How to Get Cheap Homeowners Insurance With Bad Credit

Your credit can be a great indicator of how likely you are to file a home insurance claim. That’s why home insurance companies often consider your credit history when setting your home insurance rates.

If you live in California, Maryland, or Massachusetts, your credit won’t be important, as these states ban the use of credit information as a home insurance rating factor.^[?] If you’re in any other state and have a less-than-perfect credit history, you can still find affordable home insurance coverage by comparison shopping.

Here’s what you need to know to begin the search in your area.

Cheapest homeowners insurance companies for bad credit

While it’s possible to secure a homeowners insurance policy with bad credit, you’ll likely have to pay more for it. But if you take the time to shop around and compare your options, you may be able to find an affordable coverage option for your unique situation.

To help you with your search, here’s a list of some of the cheapest home insurance companies for people with bad credit.

Insurance Company	IQ Score The Insurify Quality (IQ) Score uses more than 15 criteria to objectively rate insurance companies on a one-to-ten scale. The Insurify editorial team researches insurer data to determine the final scores.	Average Annual Premium	Best For
Allstate	4.1	$1,999	Best overall
Westfield	N/A	$1,080	Lowest rates
American Family	4.3	$1,657	High-risk homes
AIG	N/A	$1,591	High-value homes

• How Insurify rates insurance companies

  Our editorial team spent more than 350 hours developing the Insurify Quality (IQ) Score and scoring insurance companies. The IQ Score objectively analyzes and calculates a score for insurers using more than 15 crucial criteria. The team weighted criteria by importance to the consumer — factors such as customer reviews and affordability influence the score more than availability and third-party ratings.

  We rate each company on a 1 to 10 scale based on five categories: financial ratings, customer satisfaction, affordability, customer support and transparency, and availability. Insurify updates ratings once a year or as more recent information becomes available.

  • Third-party financial ratings: Insurify uses data from AM Best, S&P, Moody’s, and more to compare insurance companies’ credit and ability to pay out future claims.
  • Customer satisfaction: To calculate this score, Insurify analyzed more than 55,000 customer reviews across 155 car insurance companies. We also consider third-party ratings from J.D. Power, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and Trustpilot.
  • Affordability: Our data scientists analyzed more than 90 million real-time auto insurance rates from our partners across the U.S., as well as available discounts, to calculate an affordability score.
  • Customer support and transparency: This measures coverage options, ease of claims filing, and the insurer's transparency surrounding discounts, coverages, and claims process.
  • Availability and reach: Insurify scores availability and reach by identifying the number of states in which insurers offer coverage and company size by market share.

Best overall home insurer for bad credit: Allstate

Best insurer for low rates with bad credit: Westfield

Best insurer for high-risk homes: American Family

Best insurer for high-value homes: AIG

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How bad credit affects homeowners insurance rates

Credit plays a major role in how home insurance companies determine premiums. If you have bad credit, your insurer may perceive you as a high-risk customer. As a result, you might face more expensive rates than someone with a good-to-excellent credit history who may be less likely to file a claim.

Average homeowners insurance rates by credit tier

Here’s a look at how different credit scores can affect home insurance rates.

Dwelling Coverage Limit	Excellent Credit	Good Credit	Poor Credit
$250,000	$1,955	$2,080	$2,246
$300,000	$2,234	$2,377	$2,567
$500,000	$3,387	$3,603	$3,891

What to know about credit-based insurance scores

Credit-based insurance scores aim to predict the likelihood that you’ll file a home insurance claim. A poor score can position you as a risky consumer.

Insurers consider a number of factors when creating your credit-based insurance score, including your payment history, the age of your credit accounts, the types of credit you have, your credit card balances and credit limits, and any accounts in collections.

If your credit-based insurance score includes a history of late payments, high credit usage, collections on accounts, and several recent credit applications, you can expect higher homeowners insurance rates than a low-risk person with a higher credit score.^[?]

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How to get cheap home insurance with bad credit

If you have bad credit, these tips may help you land more affordable home insurance coverage.

• Shop around. Take the time to explore different companies to find the one that best matches your particular budget and preferences. You can use an online comparison platform to review several different insurance offerings quickly.

• Look into discounts. Many home insurance companies offer discounts to help policyholders save money on their insurance. Find out if you qualify for any discounts, such as a new home discount, bundling discount, or loyalty discount. You may even qualify for a discount you didn’t know existed.

• Improve your home. Adding safety features can often lower your home insurance rates. This is particularly true if you live in an older home that costs more to insure. Ask your insurer if there are any applicable discounts for the installation of new safety features.

• Review your coverage. Make sure you only invest in the home insurance coverage you need. If you find that you have an add-on you don’t need, for example, drop it.

• Boost your credit score. Pay your bills on time, don’t rack up too much debt, and only apply for new credit when you absolutely need to. All of this will improve your credit history and your credit-based insurance score.

Can you get homeowners insurance without a credit check?

It’s possible to get home insurance without a credit check. But this isn’t guaranteed if you live in a state other than California, Maryland, or Massachusetts. Most home insurers outside these states will consider your credit history, so you should work to improve it and be wary of any insurer who claims to not check your history.^[?]

Bad credit homeowners insurance FAQs