Reader question:

If I purchase a used car, how do I figure out what the used car insurance history was of the person who owned it before me?

Randy

There are a couple of ways that you can go about this.

First of all, you might do yourself some good by getting a hold of older checks and credit card reports to see the history of the payments made for the vehicle. In order to figure out if you are even allowed to do this, get in touch with the depatmentof insurance for your state to see what the rules are about public information and so on. You can also call up your auto insurance agent and ask them what the history is of the vehicle, or talk to the car insurance company directly, failing that. If you are entitled to the information in your state and the car insurance company does not cooperate, then you can take it to the next level by filing a complain with your department of insurance.

Another way you can go is by checking out the reports that are connected to the car. There are two different kinds that will help you, here. One of them is the CARFAX vehicle report. This is very useful, because it will give you information about any previous collisions that your car has been involved in and is a big help when it comes to things such as determining the value of your car. Another report that you can get is the CLUE report, which can be gotten from ChoisePoint. This one is only accessible to you if you know a thing or two about the person you are getting the vehicle from. Used car insurance is usually cheaper than most, but you should still see what you are getting into any time you need to buy a used vehicle.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.