We recently got our annual policy summary from our home insurance provider. The insurance is paid by our mortgage company from an escrow account- standard practice in NY – so we don’t pay the yearly bill, we just get the paperwork. The thing is, I was reviewing the policy, a solid 50 pages, and came across a little insert. It informed us that we did not receive the best policy rate because our credit is not perfect.

Hmmmmm. In the past 10 years, any time I have applied for a loan or credit of any sort (and there have actually been quite a few instances what with home equity lines, car loans, business loans, etc.) I have always gotten an enthusiastic “wow, you’ve got excellent credit” back from the banker/broker/whatever. So this little Met Life bit kind of perturbed me. I began to wonder if maybe something had gone horribly wrong – like identity theft or something. Why else wouldn’t we get the excellent credit rating?

Well, it turns out we are going to do some work on the house and had to apply for a line of credit. In the process we reviewed our credit report along with the applicable scores. There are 2 flavors of FICO and something else called BASHTA or something. While the numbers vary, our scores on all 3 are well in the excellent range, and in the new version of FICO, we are near perfect. The only thing that has brought our scores down from perfection is that we’ve opened a number of lines lately. These would be a car loan in August, a retailer credit card (to get a freebie) and a new personal checking account to get away from Chase this Summer – you may remember how much I hate Chase.

Anyway, it would seem that we are once again being penalized for actually paying our bills and stimulating the economy through actual spending. Is this not incredibly ridiculous? So Met Life gets the big raspberry and I’m thumbing by nose at Snoopy. Hell, I’m flipping him the bird and I ain’t talking Woodstock. I understand that these are tough economic times, but do these mega corporations really think they improve their bottom line by jacking rates on the handful of customers that are actually paying their bills on time.

I know that I’m just one small person with one small account, but just as I am leaving Chase in the dust and switching all of my banking, lending and credit business to other, better providers, I am now looking for a new provider of home and auto insurance. Customer Service is key. Get it right or get lost. And if your providers are treating you like a second class citizen, vote with your feet, people. I have discovered that Chase is actually hurting from all of the defections, and when they jack their fees to compensate, let’s hope even more people jump ship.