It’s a good idea to monitor your financial health. We’re all going to carry a little debt with us. Still, if we let it get out of control, it could deal a blow to our financial trustworthiness. That could lead to a low credit rating, and bad credit could equal higher insurance costs. As an insurance customer, how can you improve your financial outlook? Why is this important to your overall insurance reliability?
Insurance customers, particularly renters and homeowners, want affordable rates. In the end, your insurance coverage will benefit from responsible credit.
Credit’s Significance
You often hear that you need to have good credit. Still, credit to many (well, most of us) is a somewhat abstract concept. How can you think about this in terms of your financial security?
Credit, on a basic level, is a measurement of your reliability as a buyer in today’s economy.
When you make a purchase or investment, the seller becomes a creditor to you. In other words, they expect you to pay them for the service or item they provide. If you pay the entire cost at one time, you’ll owe nothing else to the seller. You have settled the debt.
If you must make payments on a debt, credit reliability often comes into play. On many purchases, particularly large ones, you might want to pay off costs over time. The seller or creditor still expects full repayment. If you fail to repay, your credit reliability will drop. Those with poor credit often signify less of an ability to pay what they owe. So, sellers will have a lower likelihood of expecting you to uphold your end of a deal.
Credit in Everyday Life
How does credit work within your day-to-day spending? Let’s look at a simple example—the credit card.
When a credit card company extends a line of credit, they usually set a credit limit. That’s the most of the credit company’s funds you can spend. The credit card company will expect you to repay them for spending they funds they provide. That’s your credit card bill.
Many people pay off their bills at one time. However, others might have to pay this bill in installments. There’s nothing wrong with paying in installments. Still, if you continue to spend until you come close to your limits, that might signal you rely too much on credit to make ends meet. By default, that might also show that you will have problems paying off the credit card bill. That’s the credit company’s money that you can’t repay.
As a result, your credit rating may drop. That drop might make other creditors unwilling to extend credit to you. They consider you too much of a financial risk.
To track your credit reliability, most creditors look at your credit score. This is a three-digit number that averages your ability to repay those to whom you owe money. Many companies compile credit scores, and these numbers range from around 300 to 850. Most people think of scores over 650 as satisfactory or excellent.
Credit’s Impact of Your Insurance Costs
Credit indicates a financial risk. Because insurance relies on risk, your credit score may impact your insurance costs. Generally, those with poor credit pay more for their policies. There are a few reasons for this.
Poor credit indicates that you don’t have a lot of financial reserves. Therefore, you might not have the money to handle asset damage yourself. For example, if a flood damages the clothes in your apartment, you might not be able to replace them yourself. You might have to file a claim on your renters insurance to cover this cost. If you file a lot of claims, that’s a cost loss to your insurer. They may have to up your premium costs to offset this risk.
Not only that, those with bad credit might neglect asset payment. For example, if you have poor credit, you might not be able to pay your monthly rent on your apartment. You might even struggle to pay your insurance premiums. In each of these cases, an insurer might have grounds to increase your premiums. That is because you have a degree of unreliability as a resident in a property.
Improving Your Credit
Your credit can impact you in more ways than insurance costs. It might impact your ability take out loans or buy a home someday. So, you should start today to improve and maintain your credit.
- Pay your bills on time every month. Even if you only make a minimum payment, make sure it arrives on-time.
- Try to pay all bills in full. If you face large payments, you might find it more responsible to pay in installments.
- Update your income with your creditors. This will help better determine your overall credit.
- Discuss with your financial manager ways to cut spending and interest.
With a little care, you can cut the impact that debt and bad credit have on your life. It will take work, but it doesn’t have to prove stressful.