The database that remembers your claims — and how to read yours.

What is a CLUE report?

CLUE — the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange — is a claims-history database run by LexisNexis. When you file a home or auto claim, your carrier typically reports it: the date, the type of loss, the amount paid, and the property involved. Later, when you shop for coverage, the next company usually pulls that history and prices you partly on what it finds. Per the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CLUE holds up to seven years of home and personal-property claims. Legally it's a consumer report — same family as your credit report — which matters, because it comes with the same federal rights: a free copy, and a way to dispute what's wrong.

Do claims show up — or just phone calls?

Paid claims, almost always. Claims that were denied or closed without payment can show up too. The part that surprises people: calling your carrier's claim line to "just ask about" damage can also leave a mark — some carriers may open a claim record even for inquiries that never become claims, and a $0 entry can still prompt questions the next time you're quoted. Asking your agent the same question, on the other hand, is just a conversation. That distinction is most of the strategy here, and it's why we walk homeowners through the file-or-not math before anyone dials a claim line.

How do you get your free CLUE report?

Federal law entitles you to one free copy every 12 months. Three ways to ask LexisNexis:

• Online: consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com — submit a "Consumer Disclosure" request.
• By phone: 866-897-8126.
• By mail: LexisNexis Risk Solutions Consumer Center, P.O. Box 105108, Atlanta, GA 30348-5108.

Per the CFPB, companies that owe you a free annual report must provide it within fifteen days of your request. What arrives is a list of claims tied to your name and your addresses — read every line, even the boring ones. You can also ask LexisNexis to freeze your report, which some people do after identity theft.

What if there's an error on your report?

You have the right to dispute it — with LexisNexis and with the insurer that reported the information. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, they generally must investigate your dispute free of charge, and information that can't be verified as accurate generally has to be corrected. The errors we see most: a previous resident's claims attached to your name, a claim you withdrew showing as paid, or amounts that don't match reality. Dispute in writing, keep copies, and if it stalls, you can submit a complaint to the CFPB. (This is general information, not legal advice.)

How does CLUE affect buying or selling a house?

Claims histories are tied to properties as well as people, so a home's past claims can influence what the next owner pays — and, in a tight market, which companies want to quote it at all. As a buyer, you generally can't order a CLUE report on a house you don't own yet; the standard move is to ask the seller to request one and share it, ideally during the inspection period. As a seller, pulling your own report before listing lets you catch surprises — and errors — before a buyer's insurance company does. A clean loss history is a quiet selling point; a wrong one is fixable, but only if you see it first.

What's the takeaway before your next claim?

Every claim decision is also a CLUE decision — the moment a claim opens, the meter on that seven-year record starts. For big losses, that's fine: it's what the policy you shopped for exists to do. For small ones near your deductible, the smarter play is often paying cash and keeping the record clean, especially while Arizona premiums are already climbing. Either way, the order of operations doesn't change: agent first, claim line second — one of those conversations can end up in a database, and one doesn't.