Check your personal credit file

This will come as quite a surprise to many. It has to do with Desjardin Insurance, formerly Certas Insurance.

Anyone, I repeat, anyone who has requested an online quote from this company, be advised that they have done a credit investigation on YOU.

A quick explanation:
In September of 2008, I requested a copy of my credit file, which we should all do once a year, and noticed an inquiry from March of 2008 from Certa Web. Meant nothing to me so I did a little research and found that Certa was an insurance company I had requested an online quote from back in March as my Auto insurance was expiring the following month. I would estimate that I requested around 20 different quotes from different companies using online instant quote methods before finally deciding on a company to handle my insurance needs (not Certa).

Well I found this peculiar as in my 38 years of driving, I had never had an insurance company do a credit check and I did not remember authorizing this company to do this check even though they advise it is only a soft hit inquiry. Big deal, it was still an inquiry. Had I known I would have bypassed this company to avoid adding an inquiry to my credit file.

Now that I was angry that they had done this credit check, I call the company, now Desjardin Insurance and ask why there was a credit check on my file from them. I was told it was no big deal as it was only a soft hit (again) and that when I used their web service to obtain a quote that I was advised that they would do a credit check. I went to their current site at http://www.certas.ca to find this supposed authorization for them to do a check. The kind lady then took me on a tour of the site to find where they had spelled out this clear and precise info that I had authorized them to do the credit check.

Move all the way to the bottom of the second page after you select English or French. You will see at the bottom in very small print "Privacy". Click on this link and you will come to another page where you will select one of two links in very small print.. Certas Direct Privacy Code and
Certas Home & Auto Privacy Code.

Now you select the first one Certas Direct Privacy Code and you have to then scroll all the way down until you see the following paragraph:

Limiting Collection
The amount and the type of information We collect shall be limited to that which is necessary to fulfill the identified Purposes. We will obtain Personal Information primarily from our customers. We may also collect Personal Information from other external sources including other property and casualty insurers, public and private sector underwriting or claims information databases, and credit reporting agencies.

Does that really seem like they wanted you to know they would do a credit check on you, I don't think so. It is very obscure and hidden and I am sure that 99.9% of the people that get a quick quote from that company do just that. Get a quick quote.

I believe that this company even though they disclose that they will do a credit check are stretching the limitations of the consumer laws in Ontario to the edge. I was advised however that the legal department at Desjardin has thoroughly researched and advised that they are totally within the law.

I still intend to file a complaint against them with Consumer and Commercial relations or whatever Ontario agency deals with scrupulous insurance companies and how they disclose information to prospective customers.

I suggest that if you obtained a quote from Certas or from Desjardin to obtain a copy of your credit report from Equifax (https://www.econsumer.equifax.ca/ca/main?link=OPIEM&lang=en) and see if you have a "soft" inquiry from them. Is so contact me and if there is enough of us, maybe we can take some action against them to get this shady practice stopped.