How Do Insurance Companies Check Your Driving Record ?

Bobby just called me for a car insurance quote…

Before calling me, though, Bobby went to his local MTO office and had his driver’s abstract printed.

So now, he was ready to answer all my questions about his driving record; he had his driver’s abstract sitting in front of him.

When I asked him how many tickets he had, he looked at his driver’s abstract and it showed two – Two minor speeding tickets. So that’s what he told me.

Then I asked him how many accidents he had. His driver’s abstract didn’t show any, so he told me had had none.

So far so good – Two minor tickets and no accidents; that’s not too bad. I gave him the quote and it was a really good rate. So Bobby wanted to set up the policy.

Checking your driving record

As you know, I’m an insurance broker. Part of my job is to check your driving record myself if you want to set up an auto insurance policy. I have to do it; the insurance companies require it. I’m not allowed to just take your word for it when it comes to how many tickets and accidents you have. So I checked Bobby’s driving record.

And, guess what? Bobby had two accidents. He didn’t tell me the truth!

When I told Bobby that I found two accidents, he was flabbergasted. How could that be?!? He checked his own driving record. He had his own driver’s abstract. there were no accidents there. How in the world did I find those two accidents?

Ahhhh, see… when insurance companies check your driving record, they check more than just your driver’s abstract. Driver’s abstracts don’t show accidents. Accidents are recorded on a totally separate database, which is called Autoplus. Autoplus is basically an insurance history which records, among other things, all the accidents that a person has had. Most people don’t realize this, nor would I expect them to. Bottom line is, insurance companies will find out about your previous accidents, even if they don’t show up on your driver’s abstract (Which they never do).

So, I had to re-rate Bobby’s quote. The accidents affected his premium, which wasn’t as good anymore.

By the way, Bobby is just a fictitious person. But, this scenario plays out all the time. When you call me for a quote, it’s best to tell me all the correct info about your driving record up front; you can’t hide anything anyway.