If you would like to know what the insurance companies are saying about you behind your back, you definitely want to get a free copy of your CLUE report. Short for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, it’s basically the insurance version of your credit report. In the past it used to cost you $20 a pop, but you can get it now for free courtesy of the FACT act, which also brought you free credit reports.
You get both a Personal Auto Report and Personal Property Report, which show how many insurance claims you’ve made on your car insurance and homeowner’s/renter’s insurance, respectively. Insurance companies use this data to decide your premiums, so you’ll want to clear up any mistakes right away as they are probably costing you money right now!
As for me, nothing special. My auto report didn’t include my teenage indiscretions :twisted:, which is good I guess. The only thing was an inquiry from when I bought my used car last year and added it to my policy.
An interesting bit was that for the property report, it showed that in 2004 a previous tenant of my current rental filed for a $1,500 burglary claim. And I thought my neighborhood was safe! 😯 Maybe they just lost some jewelry while traveling.
This brings me to another use for CLUE reports. If you are seriously looking at buying a home, you should spend the $20 and get the CLUE report for the property and see its claim history. For example, if the water heater broke and flooded the basement two years ago, you may have a hard time finding homeowner’s insurance due to mold concerns.
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Excellent resource! I could even see the inquiry on my personal property report from last week since I’m in the process of switching homeowners insurance.
Yeah, I just check my report and it says that my grandparents had two burglaries back in 1983. But… IT’S SHOWING UP AS MY CLAIM! This is perhaps because I lived with them for two years. But, you know, I wasn’t born until 1985! I think ChoicePoint is going to have to explain how a child who is -2 years old is able to afford an insurance policy moreless make a burglary claim fof $6,000!
I’m wondering how good this would be for me. I filed a hurricane claim and then cancelled the very next day, they sent me a letter showing that I cancelled the claim, then about 2 weeks later another hurricane made so much damage that I filed a claim. Well for starters I found out I didn’t make a wise decision going with this insurance company (should have checked Ambest before) and the company tooks months and months to send me a check. I spoke with them for hours and hours on the phone and they would never send me a check. It wasn’t until I filed a few complaints with some agencies that they finally sent me a check. After this was when I found out about Ambest and found out they were a D company. So little to say I switched insurance companies. The new company said that my report shows that I filed two claims one year. I tried to explain that I only filed one claim and that the first one I cancelled and have a letter showing that the claim never took placed, but the lady on the phone said it’s on my records.
Anyway my point is that even with this report I can’t see myself being able to do anything. I could contact the old company and tell them to fix it, but lets be honest if they took months and months and I probably waste a week of my life on the phone what are the chances of them correcting any mistakes, especially since I’m not with them anymore?
I haven’t pulled the free report, but I’m sure it’s there. I feel it’s incorrect to show to claims, but if I need the old company to admit this or do something, I feel I’m barking up the wrong tree and then my best bet is to wait it out 4 more years to clear my record?
I really never new about clue before, your site is very imformative. Good to know that it’s 5 years also.
I tried getting a free report, but the site tells me it cannot verify my identity. Way to go Clue, why don’t they get one?! hehe.
Anyway it’s stupid since I just switched insurance companies, I figure it would have no problem pulling up a report.
Wow, thank you! I was just about to (literally, looking on your site for the link) to open an ING or Emigrant Direct account and there was the WAMU info! Easy peasy! Thanks!
thanks for this, very interesting.
Fascinating! Thanks for posting! I was first told about a CLUE report when shopping for auto insurance this year. I had no idea I could get my own copy. Ah, yet another thing to check, re-check, and verify.
Grey: I thought it would only have a record until 5 years ago (2001), why are there things there from the 1980’s?
Very interesting, a great tip, thanks!
Having the same problem as TW. Their site is saying that I am not passing the verification. I am typing in my information 100% correct, so apparently the information that they have and want me to verify is incorrect. So frustrating when that happens! I guess I’ll try to call them tomorrow. Hopefully I can get more than an automated system.
If you’ve moved recently, you may want to try your previous address as it may not have updated in their system. Just a thought.
When I called to buy the homeowner’s insurance, the rep said previous claims from the seller wouldn’t affect my rate.
The first time I tried, I got the same message about not being able to verify. I tried again, leaving out some of the items that weren’t marked as “required” (I don’t remember everything I changed, but I do recall leaving out my middle name, which I had entered the first time). The second time it was able to verify me, and I got my report.
Thanks for the info. I checked mine, and both are completely empty. I do have home owners insurance (purchased this year) and auto insurance, but have never made a claim against any of them.
This brings up a good question. Is it best to buy all insurance (or most) from the same company. Currently, I have:
Geico for Auto
AAA for Towing and Home Owners
Great American Life Insurance for Term Life Insurance
A little primer about grades of companies (since I read about that guy who had a hard time getting paid from his hurricane damage – company graded D )
I’m confused about those things.
Anyway, maybe a future topic Jonathan?
“When I called to buy the homeowner?s insurance, the rep said previous claims from the seller wouldn?t affect my rate.”
Sure, the claims specifically won’t, but if the house has a history of water damage in the basement or has had an electrical fire to due really old wiring – I’d sure take that into account if I was them.
I too had the problem getting verified, and then went back and ONLY entered the required information and then got through. Giving too much information seems to be a bad thing.
But I wanted to ask if anyone else saw this on their reports? I have only 1 entry between both reports and this was an accident when someone else was driving my car. Two entries under this accident are SSN (just showing last 4 digits) which was mine, then DOB which was the driver. This sounds like they confused some information between the driver and mine, the problem is, which is the one that is the ‘wrong’ entry?
Speaking of reports, has anyone else found out that they had “mystery wives” on their credit report? It was about a year ago or so when I checked my credit report and found I had a wife in upstate NY. Obviously it was a mistake and was removed immediately, but I wonder how it got on there. Personally I think they should pay US for cleaning up their data for them, just think how much more useful it is to them once it is cleaned up.
If there are any inaccuracies in your CLUE report, file a dispute. If it’s not investigated and corrected within 30/45 days, then law has been broken. Sue em.
-Zero-
Excellent post!
Do not forget about the 4th credit bureau.
http://www.innovis.com
Andrew,
For most states the innovis report is not free (including the one I’m in so I’ll pass).
I wanted to get comparison auto rates, Progressive told me about clue rept and gave me the number. I called gave the automated system all sorts of info; name, address, SS#, liscence #….. the call never went anywhere – it just ended! I’m freaked out about having given out that info ,SS# in particular. Any suggestions/comments – should I be concerned? Happen to anyone else? Thanks