I quoted several people’s car insurance today. In several cases the rate looked great until the Clue report was run. The Clue report is a database shared by every insurance carrier. If the carrier has a claim inquiry, filed or paid, they update this shared database. When looking at car insurance it shows a variety of claims including:
- At fault accidents
- Not at fault accidents
- Comprehensive claims (your car gets hit while parked at the mall, a tree falls on it, hail, etc.)
- Towing & roadside assistance claims
- Glass claims (if you’re from a different state & moving to Texas)
The other database all agents access is the Department of Motor Vehicles which reports violations such as speeding tickets, running a red light or stop sign, etc.
How long do claims & tickets impact your car insurance rate? It depends on the carrier.
- Some look back only 3 years
- Some look back 5 years
Texas state law allows a policy holder to be surcharged for 3 years for claims and violations. It also allows carriers to tier for years 4 and 5. There are different tiers of rates such as preferred, standard, and less than standard (some carriers have dozens of tiers). The better the tier, the lower your rate. The worse the tier, the higher your car insurance rate will be.
So help your budget and drive carefully out there! The impact could be 5 years and that’s a long time to pay more for something you have to have.
