19th January, 2022

In a nutshell, your claims history is a record of every motor insurance claim you have made on your policy in the past.

Whether you drive a car, van or motorbike, you’ll be asked to provide details of any previous claims you’ve made when you take out a new policy – usually in the last five years, although different companies have different requirements.

Your claims history will then be used to determine factors such as the cost of your insurance premium.

Not to worry if you can’t remember the dates or details of a previous claim, because it’s relatively easy to access them.

The simplest method of checking your car insurance claims history is to request it directly from the insurance company you were with when you made the claim.

They should be able to tell you when the incident happened, what type of claim you made, and what the outcome was - including whether anyone was injured.

If they don’t have the information, you can also check the Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE) database run by the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB).

The great thing about CUE is that it stores records of claims you’ve made for six years from the date a claim is closed.

To access your car insurance claims history, simply complete a data subject access request form which enables you to find out who you’re insured with – or have been insured with.

Once completed, you can submit this request form to the data controller for the Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE) who will later update you on your claims history.

If you believe that mistakes have been made – or that you’re claims history doesn’t seem right, you should contact the insurer that entered the information in question onto the database.

Unfortunately, you can’t use the CUE database to check claims made by other people. You’re only permitted to ask for details about your own claims history.

If you wish to check a vehicle’s claims history that you don’t own/considering purchasing - reputable sellers should be able to give you a full, documented history of any previous accidents and the original handbook to match.

If you’re worried that crucial information has been left out, or entered inaccurately, you can run the vehicle through the DVLA’s free Vehicle Information Checker.

Points to be aware of:

Insurance claims generally fall into two types:

Non-fault claims are claims when you were involved in an accident but the other driver accepts responsibility.

These claims are usually made against the other person’s insurance and your own insurer doesn’t have to pay out.

Fault claims are claims where you were responsible for an incident and your insurer has to pay out for some, or all, of the cost of any damages. Your insurer will be liable for the full cost of the damages for anyone else involved in the accident too, if you were completely to blame. 

Fault claims also include claims where you weren’t to blame, but your insurer still has to pay out. Such as; if the other driver wasn’t insured, or doesn’t stop at the scene of the accident.

Insurers consider several factors, including your claims history, when calculating your insurance premium.

Therefore, whether you believe yourself to be at fault or not, if you’ve made any claims on your insurance you must disclose it to an insurer when you get a quote.

It’s important to be honest, as details of the claim will also be recorded within the CUE database, so the insurer will be able to check what you’ve told them is true.
How much your premium will be affected depends on the nature of the claim, the value of the claim and how many you’ve made.

In some cases it’s simpler and less expensive to pay for repairs yourself - particularly if the cost of repairs is lower than your car insurance excess. But you still need to tell your insurer about all incidents (regardless of whether you claim) as failure to do so could invalidate your policy if they find out later.  These will also then be logged on the CUE database.

Here at One Call Insurance, we want you to know that it’s also still possible to save money on car insurance - even if you have previous claims.

For example, you could consider fitting your car with an alarm and parking your vehicle in a garage overnight, reducing your mileage and agreeing to pay a bigger voluntary excess could all reduce the cost of your overall premium.

If you’re an existing One Call Insurance customer who would like clarification on your claims history, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us via live chat and one of our advisors will be happy to assist.

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* Please note that the above information has been gathered through secondary research. The information provided is not based on our opinion. You should seek further guidance and information before making an informed decision.