Can your driving record impact your homeowners’ rates? Allstate says yes.

Carelessness on the road is likely to translate into carelessness at home. At least that’s the assumption being made by Allstate when calculating quotes for a new product called House & Home.

The House & Home product, now being offered exclusively in the state of Oklahoma, marks the first time Allstate has considered people’s driving records when assembling a quote for a homeowner’s policy. A spokesman for the company stated, "There is a strong correlation between auto-loss history and the likelihood of covered homeowners losses. Allstate's new homeowners product recognizes this correlation and rewards customers with good auto-loss histories with lower homeowner rates." Inversely, the product appears to be penalizing homeowners with less than stellar driving records.

Although potential customers with poor driving records may balk at the inclusion of seemingly irrelevant data when requesting a quote for insurance on their home, from a risk assessment perspective it makes perfect sense.

Penalizing home owners for irresponsible driving isn’t much different from using a person’s employment status to assess their auto insurance premiums. Even if the practice is arguably unfair, it’s still based on data indicating that a particular person is likely going to be a higher risk to insure. Obviously it’s an imperfect science, but if the correlation is there, why not use it?

Allstate plans to roll out their House & Home product in additional states through 2014.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkmoose/1386071342/