How do I find out my car insurance claim history?

When you file an insurance claim, it goes through the claims cycle. For auto claims, after the claim is filed it is assigned to an adjuster who will take statements and review evidence.

Once all of the factors have been considered, the adjusters from each company will allocate fault and make settlement offers. Once a settlement offer is accepted, the claim is considered closed.

Just because a claims record is closed doesn’t mean it won’t affect you. All of the claims that you’ve filed in the past are recorded on your claims history file.

Not only can your existing insurer see this record, other carriers can as well.

Whatever your history, find the best rates for the car insurance coverage you need. Enter your zip code into our free rate comparison tool above to get started.

If you want to see what’s on your claims history, here’s what you need to know:

What is a claims history record?

An auto insurance claims history contains data about a driver or a household’s previous claims going back seven years. The history includes all of the pertinent information that you’ll need to provide when you’re applying for insurance.

Here are some of the details that will be included in any type of claims history report:

• Date of the claim
• Type of claim
• Allocation of fault
• Amount of money paid
• Date the claim was closed
• Insurer the claim was filed through
• Driver’s name
• Vehicle the accident happened in

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Why are claims history records so important?

Just because your claim has been settled doesn’t mean that the claim will no longer affect you. If you’re shopping for a new insurance policy or you’re trying to land a job where your driving record matters, all of those past claims could come back to bite you.

Too many claims will make you too much of a risk.

Most insurance companies and employers will run the same types of reports to look into your past.

You can provide a copy if your claims history but it’s common for prospective employers and insurers to run their own independent reports to reference information that hasn’t been altered.

If you believe something inaccurate is on your report, you could always ask for the information to be corrected through the carrier that the claim was filed with.

What happens when you don’t know your claims history?

When auto insurance applicants submit their application for coverage they have to complete it with the dates of their claims.

If you don’t put down claims that you’ve filed in the past, it doesn’t mean you won’t be charged for them. In fact, failing to put down a claim because you forgot it happened could cost you a fortune.

If you fail to mention that you’ve had a collision in the past couple of years, your new policy could be issued at higher rates.

When the claim puts you in a new class, you could be denied coverage entirely. If it’s a job, you could lose the opportunity for failing to mention a past accident. It’s always important to know what your record might say.

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When can you get your claims history from your insurer?

If you know that you and all of the drivers in your home have clean records, you don’t have to pull up any reports to pinpoint dates. It’s when you’re sure that you’ve filed a claim but you’re unsure of when the incident happened that ordering your report is important.

How you’ll have to go about getting your claims history records depends on where you were insured in the past.

If you’re a loyal consumer who has stayed with the same insurance carrier since you first got your license, you can request your claim report directly from your agent.

Remember, most reports only go back seven years, so if it’s been seven years since you purchased your first policy from your existing insurer, you don’t have to look elsewhere.

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How to Order Your Report from Your Agent

When it’s just you and you’ve only been with the same carrier, you can pick up your phone and call your agent to request that they send you a claim history report.

Some will call the record a Letter of Experience and others will call it a Claims History Letter. No matter the phrasing, it’s the same type of letter.

How long it takes to get your Claims History Letter from your insurer depends on the type of company you’re doing business with.

If you have an independent agent that you deal with, you can call the office directly and they will write up your report.

The turnaround is often only 12 to 24 hours when you work with a local office. If you have to call a customer service center, it could take longer for the letter to be mailed or faxed.

What will happen if you have been with multiple insurers?

If you’ve been with several different insurance carriers throughout the years, you can’t contact a single company and get everything that you need. When you have a filing cabinet full of your past policies and you can put a finger on the dates, it does make things a bit easier.

You can contact each carrier you’ve done business with for the last seven years and ask for the Letter of Experience directly.

When it has only been two or three companies, it won’t take you too long to request the letters. You’ll follow the same steps to order your reports, you’ll just have to do it multiple times.

What if you don’t remember the names of the companies you’ve been with?

If you don’t have records of when you were insured with certain carriers, you’re better off ordering your claims history from a third-party risk solutions company like LexisNexis.

It’s not always on you to remember everything about your insurance history and the dates you were insured through specific providers.

If you’ve overlooked the importance of keeping records, you can get a global report that shows all of your claims that you have filed in the seven years. This report is called the Claims Loss Underwriting Exchange.

It’s a tool that is used universally by insurers and employers to find out how many claims someone has filed. It’s not going to include information just from one carrier.

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How do you order a C.L.U.E Report?

You can order your own personal auto C.L.U.E. report online by visiting the official LexisNexis website or by mail. To order your report online, you will have to create a new member account.

When you’re creating your account you’ll have to provide your email address and a username. If you’re requesting online a FACT insurance report, you won’t have to provide a credit card number.

Not everyone likes to order their reports online. If you would prefer to order your report by mail, you will have to contact the support department through LexisNexis and go through the steps to access your personal information offline.

You can download the order form online as well and mail the printed form in.

If you want strictly a FACT Insurance report, which shows only the auto claims that you’ve filed in the last seven years, you will get one free report in a 12-month period. You could be charged a fee if you need more than one FACT report within the period.

What happens to your auto insurance when you have claims?

When you’re looking at your record and you see that you have at-fault claims, it could affect your rates when you’re getting insurance quotes. Any claims that you’ve reported in the past where you’re at fault could lead to a surcharge.

Claims can only be surcharged under your rates when they are three years old or less.

If you notice a different type of claim on your report, it could have no bearing on your rates. Claims where you’re not at fault or comprehensive claims can’t be surcharged.

While non-fault accidents can’t be surcharged, they could still keep you out of a preferred rating class if you have enough of them. You should check with the carrier to see if multiple non-fault claims are considered.

You should always know what type of resources you have at your disposal when you’re about to switch carriers. You can easily run your own claims history reports to find out if you need to list claims on your application.

You can also run reports to find out what your insurance credit score is. Use all of the resources that you can, access insurance quotes online, and compare rates to get the best deal. Enter your zip code below to get started.

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