How Much Does Bad Credit Raise Car Insurance? Real Numbers by Insurer

What changed in this update: the per-insurer percentages were recalculated from Insurify's rate table as of August 31, 2026; the NerdWallet State Farm figure was corrected against its live review page; and every source cited here was re-opened and re-verified. How we checked this: on September 9, 2026 we opened and read all 21 pages cited in this article, across nine publishers, and recorded for each one the figure it publishes, the credit-tier baseline it compares against, and the last-updated date shown on the page.

Where a percentage is attributed to a publisher, it is that publisher's own published number; where we calculated one ourselves from a publisher's rate table, we say so and give the date of that table, because those tables refresh continuously. The full source list is at the end of this article.

Yes, poor credit directly raises your car insurance bill. On average, drivers with poor credit pay about $66 more per month for full coverage — roughly $231 versus $164 for drivers with excellent credit — based on 250 million real quotes from more than 50 insurers across all 50 states.

Published estimates of the bad-credit penalty run anywhere from 38% (Compare.com) to 273% (The Zebra) — we compared 12 figures from nine publishers below. The bigger surprise is that which insurer you pick matters more than how bad your credit is.

Two drivers with the same poor credit score can pay wildly different penalties depending on the company, because the real spread is between insurers , not between credit tiers. Take two drivers with the same poor credit score.

At State Farm, a driver who would pay about $1,984 a year with good credit can be rated at roughly $8,654 with poor credit — more than four times as much, according to Insurance.com's analysis of State Farm's filed rates . At USAA, the same driver's bill goes up about 41% — roughly $67 more a month on a typical $164 premium.

Because rates vary so widely, it can be hard to understand exactly how poor credit will affect your insurance premiums. There are a few ways to break down the information — penalties by insurer, state laws related to credit use in insurance, and which scores insurers use.

What Bad Credit Actually Costs, by Insurer

Credit penalties vary by insurer and your actual credit score. Here are some of the most popular insurers and their poor-credit—meaning credit scores below 580 —penalty rates.

While some of these percentages can double your insurance premiums, you can keep them manageable. When it comes to avoiding high credit penalties, switching carriers can be a bigger short-term lever than fixing your credit.

By switching to a carrier with a lower penalty, you can save yourself money that you can use in the pursuit of fixing your credit, such as paying down debt.

The Carriers That Punish Bad Credit Hardest — and the Ones That Barely Notice

Two names sit at the top across the nine publishers we checked. On quote-based data, Auto-Owners carries the steepest penalty — 150%, on our own calculation from Insurify's rate table as of August 31, 2026.

On filed-rate data, State Farm carries the steepest, at 336% in Insurance.com's rate-filing analysis; ValuePenguin, working from its own filed-rate data, also puts State Farm at the top, at about $609 a month more for a poor-credit driver. For low-penalty insurers, USAA, Nationwide , Travelers and GEICO sit in the 26–60% range on every source we checked.

Country Financial (+26%) and Travelers (+31%) are the mildest, on our calculation from Insurify's August 31, 2026 rate table. Erie and Auto-Owners repeatedly land in the 121–173% range.

Continuing to source your insurance through them can cost you nearly double in monthly payments. The credit surcharge isn’t the whole picture.

While State Farm has the worst credit surcharge, it still ranks among the cheapest carriers for poor-credit drivers in absolute terms because its base rate is so low. The carrier with the biggest percentage penalty is not necessarily the wrong choice.

For some, paying a high surcharge on a low rate may be favorable, especially if you’re already doing work to improve your credit.

Why Published Estimates Range From 38% to 273%

Insurers have varying rates, often published in separate places. Even third-party reports meant to present the data more accessibly can range widely.

If you Google this question, you will get a different answer depending on which site you land on. The table below is not a list of insurer prices — it is a list of answers.

We asked nine well-known comparison sites the same question and recorded the number each one publishes. Twelve figures, ordered lowest to highest, with the reason they disagree marked on each one.

