Study: your credit tier can swing a car-insurance rate 2.4× — and some insurers refuse to use it
A driver's credit-based insurance score is one of the most powerful — and most contested — levers in auto pricing. FastAutoQuote read one insurer's filed factors directly and found the credit tier alone moves the rate by roughly 2.4 times from the best band to the reference band. Meanwhile, a handful of insurers refuse to use credit at all.
The finding
In Clearcover Insurance Company's Arizona filing (SERFF CLEA-134142856), the credit-based insurance-score factor is an explicit multiplier that ranges dramatically by tier:
- Reference tier (Level 1): 1.0000 — the baseline.
- No-Hit (no credit record found): 0.7514.
- Neutral tier: 0.6353.
- Top-discount tier (Level 50): 0.4163 — the best band.
From the reference band to the best band, the filed factor falls from 1.0000 to 0.4163 — so the reference-credit driver pays about 2.4× what the best-credit driver pays on the credit-driven portion of the rate, holding everything else equal. Few other single factors move a price that much.
The counterpoint: insurers that refuse to use credit
Not every carrier uses credit. CURE — Citizens United Reciprocal Exchange — has built its brand on not rating drivers by credit score, education, or occupation, arguing those penalize who you are rather than how you drive. Its filed Michigan manual (SERFF CURE-134790932) rewards driving experience, tenure, and the coverage you choose instead. And three states — California, Hawaii, and Massachusetts — prohibit credit-based insurance scoring in auto rating entirely. For a driver with a clean record but thin or bruised credit, that difference is real money.
Expert commentary
“Credit-based insurance scores are legal in most states and, insurers argue, statistically predictive — but they are the factor consumers find hardest to accept, because a rough patch in your credit history can raise your car-insurance rate even with a spotless driving record. The takeaway for a driver with weak or thin credit is specific: shop the carriers that weigh credit least, or the ones that do not use it at all.”
Methodology
The Clearcover figures were transcribed by hand from its Arizona private-passenger auto rate pages on file with the state through SERFF, and verified against the source. This is one insurer's filed factor in one state; other carriers file their credit factors differently, and three states ban the practice outright. The state bans and CURE's no-credit position are matters of public record. The Federal Trade Commission has documented how heavily credit-based scores can move premiums. Full method: our methodology; see also our credit-and-car-insurance explainer and how CURE rates.
Cite this study
Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite this analysis with attribution. We can point you to the exact public filing behind any figure. Suggested citation:
FastAutoQuote, “Your credit tier can swing a car-insurance rate 2.4×” (2026), analysis of Clearcover's filed Arizona rate manual and CURE's no-credit filing.
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