Ohio Law on Credit Based Insurance Scores

Uses of Credit History

Ohio law sets restrictions on how insurers may use credit information to underwrite policies. When insurers check credit history, they are forbidden from considering certain information, including any inquiries into the report that were not initiated by the customer or are related to insurance, any medical collection accounts or any history flagged as being disputed or under investigation. Additionally, insurers must notify customers if they make an adverse decision about an insurance policy using credit information and provide the name of the reporting agency that supplied it.

Adverse Decisions

An adverse decision is one that negatively affects your ability to secure an insurance policy or the price you must pay. Adverse decisions, under Ohio law, include changing the terms or amount of your insurance coverage, denying or canceling your coverage or charging more for your policy than you would be charged if your credit history wasn't a factor. Your credit history cannot be the sole factor in determining your insurability or the premiums you must pay.

Notification

Whenever an Ohio insurer will use your credit information to determine whether to issue you coverage or how much to charge, it must notify you ahead of time that this will occur. This includes initial applications as well as policy renewals. If you want your insurer to recheck your credit history each year to possibly earn better rates as your credit improves, you must state this as your desire, and the insurer must comply.

Errors

Occasionally, credit reports contain false information. If you discover a mistake in your history, either from an adverse decision or through investigation of your own, you can take action to dispute the information listed and have it corrected. If you successfully correct the information, your insurer must reevaluate its decision about insuring you, using the corrected information. Until the information is corrected, however, the insurer will consider the error while underwriting, and you may face the consequences of an adverse decision.