The takeaway: the two lowest numbers come from real quotes drivers actually received. Almost everything above 90% comes from insurers' filed rate manuals — the prices on paper, including from companies that would never actually sell a policy to a poor-credit driver.

That is why the honest answer to “how much more will I pay?” is closer to 40% than 273%. We checked 21 live pages across these nine publishers in August 2026; none of them acknowledge that a competing figure exists on their own site, which is part of what makes this so confusing to research.

Real Quotes vs. Filed Rate Manuals

Much of the spread comes down to one distinction: real quotes versus filed rate manuals. The two lowest figures in our table, Compare.com’s 38% and Insurify’s 40%, come from real quotes actually served to shoppers.

Most of the high figures in the table come from Quadrant Information Services rate filings, which price one hypothetical driver against every filed rate in every ZIP code. Filed rates don’t account for carriers that would never quote or bind that risk.

When a carrier declines to quote a poor-credit driver at all, its filed surcharge never reaches a real shopper and so never enters a quote-based median — but the rate-filing data still counts it in full. That is why State Farm's 336% filed surcharge shows up in filing-based comparisons and barely moves quote-based ones.

There is no single right percentage or absolute number, as the data vary widely. Quote-based figures describe what shoppers actually pay while filing-based figures describe what the rate manuals say.

The numbers are different, and both can be true.

Where the Numbers Contradict Themselves

As mentioned, when searching for this information independently, you can get different numbers across sessions, even on the same day. Sources can often contradict their own numbers — The Zebra publishes 93%, 109%, and 273% on three separate live pages.

It says North Carolina has the smallest gap at 74% on one page and 59% on another; Minnesota is 285% on one and 140% on another. Its flagship 2026 State of Insurance report, updated August 2026 with 32 million rates, adds a fourth number rather than reconciling the other three: it reports that drivers scoring below 580 pay a median of $1,805 more a year than drivers with excellent credit, and never addresses the 93%, 109% and 273% figures still live on its own site.

MoneyGeek has the same problem — it published GEICO poor-credit rates at $212/mo and State Farm at $590/mo, while its own table on the same site says $96 and $263. Insurance.com publishes State Farm at +336% twice — once as $1,984 to $8,654, once as $2,874 to $12,536 — identical percentage, completely different dollar base, both currently live on their site.

Conflicting quotes aren’t the only data integrity problem. NerdWallet's page states "Updated Mar 16, 2026" while citing "NerdWallet's September 2026 analysis".

The update date precedes the data date by six months. These differences are often because independent sources have varying “poor credit rates” baselines when creating comparisons.

For credit scores:

• Compare.com, Insurify and CFA compare poor credit to excellent.

• NerdWallet, Forbes, ValuePenguin, Insurance.com and MoneyGeek compare it to good.

• The Zebra's driver page uses "very good" (740–799), a baseline no other publisher uses.

• For MoneyGeek, the choice moves the answer by about 45 percentage points — poor credit is 240% above its good-credit baseline but 285% above its excellent-credit one. Likewise, independent sources can use different coverage levels when comparing quotes. MoneyGeek publishes both full coverage quotes at 100/300/100 with a $1,000 deductible for poor credit, starting at $5,435/yr, as well as state-minimum liability with poor credit at $1,759/yr — same publisher, same data provider, 3.1× apart. Roughly half the figures circulating in 2026 are sourced from 2023–2025 data. Forbes Advisor's widely repeated "76%" comes from a page last updated June 2024 ; CFA's national study is from July 2023, and there is no newer one from CFA or Consumer Reports.

The Score They're Using Isn't the One You're Checking

The number insurers use to price you during a quote isn't the FICO score on your credit app, but a credit-based insurance score. A Fair Isaac presentation filed with the NAIC cites the difference in the two scores: "Credit-risk scores such as FICO scores are built to predict the likelihood of delinquency or non-payment of credit obligations.

Insurance scores, by contrast, are built to predict whether a consumer is likely to result in more (or less) insurance losses than the average consumer.” Insurers often use this score because non-payment is not the most costly risk to assume when offering coverage.

