There are agencies that specialize in consumer reporting that collect information about the insurance claims you have made in connection with your property and accident insurance policies, such as your homeowners and car policies. They can also collect driving records. Your driving record is crucial to determining your premium and insurability. Most companies charge much more to insure drivers with a history of convictions for traffic violations or accidents attributable to those with a relatively clean record.
Many insurers won't insure a driver whose recent driving record is poor, even if that driver's record was clean in the past. The reasons why an insurer refuses to accept a risk vary from company to company, and a risk rejected by one insurance company may be considered acceptable by another. An insurance claim history report is a list of all the auto insurance claims a person has filed in the past 5 to 7 years. Most auto insurance companies will consult the driver's insurance claim history report before issuing a policy to assess their risk.
When you have an accident, all car accident reports are publicly available because they are what are called “public records.” If you want to review a police report of your accident, all you have to do is visit the police station where the police officer who wrote the report is located. You must record this income benefit on your Form 1040 the year you received the insurance money and pay taxes at the regular income tax rate. In general, only interested parties have access to the complete and reviewed homeowner's insurance record. There will be no charge for this report if your request is made within six months of its use by the insurer.
The insurer must also include information in its policy about the circumstances in which surcharges must be reimbursed. Maintained by Lexus Nexus, the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange or CLUE is a database that records previous claims made by insurance customers. You must also confirm the replacement within a strict period, which begins on the date of the accident and ends two years after the end of the tax year in which you received your insurance check. Every policyholder can request a free copy of their insurance policy annually under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.
You must notify your insurer of any changes while the policy is in effect, such as a change of address or the addition or removal of a vehicle or driver. In these cases, your legal representative will negotiate on your behalf with the appropriate insurance provider. This system, similar to that of a credit reporting agency, collects data from insurers on the claim histories of past and present policyholders. Every claim you file will end up in your CLUE report, even if you weren't issued a fine or if you weren't found guilty of the incident.
Once your insurer views your CLUE report, it can adjust your rates if you haven't reported all the claims in your history. One of the most relevant classifications in the pricing of auto insurance is age because of its obvious relationship with losses. On the other hand, many older people can benefit from insurance companies that vary their prices depending on the number of miles a car travels each year, since they can drive less than the average insured.
