Ontario's insurance brokers want the government to outlaw the use of credit scores to set home insurance premiums.

Ontario's insurance brokers say credit scores should have no place in setting home insurance premiums. (iStock)

The Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario says about half of the big insurance companies are using credit scores instead of just risk assessment to set premiums or even to deny coverage.

Spokesman Bryan Yetman says the province banned the use of credit scoring to set auto insurance premiums five years ago and needs to do the same now for home insurance.

He says if it makes good public policy sense on the one product line it should make sound public policy sense on the other, calling it a matter of fairness.

Yetman says insurance rates should be determined by the risk involved, not some unknown calculation that decides a low credit score is an indication of how likely someone is to make a claim.

The New Democrats support the brokers' call for a ban on using credit scores to set home insurance premiums, calling it a profoundly unfair practice.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan says only that the government will work with insurance companies to ensure "rates grow at a very modest rate over time."

The brokers also complain some companies get around the ban on credit scoring for auto premiums because consumers bundle it with their home insurance policies, where credit scoring is allowed.