How the Insurance Score Differs From Your FICO Score

Your credit-risk and insurance-risk credit scores use the same factors in calculating your score, but these factors are weighted differently. Scoring Factor FICO Score 8 Weight FICO Insurance Score Weight Payment History 35% 40% Amounts Owed 30% 30% Length of Credit History 15% 15% New Credit 10% 10% Credit Mix 10% 5% The FICO 8 weights come from myFICO.

The insurance-score weights are as published by the Illinois Department of Insurance, which attributes them to the NAIC, and by the DC Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking , which attributes them to FICO. Worth knowing: FICO does not publish this breakdown anywhere on its own site, and the DC document dates to 2014 — so treat the insurance-score column as the regulators' best public account rather than a current figure from the vendor.

While the difference in weights here seems small, they are very important to insurance companies. If you’re trying to find your insurance-credit score, be sure you don’t confuse it with your Auto Score, which is an auto-lending score, not an insurance score.

None of your scores use the following personal information:

• Race.

• Religion.

• Gender.

• Marital status.

• Age.

• Address.

• Current income.

• Current occupation.

• Employment history. These factors are omitted from your score numbers, but not necessarily from your rate. Address, age, gender, and marital status are rating variables in most states.

Why You Can't Just Look Up Your Insurance Score

You generally can't get your specific insurance credit score because the number is often derived from a proprietary formula that varies from insurer to insurer. These formulas are often not published.

While you generally cannot obtain your own insurance score, you can get the justification for your score. Under FCRA 15 U.S.C. §1681m(a) , an adverse-action notice must disclose the score used and the reporting agency's details.

The NCOIL model act goes further — insurers must name up to four factors that were the primary influences, and generic phrasing like "poor credit history" is explicitly insufficient. Your insurer probably isn't using a FICO product at all — the dominant vendor is LexisNexis Attract.

LexisNexis provides a free consumer report (not a score) on their site or by calling, which can give you insight into some of the factors that contribute to your score, if not the exact number itself.

Where Credit Is Banned or Restricted

State credit bans are often misreported. Only three states ban credit outright in auto rating:

• California — California has a structural ban against insurance credit scores. Auto rates must use three mandatory factors plus only the optional factors the Commissioner adopts by regulation, and credit is not on that list. Cal. Ins. Code §1861.02(a) (Prop 103); 10 CCR §2632.5(c)–(d).

• Hawaii — A direct quote from Hawaii’s credit ban statute mentions credit use directly: "No insurer shall base any standard or rating plan, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, upon a person's … credit bureau rating." HRS §431:10C-207.

• Massachusetts — In Massachusetts, credit use is banned by both statute and regulation. M.G.L. c.175 §4E; 211 CMR 79.04(13). In addition, other states have varying levels of permissibility when it comes to credit usage.

Michigan and Washington — the Two Most Misreported States

Michigan and Washington are the states with the most misreported information due to complex legalese in what is and isn’t allowed. Michigan bans "credit score" — statutorily defined as the 300–850 number assigned by a consumer reporting agency, including FICO (MCL 500.2162) .

However, "insurance score" is separately defined in the same section as a number derived from an algorithm "based in whole or in part on credit information," and it is not on the prohibited list. This means that Michigan bans insurers from using your FICO-style credit score to set auto rates, but a credit-derived 'insurance score' is legal and widely used, so poor credit can still raise your Michigan premium.

In Washington, former Insurance Commissioner Kreidler banned credit scoring in February 2022 (WSR 21-07-103, later WAC 284-24A-090 ). However, in August of 2022, the Thurston County Superior Court invalidated this ban — the Commissioner had exceeded his statutory authority because RCW 48.18.545 expressly contemplates insurer use of credit.

Kreidler declined to appeal, which means that credit is legal to use in Washington auto rating today.

The States That Limit How Credit Can Be Used

Several different states restrict credit to new business or to discounts only — meaning credit can help you, but not hurt you once you're a customer. These states include:

• Maryland — new business only; may not increase the renewal premium on credit; surcharge or discount capped at ±40%. Md. Code Ins. §27-501.

