How do insurance companies figure out what to charge you?
A two-year long Consumer Reports investigation analyzed more than two billion car insurance price quotes.
What it found is that behind the rate quotes is a pricing process that judges you less on driving habits and increasingly on socioeconomic factors, such as whether you use department store or bank credit cards and your credit history.
State Farm spokeswoman Missy Dundov downplays the report.
"We do have discussions with our customers if for some reason that is effecting something, to see if maybe something happened in their life that caused that score to change. It is a factor, but it's not the only major factor."
Research indicates people with lower credit scores tend to make more claims.
Dundov also downplays another portion of the report that says there is little benefit from drivers' education and bundling a home policy from the same company.
