Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange Report Can Raise Your Homeowners Rates
CLUE Underwriting exchange report for homeowners insurance rates.
Here is something that may come as a surprise to most homeowners – an insurance claim made by a previous owner could affect your premium. If you are unaware of this unfortunate fact, you are not alone.
According to a survey done by insuranceQuotes.com, 75 percent of respondents were unaware that previous owners claims could push their premiums up. Shockingly, 51 percent were also unaware that their own claim inquiries could result in a higher premium.
Simply calling to inquire whether a claim makes sense to file or not could raise your rates if the insurance company makes a record of your call and the damage that occurred to your house.
Claim details are recorded in an industry database that is called CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange). The majority of insurance companies use the database. It keeps track of the claim date, the type of claim that was made and the amount that was paid out by the insurance company. Only 18 percent of respondents to the survey had even heard of the CLUE database.
The CLUE database can generate reports that look at your own personal record of claims, as well as the claims on your home. A big number in either section will push up your rates. If the report is bad enough, its possible that you will be turned down for insurance altogether. If you are turned down due to what the CLUE database says about your house, the insurer is required to tell you why you were rejected.
Claim information stays in the database for up to seven years so both your claim history and the claims related to your house will follow you from one insurance company to another. Policies vary by insurance company but some will record details even if you are simply calling to make an inquiry and later decide not to make a claim.
While a bad CLUE report could result in higher rates, they can also be useful when shopping for a new house. It can alert you to damaging events that may have happened at the house as well as give you an indication of what insurance will cost on any potential new home you are considering. Only the current homeowner can request the report so ask for a copy of report if you are seriously considering a house.
What Clue Does for Insurers
Insurers use CLUE reports because their statistics show that people who have filed a claim in the past are much more likely to file one in the future. According to experts, the dollar amount of a claim is less important than how often you file claims. In other words, one big claim is much better than numerous small claims.
The risk assessment process is different for each insurer so it is difficult to predict how the information on a CLUE report will affect your premium but suffice it to say that numerous claims in a short amount of time will result in much higher rate, or possible cancellation.
Knowing what is on the CLUE report can help you determine if you will be paying a higher than normal rate, or if it will even be possible to get coverage on a potential house. Getting the report is pretty easy and under federal law every homeowner is entitled to one free report a year.
Reports can be ordered from the LexisNexis order page or you can call 800-709-8842. If you would like a hard copy of the report there is a fee of $19.95, which will be waived if you are using the report to defend against an action taken by an insurer.