Wrong Accident on Your CLUE Report? How to Get It Removed

Yes, a wrong accident comes off your CLUE report: LexisNexis has 30 days to reinvestigate, or 45 when you dispute after pulling your free annual report, and it must delete or correct any claim the reporting insurer can't verify. Today, pull your free report, find the insurer named on the entry, and send a written dispute to both LexisNexis and that insurer.

How a CLUE dispute works

CLUE, the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, is the LexisNexis claims database insurers use to price and underwrite policies. It holds up to seven years of auto claims. It is a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), with the same dispute rights as a credit report.

• Free copy: LexisNexis gives you one free report every 12 months on request and must send it within 15 days.
• What each entry shows: your name, date of birth, policy number, date of loss, type of loss, amount paid and the vehicle. The report also names the source of each item and lists the companies that pulled your report in the past year.
• The LexisNexis deadline: 45 days from the day it receives your dispute when you dispute after pulling your free annual report. Otherwise it is 30 days, stretched by up to 15 days if you send new information during those 30 days. LexisNexis sends the written results within 5 business days after it finishes.
• The insurer's part: LexisNexis forwards your dispute to the reporting insurer within 5 business days, and the insurer must investigate and answer before the LexisNexis deadline. A claim found wrong or unverifiable gets deleted or corrected, and the insurer must correct, delete or permanently block it in what it reports to LexisNexis and other reporting companies.
• Disputing with the insurer directly: The insurer must investigate a dispute you send to its dispute address and answer you within 30 days. If its data was wrong, it must send the correction to every reporting company it supplied.
• Deleted means deleted: A removed claim returns only if the insurer certifies it is accurate, and LexisNexis must tell you in writing within 5 business days of its return.

The results letter names the insurer LexisNexis checked with and its phone number, says whether the claim was verified, corrected or removed, and includes a current copy of your file. It goes out once LexisNexis has authenticated your identity.

What to do today

1. Get the current report. Order it on the LexisNexis consumer disclosure request form or call 1-866-897-8126. Highlight the claim and note the insurer, policy number, claim number if shown, date of loss and vehicle.
2. Gather proof for that date. Pull the declarations page for every auto policy you held on the date of loss, the title or bill of sale for each car you owned then, and a letter from your insurer showing no claim under your policy that day.
3. Call the reporting insurer's claims department. Give the claim or policy number from the report, and ask whose policy and which driver the claim is filed under. Mail your written dispute to the insurer address printed on your CLUE report, or to the dispute address the claims department gives you, by certified mail with a return receipt.
4. Open the LexisNexis dispute. Call the LexisNexis Consumer Center at 888-497-0011, report the mistake and get the case number. Send the highlighted report page, your explanation and copies of your proof through the Sending Documents option on the LexisNexis help page, with the case number on every page. Mark day 45 on your calendar, or day 30 if your copy came with an insurer's adverse action notice.

When the answer comes back

• If the claim is gone, check the fresh copy of your file, then ask LexisNexis in writing to send notice of the deletion to each insurer on the report's list that pulled it in the past six months. The FCRA requires that for every company you name.
• If LexisNexis says the claim was verified, ask in writing how it verified the claim. LexisNexis owes you that description within 15 days, with the name, address and phone number of the insurer it contacted. Send that insurer a direct dispute with your proof, then dispute again with LexisNexis and attach anything new. If the claim still stays, add a consumer statement; LexisNexis can hold it to 100 words. Later reports show the claim as disputed, with your statement or a summary.
• If the loss date falls before you owned the car, send the title or bill of sale with your purchase date to LexisNexis and the reporting insurer, and ask that the claim be removed from your file because you were neither the policyholder nor the driver. Send the same proof to your own insurer so it rates you without that loss.
• If you already disputed once, ask the Consumer Center for the status of each earlier case, whether your identity was authenticated, and what document it still needs. Tick Request a Description of Procedure Letter on the online request form for a letter on how your disputes were handled.

A LexisNexis security freeze blocks the release of your report; the claim stays in the file until your dispute removes it. If a new insurer needs the report to quote you, lift the freeze free online or at 1-800-456-1244.

What to tell your insurer at renewal

Tell your agent or underwriter now, before the renewal is priced. Any insurer that pulls your CLUE report sees the same claim until it is corrected.

• If your renewal went up or a new quote came back higher or declined because of the report, that is an adverse action under the FCRA. The insurer owes you a notice that names LexisNexis with its address and phone number, says LexisNexis did not make the decision, and tells you about your free copy within 60 days and your right to dispute. Ask for it in writing if it never came, then call LexisNexis at 1-800-456-6004 for the information behind it.
• Put the dispute on record. Say: "The [date] loss on my CLUE report is not mine. I have disputed it with LexisNexis, case [number], and with [insurer]. Please note the dispute in my file, re-order my CLUE report when the correction posts, and re-rate my policy."
• Keep coverage continuous. Pay the renewal on time while the dispute runs, then send the results letter to your agent and ask for the re-rate and a refund of any surcharge tied to the claim.

If you switch insurers mid-term over the surcharge, check the old company's final bill after cancelling.

Your leverage if the claim stays

• CFPB complaint against LexisNexis: File at consumerfinance.gov/complaint or (855) 411-2372 once 45 days have passed since your dispute or LexisNexis has closed it. Attach the report, your letters and its responses. Companies generally respond within 15 days.
• State insurance department complaint against the reporting insurer: Your state department investigates for free, and the insurer must respond with its explanation. Find yours on the NAIC state insurance department list.
• FCRA damages: For a willful violation, the company owes your actual damages or $100 to $1,000, plus punitive damages the court allows, court costs and attorney's fees. For a negligent one, it owes actual damages, costs and attorney's fees. You must sue by the earlier of 2 years after you discover the violation or 5 years after it happens.
• Why you dispute through LexisNexis too: Your right to sue the insurer over a sloppy investigation comes from the dispute LexisNexis forwards to it. A dispute you send only to the insurer is enforced by federal and state officials alone.

Call a consumer protection lawyer if LexisNexis verifies a claim your documents disprove, a deleted claim reappears without the 5-day notice, or you paid a surcharge or lost coverage over the entry; the FCRA makes the company pay your attorney's fees when you win.

Dispute letter

Send this to LexisNexis and to the reporting insurer.

Re: CLUE auto claim dispute. [Full name], date of birth [date], [address]. Case number [number]. Report dated [date].

I dispute the auto claim reported by [insurer] with date of loss [date], policy number [number], claim number [number] and amount paid [$]. This claim is not mine. [Pick one: I had no policy with this insurer on that date. / I bought this vehicle on (date), after the loss. / I was neither the policyholder nor the driver.]

Enclosed are the report page with the claim highlighted, [the declarations page for my policy in force on that date], [the title or bill of sale], and [my insurer's letter showing no claim under my policy on that date].

[If you disputed before:] I first disputed this claim on [date], case [number], and the report dated [date] still shows it.

Please delete this claim from my file, or correct the data you furnished, and send me the written results of your investigation with a current copy of my file.

[Signature, printed name, phone number]

Today

1. Order your CLUE report online or at 1-866-897-8126 and highlight the claim.
2. Open the dispute at 888-497-0011, send your proof, and mail the same packet to the reporting insurer by certified mail.
3. Give your agent the case number and ask for a re-rate once the correction posts.

Within 45 days of LexisNexis receiving your dispute (30 if your report came with an adverse action notice), plus up to 5 business days to mail it, the results letter arrives with the outcome and a fresh copy of your file to hand your insurer.