if I move to a new state and buy a new car insurance policy, must I report violations in other states?

i had two car accidents - one in arizona in summer 2004 and the other in texas in summer 2005, both of which i was at fault. at the time, i had california car insurance, which covered my accidents. i did everything legally and paid for my mistakes. i just moved to pennsylvania and need to buy a new car insurance policy here. do i need to report my prior car accdidents to my new insurance company? if I don't tell them about them, willl they find out anyway?

Public Comments

1. You have to tell them, they will find out anyway, but if you don't tell them they may not be responsible for covering you if you get into an accident. It will be cheaper in the long run to tell them.
2. your driving record stays with you no matter where you live, and if you lie to the insurance company, they have the right to drop your insurance, and classify you as high risk, which may triple your amount in costs, and if they drop your insurance, you can also have your license suspended, which will cost a lot more
3. They will check -- takes about six seconds. (get that second job you've been thinking about)
4. Yes. Most insurance companies use similar verbage on their application documents which ask for you to list all accidents and citations you have received. At fault accidents and citations remain chargeable for up to 3 years from the date of their occurrence; however, on one of your previous questions, you indicated that you are attending school in PA and may claim CA residency. My advice is to try and maintain your CA policy unless the rates in PA are substantially better. Also, if you don't reveal the accidents to your new carrier, they will find out anyway because your CA insurance company paid for them. Almost all insurance carriers are members of CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange). This is like a credit report for your vehicle and driver's license that will pull up any and all losses that were reported to an insurance company and will indicate chargeablilty and amounts paid on claims. If you new insurance carrier believes that you are guilty of gross misrepresentation, they may cancel your policy short term or even rescind it if they can show that your driving record would not meet their underwriting guidelines.
5. Don't be a dufus. Don't tell them anything. Make them work for a living. Chances are somebody screwed up somewhere and did not record your accidents into the 'supergodcomputer of insurance claims'. If they say, hey we found this accident and are going to raise your rates, cancel the policy and go somewhere else. Play the game again, chances are somebody new screwed up at the next place. People who work in insurance only do it because they have to to pay their own bills. Most of the time they are just shuffling papers to fool the boss, goofing off, talking to their yakky coworkers, and surfing the internet. Very few of them do their job right. Use that to your advantage.
6. Yes, you need to tell them. Virtually all insurance companies subscribe to one or more services that exchange that information with the states and with each other. Failure to disclose a material fact when applying for insurance is considered insurance fraud and is a felony in many states. At the very least your insurance would be cancelled and you would probably be forced into the assigned risk pool. If you had an accident and the insurance company discovered your fraud during its investigation (they DO check those things as a routine part of the claims process!) they could deny coverage and leave you holding the bag for the whole bill.
7. They will find out anyway. If you have been licensed less than 3 years in a state the insurance company has to run the driving records for all states. They may miss one of them when they run the records but they wont miss both.
8. They are going to ask. If you don't tell them and they find out later, they will drop you like a hot potato.
9. Yes, you do need to tell them about your prior accidents. If you don't, they will find out as they will ask you for your previous Insurance co. info and contact them to verify if you had any accidents and if they find out that you did, they can surcharge your policy or flat cancel it due to material misrepresentation as you essentially lied on the application.
10. No, you don't have to - because it will show up on your record, and then you'll get either an "uprate" or a cancellation notice for failure to disclose. Believe me, they WILL find out. PA is hooked into driving records with the other states DMV's, AND the companies check claims records via CLUE report. And with two at-faults, you'll get the cancellation notice, which will give you 10 days, and then you're starting all over again.
11. Hello? I don't believe when you get a quote they ask about just this state where you live. They want to know all incidents and all details. So you get some advice from the insurance haters of the world that says don't disclose anything. Well, that just means this nice little quote you got will increase to properly rate your risk quickly (if they don't drop you), maybe the same day. So do you want to be up front and get the right price, or lie and be seen in that light? We make mistakes, we have accidents, we cause damage, we need to own up to it. Before you know it, they will be off your record.