How Long Does a Hail Claim Stay on Your Record?

Up to seven years. LexisNexis C.L.U.E., the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, collects and reports up to seven years of auto insurance claims, and a hail claim on your auto policy is one of them. You do not have to guess what it says about you. Under federal law (the Fair Credit Reporting Act), LexisNexis provides one free copy of your own report every 12 months if you ask, and it delivers it within 15 days of receiving the request.

So the real questions are what that report means for you, and whether it should change how you handle this storm.

What "your record" means for a hail claim

When people ask whether a hail claim goes on their record, they usually mean one thing: will the next insurance company know about it. The record that answers that is your claims history report.

C.L.U.E. is one of the consumer reporting companies the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lists, and its name says what it is for: underwriting, the process insurers use to decide whether to cover you and at what price. It collects auto insurance claims, which includes a comprehensive claim for hail.

Why comprehensive? The standard personal auto policy form lists the losses it treats as "other than collision", and "Hail, water or flood" is one of them. So a hail claim is filed under the comprehensive part of your policy, not collision. It is still an auto insurance claim, and it still goes in the history.

This post is about that report. If you have a question about a traffic record or anything else, that is a different system with its own rules.

How long a hail claim stays on the report

The CFPB's listing for LexisNexis C.L.U.E. describes it this way:

"It collects and reports up to seven years of auto insurance claims"

Two words in that sentence matter. "Up to" means seven years is the outer edge of the window, not a fixed term every claim serves. And "auto insurance claims" means the report is not limited to accidents. A hail claim on your auto policy falls inside it.

In practical terms, a claim from this year's storm can still be on your report seven years from now.

That is not a reason to panic about one storm claim. It is a reason to know what is on your report, and to make the decision to file with your eyes open.

The same goes for a household with more than one car in the driveway. If hail hit two cars and you file for both, each car typically carries its own deductible. Check your declarations page and ask your agent how many claims that makes. Our post on two cars hit by hail covers how to decide which to claim.

What the report means when you shop or renew

Whether a hail claim changes your premium is a separate question from how long it stays on the report, and the answer depends on the carrier. Hail is claimed under comprehensive coverage, and each carrier decides how it weighs a comprehensive claim. Our guide to whether a hail claim raises your rates goes through what to ask.

What the report does settle is this: a new insurer has a way to see claims from the last several years. That means three things for you.

• Answer applications accurately. If an application asks about past claims, give the same answer the report would.
• Know your own history first. Pull your report before you shop, so nothing on a quote surprises you. Have the storm date and claim number for each hail claim on hand when you fill in an application.
• Keep your own notes. A short file with each claim's date, the storm and the car makes it easy to check the report against what you remember.

If the report shows a claim you do not recognize, or the wrong car, that is worth sorting out before an insurer acts on it.

How to get your own C.L.U.E. report free

You can see exactly what the report says about you. According to the CFPB's listing for LexisNexis C.L.U.E.:

"This company will provide one free report every 12 months if you request it."

The same listing says the report is delivered "within fifteen days of receiving your request". The free copy comes from federal law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Start your request from the CFPB listing linked above.

When it arrives, check:

• Each claim listed. Is every claim yours, and is anything missing or doubled?
• The dates. Do they match the storms and events you remember?
• The vehicle. Is each claim tied to the right car?

If something looks wrong, contact LexisNexis and ask how to have it corrected. Keep a copy of what you sent and when.

A simple habit is to ask for your free copy at the same time each year, for example each spring before storm season, and keep each copy with your policy papers.

Should the record change whether you file?

For heavy damage, usually not. A claim exists to pay for a repair you could not easily cover yourself, and up to seven years on a report is the trade for that.

For light damage, it is worth a minute of math before you call. The claim can stay on the report for up to seven years whether it pays a little above your deductible or a lot. On a comprehensive claim you pay your deductible and the insurer pays the approved repair above it, so the question is how much the claim is actually worth to you.

• Get the repair number first. A real number beats a guess. Our free estimate starts with a scan of every panel.
• Compare it with your deductible. Your declarations page shows your comprehensive deductible. On the shop's published ranges, light damage across one or two panels runs roughly $1,500 to $3,000, so check how far above your deductible your own number really sits.
• Then decide. If you file, the hail claim process walks through each step in order.

Getting a repair number is not filing a claim. You can have the damage documented and still decide not to file.

Know the number before it goes on your record

The cheapest time to decide whether a claim is worth it is before you open one. A free 3D scan at our Leavenworth shop takes about 10 minutes and documents every panel, with dent counts, sizes and depths, so you are weighing a real repair number against your deductible. Bring your declarations page, so the deductible is in front of you too. If you claim, paintless repair typically takes 5-7 days, and the insurer can be billed directly.