• Oregon — at renewal, insurers may only use rating factors other than credit history or insurance score. ORS 746.661 and 746.663 .

• Utah — credit may be used in initial underwriting or to give a rate reduction, and essentially nothing else. Utah Code §31A-22-320.

• New York — may not use credit to increase a premium at renewal, and on request every 36 months the insurer must re-rate on current credit with no premium increase permitted. N.Y. Ins. Law §2802; 11 NYCRR 221.

• Connecticut — new policies only, or at renewal solely at the insured's request or where it reduces the premium. Conn. Gen. Stat. §38a-686.

• Delaware — may not pull credit at renewal unless the consumer asks. 18 Del. C. §§ 8301–8308.

• Nevada, Colorado, Vermont, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New Jersey — credit may not be the sole basis for denial or pricing, with extraordinary-life-circumstance exceptions and re-rate rights. No state has newly banned credit laws in auto rating in 2025 or 2026. Bills are pending in Pennsylvania, Iowa, New York, Louisiana, Rhode Island and South Carolina, but none have passed as of August 2026. Texas SB 1644 now requires insurers to refresh credit at least every 36 months and honor one re-rate request per year. Louisiana Act 465 requires insurers to tell consumers how to obtain the credit information used. The current direction of travel is refresh and disclosure rights, not prohibition.

Which Insurers Use Credit Scores?

Nearly all of them. The NAIC publishes FICO's estimate that about 95% of auto insurers use a credit-based insurance score in the states that allow it, and GEICO cites the same 95% figure on its own credit page.

The exceptions are small, regional, or conditional — and several widely shared “no credit check” lists are out of date. Here is what each of the most-searched carriers actually does, and the short list of insurers that genuinely don’t look.

Does GEICO Use Your Credit Score?

Yes, in every state that permits it. GEICO’s credit page confirms the check is a soft inquiry that does not affect your credit score, and lists California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York as states that “limit or ban” its use.

The part worth adding is that grouping those four states together flattens a real difference. California, Hawaii and Massachusetts ban credit outright.

New York only restricts it — insurers there can use credit at new business but cannot make it the sole reason to raise a renewal rate, and you can request a re-rate on current credit every 36 months. On price, GEICO sits mid-table: a 59% poor-credit penalty, $111 to $177 a month, in our by-insurer comparison.

Does Progressive Use Your Credit Score?

Yes. Progressive’s support pages state that it “uses credit-based insurance scores and other underwriting tools and rating variables to place customers in groups” and to estimate claims risk.

What those pages never give you is a number, and Progressive isn’t in the quote-based comparison above either. The closest published figure is NerdWallet’s rate data: $3,450 a year with poor credit against $2,075 with good credit, about 66% more.

Progressive also lists credit and Snapshot separately among its rating inputs and nowhere says that enrolling in telematics replaces the credit factor — so treat any advice that Snapshot cancels out a poor credit score as unsupported.

Does State Farm Use Your Credit Score?

Yes, and more heavily than any other major carrier — but the number depends entirely on which dataset you read, and that gap is the story. On filed rates, State Farm carries a 336% poor-credit penalty, the steepest of any major insurer, in Insurance.com’s rate-filing analysis.

On real quotes, the penalty is about 111%, on our calculation from Insurify’s August 31, 2026 rate table — and the poor-credit price itself, $171 a month, is still among the cheapest on the board, because State Farm’s good-credit base rate of $81 is so low. So the carrier with the worst-sounding surcharge is, in absolute dollars, one of the better options for a driver with poor credit.

Neither the filed-rate write-ups nor State Farm’s own page puts those two numbers next to each other. State Farm does not use credit in California, Hawaii or Massachusetts because no insurer can.

Which Car Insurance Companies Don’t Use Credit Scores?

In California, Hawaii and Massachusetts, none of them — state law prohibits it. Everywhere else the list is short.

CURE Auto Insurance (New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan) and Dillo Insurance (Texas) price without a credit check. Root publicly pledged in 2021 to stop using credit by 2025, but as of 2026 it still uses credit scores when setting rates and has removed the pledge from its website, according to ValuePenguin’s current review.

