What the Auto Insurance Companies Know About You?
American values have always given top priority to the right to
privacy. But are you aware of the amount of information you
unknowingly pass over to your insurance company, when you apply
for auto insurance. Most of this information ends up in database
companies who make profit out of selling information about you.
Your credit is what most insurance company wants to know. They
use this credit data to decide about your auto insurance policy
premiums. Use of this practice has expanded drastically because
through your credit information they get a clear picture about
your history with your previous auto insurer. Even before you
approaching them they have already placed you in a category
through which they will not end up in the loosing side. To be
fair, they precisely know what type of claim you are likely to
make and not to make and what is the best premium for you.
Every auto insurance company scrutinizes your credit history
acquired from the database company and gives you a rank, of
which you are unaware of. The rank will categorize you under
preferred, standard or high-risk. Next they look is your payment
history. If you are a timely payer you will move towards the
preferred category. But if you have a bad history of payment
then you move the opposite direction. This entire ranking, which
takes place without your knowledge, is due to the information
you have passed over to your earlier auto insurance company. An
odd activity the month before you buy your new auto insurance
will put you under the high-risk group. The odd activity might
even stop an auto insurance company from selling you the policy.
ChoicePoint and the Insurance Services Office (ISO) provide auto
insurance companies with all the necessary information they
need. Your name, address, phone number, claims, credit report,
criminal record if any, and the most curious aspect any auto
insurance company would like to hear, your driving history.
ChoicePoint has a database called Comprehensive Loss
Underwriting Exchange or CLUE. The information they gather from
your credit history, gives you a rank. When you apply for auto
insurance, the company you applied asks for your rank and they
immediately get the answer into what category you fit. The All
Claims databases maintained by ISO, mainly looks into fraud.
Unusual or suspicious behavior in your credit history will be
notified to the insurer. They also maintain a record about the
claims that have dragged on to courts.
Apart from this top auto insurance companies also have their own
database. The government agencies of your state also have all
the necessary information. If you are curious to know about your
motor vehicle report you can approach your state's department.
TransUnion, Equifax, Experian are some of the companies who can
provide you with your credit history. The CLUE report of
ChoicePoint is also available but you have to pay for it. If you
have any difference of opinion with the ISO's All Claims report.
You can acquire a copy and dispute it.
So, next time when you approach an auto insurance company keep
it in mind that he knows a whole lot of things about you, which
you are unaware of.