Accident record access?

@Ridgeline

 

Any times an insurance company pays out on a claim the insurance industry keeps a record and that entry doesn't disappear over time, IIRC. You cannot have access to that private record. You can get your Motor Vehicle Record (small fee) from your state. You can get a copy of your driver PSP ($10).

 

Not all insurance companies participate in the clearinghouse. GEICO does not, for example.

 

Always get a copy of the local PD accident report and make sure you get a copy of the 'key' sheet that lists the meaning behind all the litle numbers down each edge of the report.

That is where the officer put his investigative results/feelings about the incident and it can make a difference in what the insurance company does.

Even when they said you were following too close; the boxes MAY show the other vehicle was in the wrong lane before turning.

Bottom line is don't sweat this ONE incident; especially if you were not cited; MOST insurance companies won't get testy until you have 2 accidents and then they usually request the PD reports to prove fault.

One at fault incident is acceptable to most insurance carriers AND they usually are 'counted' back 3 years so the older this gets the less it matters.

 

This database is called CLUE and this 5-month-old Reddit question would seem to differ.

When it comes to databases people need to understand things like CLUE and the Credit reporting companies offer their services to all businesses that require their services. You can bet your bottom dollar that GEICO has all claim information as well as driving histories before they make a quote. No insurance carrier would be stupid enough to not access that information before they made a quote.

 

It is important to remember the insurance CLUE database is not the same thing as the DMV database.

Most of the time the way I understand it when an insurance carrier enters your information the CLUE information gets generated automatically. It can be based on an address. My daughter changed her insurance coverage just after they moved to Tennessee last year. The address they moved to had a claim paid to that address. The daughter had to show the insurance agent when they moved in. This is what CLUE does. If there are no claims paid then there is no information in CLUE on you or your address. I don't know how long CLUE holds information on a person.

 

I sold insurance for California Casualty and then for Allstate. GEICO does not participate in CLUE. They cannot access the information in it, and they do not contribute claim information to it. There are other smaller companies that also don't participate in CLUE, but most companies do.

In the example given in the Reddit post, the CLUE information almost certainly came from the other party's insurance company, since they were on the hook for it. (Of course, GEICO may have changed this policy in the years since I left Allstate.)

By the way, at least for Allstate, the rate you pay has far more to do with your credit rating than your accident history. Accidents and tickets will disqualify you, to be sure, but given two identical claim histories, having an 800 credit score instead of a 520 will save you a lot more than a clean record.

 

I want to make sure I am understanding you correctly. You are saying GEICO does not do any claims history review before offering a quote, only checks credit and driving history?

 

Also, the Reddit poster's rates most likely went up due to other changes in that state or the economy. If you want cheap car insurance, move to a contributory negligence state like North Carolina. They have super low rates, and in fact while I was at Allstate, we discovered an address in Raleigh that had literally hundreds of New Yorkers listed as living there. If you want high rates, move to a state with giant billboards featuring a lawyer holding a sledge hammer or standing on the hood of a truck. Those are comparative negligence states, juries give away money like candy at Halloween, and the average Joe pays for it with their car insurance rates.

When I was selling insurance, a typical policy for one car in North Carolina was under $500 a year. Average in New Jersey was about $4500 a year, and they would always exclaim, How can you be so cheap? That was 14 years ago. I'm sure it has changed for the worse.

Insurance companies charge the amount they expect to pay out in a year. They make money by investing their reserves. If they pay less than the total premiums collected, it's called an underwriting gain; if they pay more, it's an underwriting loss. They usually pay out between 95%-105% of what they collect.