(Bloomberg) -- A customer’s credit score may matter more than adrunken-driving conviction for auto insurers setting premiums,Consumer Reports said, citing a review of price quotes in the U.S.from more than 700 firms.

A hypothetical group of adult drivers with clean driving recordsand poor credit paid $1,552 more on average in Florida than thesame drivers with excellent credit and a drunk-driving offense, theconsumer advocate said Thursday in a statement. Throughout theU.S., people with “good” credit paid $68 to $526 more than thosewith the best scores, the group said.

“If a car-insurance company calculates that a consumer’s creditscore isn’t up to its highest standard, it often charges a higherpremium -- even if the customer had never had an accident,”Consumer Reports said in its statement. “Consumers have a right toexpect that their car-insurance premiums are based on meaningfulbehavior such as their driving record.”

Consumer Reports, a non-profit organization, said it analyzedmore than 2 billion quotes from U.S. insurers including AllstateCorp., Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Geico, Progressive Corp. and StateFarm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.

Single, divorced or widowed people often pay more for autopolicies than married couples, according to a Consumer Federationof America report published this week. In a previous study, the CFAfound that the largest U.S. auto insurers weigh occupation andeducation levels more than driving records to set rates forlow-income customers.

“The fact that insurance-based credit scores are an importantpart of setting rates is nothing new,” Robert Hartwig, president ofthe Insurance Information Institute, said in a phone interview. “Itis strongly predictive of loss, and that’s a net benefit toconsumers.”

California, Hawaii and Massachusetts are the only states thatprohibit insurers from using credit scores to set prices, accordingto Consumer Reports. The complete study is published in theConsumer Reports magazine September issue.

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