Treat any list that names Root, or that names Michigan as a no-credit state, as stale: Michigan bans the use of your credit score but permits a credit-based insurance score under MCL 500.2162, and several 2026 lists still get that wrong.

Is It Hard to Get Car Insurance With Bad Credit?

No — it is easy to get and expensive to keep. Every state has carriers that will quote a poor-credit driver, and the quote-based data above shows the typical penalty is about 41% for full coverage, not the 100%-plus figures that circulate.

What does happen is that individual carriers decline: the insurers with the steepest filed penalties are often the ones that return no quote at all to a driver under roughly 580, which is exactly why real-quote penalties run lower than rate-manual penalties. If one carrier won’t quote you, that is information about the carrier, not about whether you can be insured.

Does Getting a Car Insurance Quote Hurt Your Credit?

No. Insurers run a soft inquiry, which is visible to you on your credit report but is not seen by lenders and does not change your score.

You can shop as many carriers as you like without a credit cost.

What to Do If Bad Credit Is Raising Your Rate

If bad credit is raising your rate, the best thing you can do is shop for a carrier with lower penalties before, or while, you repair your credit. The surcharge spread between carriers runs from 27% to 336%.

There is no realistic short-term credit improvement that will move your premium as much as switching from a carrier that punishes credit heavily to one that barely does. Credit repair is worth doing and will improve your rates in the long run — it is just slower, and the surcharges can add up.

Ask Your Insurer to Re-Rate You

Under the NCOIL Model Act, insurers in states that have adopted it are required to recalculate or refresh the credit information they base your rate on every 36 months. If your score improved over two years, it may not have reached your premium yet, and insurers will not re-rate you automatically.

Some states have specific requirements around re-rating:

• New York: You can be re-rated by request every 36 months; the insurer must re-underwrite on current credit, and the re-rate "shall not result in a premium increase" ( 11 NYCRR §221.4) . The request is one-directional: it can only help.

• Rhode Island: R.I. Gen. Laws § 27-9-56 states that if the score improves, the insurer must decrease the premium.

• Texas: Texas Senate Bill 1644 states that consumers get one re-rate request per 12 months at renewal, plus a mandatory 36-month refresh.

• Colorado, Vermont, Delaware, and Nevada: These four states have annual re-rate rights upon consumer request. If your credit information was simply wrong due to a clerical or reporting error, the insurer must re-underwrite and re-rate within 30 days of notification of the error, with refunds backdated to the shorter of the last 12 months or the policy period. Washington requires retroactive reissue to the start of the current term. This is why it can be worth it to re-check in with your insurance provider, especially if you’ve been consciously working on your credit.

If a Life Event Damaged Your Credit

Life events, or “extraordinary life circumstances" carry exceptions to poor credit penalties in a variety of states. Qualifying circumstances that may cause damage to your credit include:

• A declared catastrophe, such as a natural disaster.

• Serious illness or injury.

• The death of a spouse, child, or parent.

• Divorce or loss of financial support, such as alimony or child support.

• Identity theft.

• Involuntary job loss lasting more than three months.

• Overseas military deployment. The states that recognize these qualifying events include:

• Nevada (NRS 686A.685) .

• Vermont (8 V.S.A. §4727) .

• Delaware (18 Del. C. §8305) .

• Colorado (C.R.S. §10-4-116) .

• Connecticut (§38a-686) .

• Rhode Island (230-RICR-20-05-15.6) .

• Minnesota (Minn. Stat. §72A.20 subd. 36) . The request for an extraordinary life circumstance exception is usually due within 60 days of application or renewal of your policy, and it requires independently verifiable documentation. Connecticut goes further and requires the insurer to tell you the right exists, so you may have to look through your terms documents. If poor credit is raising your insurance premiums, you don’t just have to eat those extra costs. SaveMaxAuto can help you shop for a lower-penalty insurer and understand the other steps available to you while you work on credit repair. Get a free quote or request a call from SaveMaxAuto to see how you can save on your insurance premiums.

FAQs About Bad Credit and Car Insurance