Credit-based insurance scores are used to help adequately risk-based price homeowners insurance, so lower risk consumers are not subsidizing higher risk ones, the Insurance Information Institute said. Homeowners insurance now makes up 8.5% of monthly costs for mortgage borrowers , a recent LendingTree report said. The secondary market requires borrowers to have homeowners insurance on their properties. The letters claim that credit scores impact homeowners insurance premium pricing "as much, if not more than" natural disasters. "Recent research found that homeowners with lower credit scores pay 24% more — an average of $550 per year — for identical homeowners insurance coverage than homeowners with higher credit scores," the letters state.