Your CLUE report and a house's claims history

When you apply for home or auto insurance, the insurer can look up the claims you've filed before. Most home and auto insurers send their claims to a shared database. One is CLUE, short for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, run by LexisNexis, a consumer reporting company.

What's in the report

CLUE collects up to seven years of auto insurance claims, and seven years of home insurance and personal property claims. For each claim it lists:

• The date of loss. This is the day the damage happened.
• The type of loss. This is what caused the damage.
• The amount paid. This is what the insurance company paid on the claim.
• The status. This shows where the claim stands.

How insurers use it

Insurers use the database to see the claims you've filed in the past. Your claims history is one of the things an insurer weighs when it decides whether to cover you and what your premium will be, along with the coverage limits and deductibles you choose.

A house has a history too

A loss history report is a record of the insurance losses tied to a home or a car, so a house has its own claims history. If you're buying a home, ask the current owner to request a copy of the house's report.

How to get your own copy

LexisNexis gives you one free report every 12 months when you ask for it. Request it online at consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com, by phone at 866-897-8126, or by mail to LexisNexis Risk Solutions Consumer Center, P.O. Box 105108, Atlanta, GA 30348-5108. Asking for your own report doesn't hurt your credit scores. LexisNexis will also freeze your report if you ask. It collects driving behavior data, called Telematics OnDemand, for auto insurance pricing too.

An annotated example

What to do next

Request your CLUE report from LexisNexis before you apply for insurance, and read each line against your own records, checking the date, the type of loss and the amount. Save it with your insurance papers. Keep your own note of each claim you file, with the date, the cause and the claim number, so the next report is easy to check.