Are Auto Insurance Claims Shared Between Car Insurance Companies?
There are many cases when someone may try to switch car insurance companies in order to get a better deal. A common scenario is one in which a person’s insurance premium goes up after an accident but no police report was filed. It may seem as though there is no way for another company to be aware of the accident without a report; however, other companies still have ways of accessing it which makes the outcome nearly the same as shared auto insurance claims.
Shared auto insurance claims: How it works
As mentioned, auto insurance companies do not directly communicate with each other about previous claims. But they still can find this information thanks to a shared database. Whenever you file a claim, your insurance company most likely puts a record of this fact into the database. If you try to switch companies, the next company will, in addition to checking your motor vehicle records, look you up in the database to see if you’ve had previous claims. This way, shared auto insurance claims between companies do take place, just not in the way you may think they do.
Repercussions
So when you switch companies, do not try to lie about the number of claims you’ve had in the past simply because there are not police records to support them. You may be “lucky” if the company does not check the database and gives you the low premium, but when you file a new claim, if the previous ones are discovered, you could be charged a much higher rate or even be denied the claim. Your policy may even be canceled.
Best course of action
In light of shared auto insurance claims, the best thing you can do is drive as carefully as possible, trying to avoid accidents, as well as refraining from filing claims for minor mishaps which do not involve others. Your record will follow you, so keep it clean.
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