CLUE is an acronym for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange. C.L.U.E.® is a registered trademark of ChoicePoint Asset Company. This report is a national insurance industry database of claims. A CLUE report shows all claims reported to the insurance company for the house or motor vehicle, depending upon which CLUE report you are looking at, over the past five years.

Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, CLUE reports can only be accessed by the owner, insurer or lender for a specific property. As the owner of a property (house or car), you can order a CLUE report. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act you can request a copy of your property’s CLUE report from ChoicePoint Consumer Disclosure by writing them, going online with ChoiceTrust (a division of ChoicePoint) or calling 866-527-2600.

If you discover an error on your CLUE report, such as an invalid claim date or an incorrect loss payment, you can contact ChoicePoint directly to report the problem. ChoicePoint must contact the insurance company on your behalf and ask for clarification.

From the information we found the insurance company has 30 days to respond to ChoicePoint and to provide evidence that the information on the CLUE report is accurate. ChoicePoint must follow up with the insurer after 20 days if the company does not respond, and again if after 28 days it has not received a response. If the company does not respond within 30 days, ChoicePoint must remove the information from the database.

As a consumer, you have the right to add notations to your individual CLUE report. For instance, if you have had a dog bite claim made against you and later you get rid of the dog that caused the injury you can add a note that you no longer own the dog to the CLUE report for the property. Insurance companies are not allowed to add notations to the database.

Keep in mind not only can your CLUE report show valid claims, it also can list what is referred to as phantom claims that can raise your rates. For example if a tree falls on your house and you call your insurance company to check on your coverage. Ultimately you decide not to file a claim because the damage is only slightly more than your deductible. That inquiry may be included in your CLUE report even if the insurance company never paid for the damage.

Some states have laws to help the consumer not be penalized by this. For example Arizona's Legislature passed a bill in 2003 that says that your insurance company cannot raise your premiums for a phantom claim in the last three years if the amount is below your deductible ($500 limit).

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