# Credit searches after looking for insurance quote??



## sladey (Jul 28, 2012)

Hi

I recently used go compare and confused.com to have a look at what prices in looking at for my next premium. Then yesterday I got a text from experian to say there's been a change on my file. When I looked, my credit file had been searched about 6 times by various insurers!! I didn't even select monthly payments because I always pay in full each year. 

Is this normal? 

Isn't too many searches bad?


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Yes some of the insurers will do credit checks and yes too many searches can low your credit score (doesn't lower it too much though).


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## sladey (Jul 28, 2012)

Yeah but I can understand them doing a search if I was actually requesting to buy through them monthly etc but I was just getting quotes. Surely they should only search my file if I pick them to use. There's no need to search as I put in the search that I would pay in full.


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

sladey said:


> Yeah but I can understand them doing a search if I was actually requesting to buy through them monthly etc but I was just getting quotes. Surely they should only search my file if I pick them to use. There's no need to search as I put in the search that I would pay in full.


It's not just about if you can pay for the insurance or not, one of the things they use it for is they can use credit scores to assess the likelihood of you claiming.


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## sladey (Jul 28, 2012)

Ah ok, just not so sure that many people are aware that these comparison sites are causing them to have so many searches on their credit history


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## mattsbmw (Jul 20, 2008)

Yes it is rather crafty and usually buried somewhere deep in the T&C's


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## Grawschbags (Apr 15, 2010)

It's not a credit check as such, just them checking you are who you say you are. It's a footprint it leaves on your file for 6 months. Won't affect your eligibility for credit in any way.


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## cleancar (Sep 21, 2006)

I never put my email address or full address in those compare search engines I use a number down the road but has same postcode

I only put my proper details in when I'm ready to pay , it also stops you getting swamped with phonecalls


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## NickF (Sep 25, 2009)

More and more insurance companies are using information from credit reference agencies as part of their quotation process. This information is used for a couple of things. Firstly, as suggested above, it can be used to predict the risk of you making a claim. At the moment though, most companies use this data just to decide whether or not to offer you instalments on you policy.

Most insurers are not able to do a full credit search on you - they require a banking licence in order to be able to do that. They can only pull back data which is publicly available, such as that which is held on the electoral role. They can't see details of any of your accounts held with other lenders.

The type of search performed at the point of quote is known as a "quotation search" or sometimes "unrecorded enquiry". These searches are only visible to you when you view your credit report. They are not passed back to any other companies, so they do not affect your credit score at all.


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## nabz1 (Aug 27, 2012)

cleancar said:


> I never put my email address or full address in those compare search engines I use a number down the road but has same postcode
> 
> I only put my proper details in when I'm ready to pay , it also stops you getting swamped with phonecalls


This, +65465.


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