Rod Brooks
Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer
PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company
325 Eastlake Avenue East
Seattle, WA 98111

Dear Rod,

I’m fairly surprised to see that PEMCO is sending me marketing solicitations. After all, I didn’t think PEMCO wanted my business.

Let me explain. I was insured with PEMCO for many years (from the time I turned 16 until 2005). PEMCO had all of my insurance business, both auto and homeowners. It’s worth pointing out that in all that time, I never had a single at-fault accident or any moving violations. My credit history is as spotless as my driving history, with never so much as a single late payment to any creditor. My employment history is also stable; I’ve worked at my current employer for over 8 years.

Nonetheless, PEMCO evidently sees me as a crazy risk-taker, barely one step removed from a chronic drunk driver and deserving of rates to match. Why? Well, I took advantage of some balance transfer offers, closing a couple of credit cards and opening new ones to receive lower interest rates. To PEMCO, this obviously was a signal that I was preparing to take up drag racing on the streets of Seattle, and when I received my renewal  notice, the rate PEMCO proposed to charge me was (if my recollection is correct) nearly 50% higher.

I thought there must have been a mistake, but PEMCO stood by its quote. My risky bank-changing lifestyle obviously made me unworthy of remaining your customer. I called the competition, who quoted me a rate lower than I’d been paying with PEMCO before the unexpected increase. They now have all of my business, and I’ve been pleased with their service.

I’d consider insuring with PEMCO again if I got back all of my safe driver points, safe driver years, and previous discounts, and if your rates were sufficiently lower than I'm currently paying to justify the hassle in changing insurers. However, I’d only consider this if your insurance scoring practices took into account (and continued to take into account) reasonable factors. If you must evaluate credit, it should only be on the basis of whether I pay my bills on time. I don’t want to think about whether my insurance rates will dramatically increase if I happen to change banks.