§ 2802 — Use of credit information

§ 2802. Use of credit information. An insurer doing business in this\nstate that uses credit information to underwrite or rate risks for\npersonal lines insurance, shall not:\n (a) use an insurance score that is calculated using income, gender,\naddress, zip code, ethnic group, religion, marital status, or\nnationality of the consumer as a factor;\n (b) deny a policy of personal lines insurance solely on the basis of\ncredit information, without consideration of any other applicable\nunderwriting factor independent of credit information, provided that an\noffer by an insurer to provide coverage by writing a policy through an\naffiliate insurer or a tier within the insurer shall not constitute a\ndenial of a policy;\n (c) use credit information to cancel or nonrenew a policy or increase\nan insured's premium for personal lines insurance on renewal provided\nthat nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an insurer\nfrom considering an insured's tier placement pursuant to section two\nthousand three hundred forty-nine of this chapter or placement with a\ncompany within a group of affiliated companies in conjunction with\nfactors other than credit information as part of its renewal process;\n (d) take an adverse action against a consumer solely because he or she\ndoes not have a credit card account, without consideration of any other\napplicable factor independent of credit information;\n (e) consider an absence of credit information or an inability to\ncalculate an insurance score in underwriting or rating personal\ninsurance, unless the insurer does one of the following:\n (1) treats the consumer as if the applicant or insured had neutral\ncredit information, as defined by the insurer;\n (2) excludes the use of credit information as a factor and uses only\nother underwriting criteria; or\n (3) treats the consumer as otherwise approved by the superintendent,\nif the insurer presents information that such an absence or inability\nrelates to the risk for the insurer;\n (f) take an adverse action against a consumer based on credit\ninformation, unless an insurer obtains and uses a credit report issued\nor an insurance score calculated within ninety days from the date the\npolicy is first written;\n (g) use credit information unless at least once every thirty-six\nmonths, upon the request of a consumer or the consumer's agent, the\ninsurer shall re-underwrite and re-rate the policy based upon a current\ncredit report or insurance score provided, however, that this shall not\nresult in a premium increase for the insured. An insurer need not\nrecalculate the insurance score or obtain the updated credit report of a\nconsumer more frequently than once in a thirty-six-month period.\nRegardless of the requirements of this subsection:\n (1) The insurer shall have the discretion to obtain current credit\ninformation upon any renewal, if consistent with its underwriting\nguidelines provided that such information may be used only to reduce\npremiums for the insured; and\n (2) No insurer need obtain current credit information for an insured,\ndespite the requirements of this subsection, if one of the following\napplies:\n (A) The insured is in the most favorably-priced tier of the insurer,\nwithin a group of affiliated insurers; or\n (B) Credit was not used for underwriting or rating such insured when\nthe policy was initially written. However, the insurer shall have the\ndiscretion to use credit for underwriting or rating such insured upon\nrenewal, if such use would reduce premiums for the insured;\n (h) use any of the following as a negative factor in any insurance\nscoring methodology or in reviewing credit information for the purpose\nof underwriting or rating a policy of personal lines insurance:\n (1) credit inquiries not initiated by the consumer or inquiries\nrequested by the consumer for his or her own credit information;\n (2) inquiries relating to insurance coverage, if so identified on a\nconsumer's credit report;\n (3) collection accounts with a medical industry code, if so identified\non the consumer's credit report;\n (4) multiple lender inquiries, if coded by the consumer reporting\nagency on the consumer's credit report as being from the home mortgage\nindustry and made within thirty days of one another, unless only one\ninquiry is considered; or\n (5) multiple lender inquiries, if coded by the consumer reporting\nagency on the consumer's credit report as being from the automobile\nlending industry and made within thirty days of one another, unless only\none inquiry is considered.\n