Your Credit Report Isn't The Only Report You Should Monitor
When an insurer decides whether to offer you a new policy, or whether to raise rates on a current one, he most likely pulls a CLUE report that lists any homeowner or automobile insurance loss claims (or sometimes even just inquiries) that you've made over the past 3-7 years. Hopefully you monitor your consumer credit report for errors, but as you can see, that's not the only one you should keep an eye on.
Consumer Reports has a detailed information page about companies that track and sell your personal information. The data comes in the form of consumer credit reports, insurance credit reports, your health history, your checking and banking account history, your criminal background, your history of retail returns, and your property rental history.
In most cases, you can pull free copies of these reports periodically, which is good because errors can pop up in these reports just like they can in a consumer credit history. But who has time to pull and monitor that many databases of personal information? The website PrivacyRights.org suggests you stick with yearly monitoring of your consumer credit report (the one you can get for free only at www.annualcreditreport.com), and pay attention to the other ones only under certain circumstances:
- New homeowner's or auto insurance: order your CLUE or A-PLUS reports
- Victim of check fraud or general checking or savings account problems: order your ChexSystems report
- Employer (current or potential) asks for permission to run background check: ask for name of the screening company and contact them as soon as they've issued the report
- Applying for a new job: order Employment Data Report from Work Number if any past employers used that company; also consider ordering a ChoicePoint Full File Disclosure
- Renting an apartment or home: ask the landlord for the name of the screening company, as there are several
- Health, life, long-term care, or disability insurance: order your MIB report from Medical Information Bureau
- General overall check-up on what you look like as data: order a ChoicePoint Full File Disclosure and a Lexus-Nexis Accurint Person Report
There is one time when you may want to go crazy and order everything, and that's if you've been a victim of identity theft.
(Thanks to commenter mac-phisto, whose advice in an earlier post on auto insurance triggered this one.)
"Big Brother is watching" [Consumer Reports]
"What You Should Know about 'Specialty' Reports" [Privacy Rights Clearinghouse]
(Photo: Erik Pitti)
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You can order both your Auto and Homeowners CLUE reports free of charge, and it is instantly viewable online. I just got mine and it was super simple, just enter your info answer a few questions.
During a government background check recently I had a fraudulent account that I disputed successfully and had removed from my credit reports years ago somehow show up. I'm still digging into it but have no answers so far. Fishy...
This is an area that seems ripe for a regulatory overhaul and consolidation. Since these are all financial servies related products, why not put them under a single office and then make it easier to pull your reports and make corrections. annualcreditreport is a good start, but it would be nice to be able to go to a single site to request reports and request corrections, that can span across the reports and providers. If you don't want a government run program, that's fine, but at least some sort of consolidated clearninghouse.
Don't forget these jokers if you somehow still need to use paper checks for payment:
Certegy Check/Cheque Services
[www.fidelityinfoservices.com]
Search "certegy" and you will find all numbers of people who have dealt with them in regards to refused checks. We were refused to use a paper check at PepBoys Auto for the purchase of 4 new tires, mounted and balanced- a local address check on a regional bank. We qualified to get a Certegy account report but it was a pain in the neck so I gave up getting one.
@shepd:
Well, decided to write the ombudsman instead after that, and it turns out nothing on auto insurance ever expires, some people have stuff on them 50+ years old.
Seems like it's time to start writing my MPP. This would make some nice easy private members bill, especially since the insurance industry has such a black eye in Ontario right now...
Well mine is accurate, showing the only insurance claim I've ever made on my car 5 years ago, so that's good :D
So this is the dreaded "Permanent Record" that my teachers used to warn me about when I acted up.
@steveliv: If any information of a CLUE report affects you in any way the Insurance company must tell you.
Plus if you have an agent that writes you a policy without mentioning he found activity on a clue report then you need to find a new agent QUICKLY!
@shepd: Why would you complain? It doesn't affect your insurance. The main reason they keep those records is for the purposes of fraud investigations.
Good luck getting the MIB report, I hear they don't really exist...
Is there some kind of central point from which you can get all these reports? And how do the aggregators give out medical reports without violating HIPAA?
(Actually, I'm really curious to see if my criminal report is still available.)
There was an error on our CLUE report (we are in the process of selling our house).
"There was a claim paid on your roof" according to our listing agent.
Uh, no. We had our insurance company come out when damage was done but the amount they were offering (a few hundred dollars) was so small (on a job that ended up costing us several thousand) that we said it wasn't worth it coming up on our claims history.
I challenged our insurance company- at first they were rather indignant that they would ever, ever make a mistake but a day later, they apologised and corrected the information that they sent out.
Grrr... CLUE can't verify my identity and can't tell me why. They suggest I contact the credit bureaus, awesome.
@shepd: Well, that stuff may never "go away", but as long as they don't take adverse action based on that information, you're ok.
Lucky that we both live in Kitchener, and not in the U.S. of Database Ridiculousness, eh? It's nice to be able to rent apartments here without the landlord even checking your credit, in my latest incidence. And raising your auto insurance rates here due to bad credit is illegal here, like it should be.
@shepd: But upon further reflection, it's good that we keep fighting to keep database creep at bay, lest we become worse than them. !
@ARP: Didn't you see what happened with "Government oversight" of the banks? They end up owning them as they crumble to the ground. All of this happens because of the laziness of citizens demonstrated in this type of post/thinking. Give me, Give me.
@H3ion: Is there some kind of central point from which you can get all these reports?
Two options for you.
1. I created a webpage that lists some of these.
2. Check out this Privacy Rights Clearinghouse article.
interesting.
i used to live with my sister and the C.L.U.E. reports showed her house and her car as well as mine.
also, my house was struck by lightning 2.5 years ago and allstate still has the claim open for the previous homeowner. i have no idea what to think about that
Love the IBM mainframe tape drives in the photo - those are from the IBM 360 series, last manufactured around 1970...
As a side note, FIS owns Clear Commerce/Certegy, ElecCheck (a Certegy product) and Chex Systems now...I think this only other major paper check reporting service out there is Telecheck, which I believe is still owned by FirstData.
@vaporland: Indeed, and I can still remember, as a computer operator, having to clean each tape drive on my shift. By the time I was done with all of them I had a little buzz going from the cleaning solvent.
I don't concern myself with any of that rubbish. It doesn't define me. Seems as though everyone is just a bit too worried what everyone else thinks of them. I'll take peace and contentment over paranoia any 'ol day.
@Buffet:
Well, I'm here to tell you, there's not a lot of "peace and contentement" to be had when someone steals your identity. (Guess how I know.)
@The Dude:
Jeez, I could of sworn that the problem was the total lack of "Government oversight" of the banks?
I guess the actual culprit was all of those SEC regulators overseeing the creation of "bucket shop" style derivatives, who must have gotten in the way of all the freedom-loving entrepeneurs on Wall Street. Otherwise they would have created a Randian market utopia and we would have been able to live happily ever after...
I've ordered my auto insurance report, and it still had accidents past the mandatory date of expiry for my province. I sent a complaint letter, but I'm letting it go for the moment because my insurance hasn't gone up due to them.
Next year, a few months before the time of renewal, I'll be writing a more official letter and getting the FSCO (The gov't dept in my province that deal with auto insurance) to help me out.
For those in Canada, you can get your auto insurance record from CGI. It is called an Auto Plus report.