FAQ
Insurance Reference Services Limited (IRS) holds a historical record of Australian insurance claims related information on individuals and companies on behalf of its IRS member insurance companies. This information is primarily used by these insurance companies and their third party agents to assist them in the validation of information provided to them during the course of an insurance policy – from quotation, risk assessment, policy in effect, and claims. The IRS database is primarily concerned with Australian motor and home insurance claims history.
My Insurance Claims Report includes information about you that you have disclosed to insurance companies in the course of obtaining insurance, making insurance claims or being a party to an insurance claim. It may include:
- Full name
- Date of birth and driver’s licence
- Gender
- Residential address
- Details of applications made for insurance
- Details of enquiries made by agents of insurance companies such as loss assessors, insurance investigators and recovery agents
- Details of claims made under insurance policies held in your name or jointly in your name
- Details of claims where you were named as a driver of an insured vehicle
You may have a My Insurance Claims Report if you’ve applied for an insurance policy, submitted a claim under an insurance policy, or being a party involved in an insurance claim with a member insurer of IRS.
My Insurance Claims Reports may be created in a number of ways. These are:
- as a result of an application for general insurance
- as the result of a third party insurance agency undertaking actions on behalf of an insurer
- as a result of a claim lodged under a general insurance policy
It’s a good idea to obtain a copy of your My Insurance Claims Report before shopping for insurance online or obtaining quotes from your insurance company, so that you are aware of the minimum claims information that you must disclose to insurers when purchasing a valid policy.
Failure to disclose historical claims detail for all nominated drivers on your motor policy may invalidate your insurance and cost you thousands.
Should you find any errors on your My Insurance Claims Report, you can request an amendment and get it rectified before it impacts any of your claims. If the error relates to insurance claims information please contact your insurer who supplied the data to IRS, as the error needs to be rectified at source. If the error relates to incorrect identity verification please contact IRS@insurancecouncil.com.au.
My Insurance Claims Report can contain the following information:
- Personal details such as name, residential address, date of birth, driver’s licence number
- Enquiries made by during the past five years including enquiries where cover applied but not taken out. The report records each enquiry by insurance companies, not actual insurance policies taken out
- Enquires made by third party agents of insurers during the course of a claims process
- Details of claims submitted to IRS member insurers – whether or not they eventuated in a payment, and may include withdrawn and denied claims.
If your Personal Details are not accurate please contact IRS@insurancecouncil.com.au. Further verification documents may be required. If further verification of the supporting documentation is not required, we will amend the entry within 5 working days and forward you a copy of your amended My Insurance Claims Report. If verification is required, please allow us 30 days to respond to you. Please note that your address history on your My Insurance Claims Report is not a chronological list of addresses you have lived at. Addresses and your employer’s name are added to your My Insurance Claims Report by insurers in conjunction with an insurance enquiry or claim you have made with them. Neither IRS nor illion add addresses or current employer information to the IRS database or My Insurance Claims Reports.
If an insurance claim or insurance enquiry on your My Insurance Claims Report is inaccurate, please contact the insurance company listed and request them to update their records. Your Insurance Claims Report will be updated within five days of the insurance provider submitting updated information.
IRS does not make any representation or warranty as to the information provided by IRS members and which is used to generate Insurance Claims Reports.
The amount of time taken to update information on your Insurance Claims Report can vary.
If an insurance provider is updating an entry they have placed on your Insurance Claims Report, the maximum delay will be five working days from the time they notify illion of the required update. Depending on the method used by the insurance provider, the update may be completed more quickly.
If you need illion to update your personal identity verification you will need you to notify illion in writing. It is a good idea to also provide us with documentation that may assist us.
Legislation allows us 30 days in which to complete this process; however most times a response is issued much earlier.
- Insurance enquiries are held on your My Insurance Claims Report for five years
- Insurance claims are held on your My Insurance Claims Report for ten years.
- Identify information, which includes name, date of birth, sex, driver’s licence, address history and linked names (if any) are held for the life of the My Insurance Claims Report. This information is used to distinguish the Insurance Claims Report from others held on the database.
- Purge dates are calculated on the date the information was added to the file, and are based on the time limits provided by the Privacy Act 1988.
- Files are scanned each month and out of date information is automatically purged to ensure the Insurance Claims Reports are accurate.