What if my C.L.U.E. and MVR reports are wrong?

The Truth in a Nutshell

• C.L.U.E. stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange.
• MVR stands for Motor Vehicle Record.
• Driving infractions show up on your MVR and accidents show up on your C.L.U.E. report

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Car insurance is expensive enough for even the best drivers. Add a ticket or an accident to your record and your insurance premium only goes up. What if you have tickets and accidents on your record that aren’t actually yours?

If this has happened to you, perhaps you found yourself asking, “What if my MVR and C.L.U.E. reports are wrong?” Just like errors on a credit report, there can be errors on your C.L.U.E report and Motor Vehicle Record (MVR), and they can cost you thousands if they go unnoticed or unresolved. That’s why it’s important to know the difference between a Motor Vehicle (MVR) and Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E) reports. 

So, what can you do to “right” this “wrong”? Well, first, you must be certain they’re actually reporting in error.

Insurance quotes are free here, so before learning more about what happens if there is wrong information on your driving record reports like your C.L.U.E. and MVR report, compare car insurance rates with our easy-to-use tool.

What is the difference between an MRV and a C.L.U.E report?

After leaving your current insurer, the new insurance company will know everything about your past insurance claims. Insurance providers use the C.L.U.E report to determine how much risk you have as a driver.

The MVR check lets insurers look at a person’s driving and accident history and is part of the background screening process. When comparing an MRV vs. a C.L.U.E report, you’ll likely notice that the former puts more emphasis on the driver, while the latter focuses on a particular vehicle.

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What should be on your MVR and C.L.U.E reports?

So, what should be on your Motor Vehicle Record and C.L.U.E. reports? A common misconception among insurance consumers is that a not-at-fault accident will not show up on your reports. This is simply not the case. Your C.L.U.E. report will return an accident whether it is your fault or not.

In fact, your insurer will likely raise your insurance premium for being in an accident that was caused by another driver and paid for by their insurance company. The thought process goes like this; you are partially at fault for being involved in the first place.

What is an insurance premium? The price you pay for insurance coverage during a given period of time.

Different states look at this differently, but there are two concepts at play here. One is “comparative negligence” and the other is “contributory negligence.” In the former, it is possible that you are negligent to a degree for the cause of your accident.

Examples of Comparative Negligence and Contributory Negligence

For example, someone may have been speeding and hit you from behind, but you may have been partially negligent by not signaling your turn into the grocery store, which meant the speeder didn’t have enough time to slow down. In the insurance world, you’re partially at fault and charged accordingly.

An example of contributory negligence would be crossing the centerline of traffic briefly, and as a result, being struck by a drunk driver. While the drunk driver, by all logic, should be the one who “pays” here, you technically contributed to the accident by making a simple mistake.

In a state that recognizes contributory negligence, you may not be able to collect damages, because, in the eyes of the law, you were partly to blame.

But in either of these examples, there’s going to be an accident reported by C.L.U.E. and you will likely be charged for it. Read the next section for information about blatant errors in reports.

What type of damages can I sue for? There are multiple situations where you can sue, though whether you live in a fault or no-fault state will limit your right to file a lawsuit in some circumstances.

What about blatant errors on your MVR and C.L.U.E reports?

You’re not talking about an accident for which you might have been partially responsible. If your name is Mike Smith, you’re talking about an accident for a different “Mike Smith” who lives in a state on side of the country that you’ve never stepped foot in. This is certainly a different situation and needs to be corrected. In this case, you need to know how to dispute a C.L.U.E. report.

There are a few ways to correct these errors. First, you have to determine which report contains the discrepancy.

While your insurer or insurance agent will be able to tell you the details, just remember that motor vehicle driving infractions (i.e. speeding tickets) will be listed on your MVR report and accidents will be displayed on your C.L.U.E. report.

How to Get a Ticket Removed – MVR

We’ll start with the more difficult of the two. Your MVR history is tracked by the department of motor vehicles in your state. This means you will be contacting the appropriate state agency to dispute the finding.

You may be advised to contact your State Department of Insurance and “file a claim” to start the process of the state researching and correcting the error. If it’s not completely obvious that they’ve got the wrong person, the process may be slow. Remember, this is a governmental agency, so don’t expect anyone to knock themselves out to resolve your issue.

Be patient and nice with everyone you speak to or you may end up on the merry-go-round of leaving unreturned messages on 10 different people’s voicemails. Also, it’s best to call very early in the morning between Tuesday and Thursday, as the average person will be calling on Monday or Friday.

How to Get an Accident Removed – C.L.U.E

Wondering how to fix my C.L.U.E. report? As you already know, ChoicePoint’s police reports can be ordered via LexisNexis online source. However, to get an accident removed, you may simply contact ChoicePoint or LexisNexis — the companies who compile data for the C.L.U.E. driving record report — if you feel there are errors in your LexisNexis driving record or ChoicePoint driving record report.

