also tend to improve a credit-based insurance score over time, since both draw on similar credit report data.