Many companies featured on Money advertise with us. Opinions are our own, but compensation and in-depth research may determine where and how companies appear. Learn more about how we make money.
Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and many other outlets.
Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money.
It doesn’t always matter that you’re a safe driver — having a bad credit score can significantly increase how much you pay for car insurance.
The nonprofit group Consumer Federation of America (CFA) recently analyzed how auto insurance companies use drivers’ credit scores when determining their annual premiums. Except for in the few states that ban car insurers from using credit data, the CFA found that insurers tend to charge safe drivers with fair or bad credit scores significantly more than those with good credit scores.
“Across the country, consumers with poor credit annually pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars more for the basic auto insurance coverage mandated by state laws,” the researchers wrote.