Either of these companies will contact the insurer on your behalf and give them up to 30 days to clear up the discrepancy. If the insurer doesn’t respond within this time frame, the accident will be removed. Some will have auto C.L.U.E. report codes which can be found by contacting whichever auto insurance company you’re using.

Different states may have different resolution options. You’re going to be happy if the process doesn’t involve the State Department of Insurance (see above). It would be best to search C.L.U.E. reports for your specific state. For example, try searching “C.L.U.E report AZ” for Arizona-specific C.L.U.E information.

Accidents and tickets can greatly affect your insurance rates as can be seen in the chart below, which shows average insurance rates based on driving records in Miami, FL. (For more information, read our “How much does insurance go up after a ticket?“).

Miami, FL Average Annual Auto Insurance Rates Based on Driving Record

As you can see, rates can increase by more than $1,000 due to a single driving violation.

Is there an easy way to fix my C.L.U.E. and MVR report?

Many insurers who are preparing premium quotes for you will simply accept a “Letter of Experience” (LOE) from the insurer you were with at the time of the inaccurate accident. In reality, this is likely where the error occurred and the insurer should be the one helping you resolve the matter.

The Letter of Experience is simply a document prepared by the previous insurer that states you did not have an accident (or at least that particular accident) during the policy period in question. You must call or write the previous insurer or agent and ask for the LOE for the policy term where the accident is reported. They’ll know what you’re talking about.

Keep in mind that your current insurer or agent may not be in too big of a hurry to help you, as it will be evident you are shopping for insurance and considering switching insurers. You may have to be persistent here. You will also want to verify that you have not been paying a higher premium with your prior insurer as a result of these inaccurate reports. If you were, demand to get a return premium check for the difference.

If the insurer you’re trying to obtain a quote from will not accept this letter, you may just want to move on to an insurer that will. Would you want to be insured by an insurance company that doesn’t make things as easy as possible for you?

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Why do I have to fix my C.L.U.E. and MVR report?

Again, a fair question, and again, life isn’t fair. Insurers are often huge companies with tens of thousands or even millions of clients, and that means thousands or millions of claims per year. And just like errors on our credit report or with our personal banking accounts, we’re the ones on the hook to prove ourselves right and the reports wrong. The odds are stacked against us.

As discussed above, you may simply contact the insurer you were with when the report in question was prepared. It’s likely their “fault.” Keep in mind, that you already paid them in the form of a premium, so the least they can do is resolve errors they may have made regarding your driving records.

You certainly shouldn’t expect the insurer to prepare your new insurance quotes to help you. There’s no guarantee you’re going to purchase a policy from them, so why would they spend time (i.e. money) helping you get your house in order?

There’s also a little bit of built-in protection against insurance fraud here. While you may be the most honest person on the planet, there are plenty of people out there who aren’t and are looking to cut their insurance costs in any way possible, including lying about their previous driving history.

Everyone and their grandmother would be disputing claims if an insurer was responsible for figuring it all out. Insurers all over the U.S. would have to hire thousands of people (this is a multi-billion dollar industry) to play detective in claims history disputes, many of which would be bogus.

So, if you think insurance is expensive now…imagine what it would cost if the expense of thousands of additional employees were brought on to resolve these matters. Remember, profit margins are already set; any additional operating expense is passed on directly to us, the insured. Learn about how often errors can occur in these reports by reading the following section.

Why does this happen and how often?

TTAI is not aware of any particular statistics that show how often errors occur on these reports, but they certainly happen and they are not particularly rare. Insurance agents typically claim that it doesn’t happen all too often, which is of no solace to you if you’re reading this post. You can blame your fellow man and technology for the errors.

The information contained in these reports is keyed into a computer by a person at some point. People make mistakes every day. Chalk it up to modern life, where you’re a faceless account number in a giant computer system.

Finally, consider the fact that there are millions of insurance claims each year and you won’t be shocked that errors such as these occur from time to time. Now that you know what happens if our C.L.U.E. and MVR reports have wrong information on car insurance, read our FAQ section below.

Frequently Asked Questions: What if my C.L.U.E. and MVR reports are wrong?

We hope we’ve covered everything, but just in case, check out some common questions below.

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#1 – What is a bad MVR score?

This depends on several factors, including the area in which you live, as driving violations can be ranked differently by state. An MVR checks for several pieces of information that appear on a driver’s license as well as violations, crimes, and other driving-related information. Some states keep records for three years, others may keep them for ten years.

#2 – How do I file a LexisNexis Risk Solutions driving record dispute?

C.L.U.E accident reports come from LexisNexis, a company that deals in legal and risk solutions. The easiest way to file a C.L.U.E report dispute or a LexisNexis MVR dispute is to contact LexisNexis Consumer Center directly. You can also visit the LexisNexis Consumer Portal online.

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