Accidents do not fall off your insurance in Texas on one date, because three separate clocks are running and Texas law sets none of them. Your Texas driving record with DPS generally shows an accident for about 3 years. Your insurer’s surcharge usually lasts 3 to 5 years, and that is their rule, not the state’s. And your CLUE report, held by LexisNexis, keeps the claim for 7 years, at fault or not, which is what a new insurer sees when you shop. So you can be clean with your current carrier and still get surcharged by the next one.
When Do Accidents Fall Off Insurance Texas: Key Facts at a Glance
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Does Texas law set a fall-off date? | No. There is no Texas statute setting one. |
| Texas driving record (DPS) | Roughly 3 years for most incidents, longer for serious ones |
| Your insurer’s surcharge window | Typically 3 to 5 years, set by the carrier |
| CLUE report (LexisNexis) | 7 years, at fault or not at fault |
| Do all accidents hit your driving record? | No. Usually only if you are at fault or cited. |
| Can Texas insurers surcharge a not-at-fault crash? | Yes. California and Oklahoma ban it. Texas does not. |
| Does Texas still have driving points? | No. The Driver Responsibility Program was repealed in 2019. |
| Is the CR-2 Blue Form still required? | No. Retired September 1, 2017. |
| Texas minimum liability | 30/60/25, not 15/30/5 |
| Deadline to sue | 2 years from the date of the crash |
There Are Three Clocks, and Texas Sets None of Them
Everyone asks this question as though there were a single date involved, imagining a particular day when the accident simply vanishes and your rates return to normal.
There is no such day, because there are three separate records, kept by three different organisations and running on three different timers, and the one that lasts longest is the one almost nobody has heard of.
Here is the entire picture in a single table, before we work through each one individually.
| The record | Who keeps it | How long | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your driving record (MVR) | Texas DPS | About 3 years for most incidents | Insurers, employers |
| Your rating history | Your own insurer | 3 to 5 years of surcharge | Your current carrier |
| Your CLUE report | LexisNexis | 7 years | Any insurer you apply to |
Now for the part that matters most, which is that Texas law does not set any of these. No statute says an accident falls off your insurance after a given number of years. The three-to-five-year surcharge is your carrier’s own underwriting rule, and the seven years is a private database’s retention policy, so the state sets neither of them.
That is exactly why the answers you find online contradict each other, because everyone is describing a different clock without saying which one.
Clock One: Your Texas Driving Record at DPS
Your Motor Vehicle Record is the official driving history maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and it shows traffic convictions, license suspensions and moving violations.
A standard Type 3A Texas MVR typically shows about three years of driving history, though serious infractions stay visible for longer, and a DWI conviction can follow you considerably longer than that.
There is one thing worth getting straight here, because two separate Texas agencies are involved and people mix them up constantly.
TxDOT stores crash reports, while DPS maintains your driving record. Those are two different agencies running two different systems, so a crash report existing at TxDOT does not automatically mean anything landed on your DPS record.
Do All Accidents Show Up on Your Driving Record?
No, and this is one of the more useful things on this page to understand properly.
You generally have to be found at fault or receive a citation for a crash to affect your Texas driving record. If someone rear-ends you at a light and you are cited for nothing, there is usually nothing to put on your record.
What actually lands there is a conviction, so if you were cited for speeding, running a red light or reckless driving and that citation results in a conviction, that is what goes on your record. The crash itself is not the entry, the conviction is.
Which means a not-at-fault accident can leave your DPS record completely untouched while still costing you real money through the other two clocks.
Clock Two: Your Insurance Company’s Surcharge Window
This is the clock that people actually mean when they ask the question, and it belongs entirely to your carrier rather than to the state.
Most insurers apply an accident surcharge for 3 to 5 years, matching their own look-back window, and it commonly resets at each policy renewal within that period. Most review roughly a three-year window when calculating premiums.
There is no Texas law setting this, because it is purely an underwriting decision, which is why Progressive, State Farm and GEICO can each give you a different answer about the same crash. Carriers weigh accidents differently, and that difference is the opening you can actually use. It is also the reason that shopping your policy after an accident often works considerably better than simply waiting.
Two Texas-specific things worth knowing:
Your insurer can raise your rates for a crash that was not your fault. Most insurers raise rates roughly 7% to 12% after a not-at-fault claim. California and Oklahoma prohibit this practice by law, but Texas does not, which means that in Texas being hit by somebody else can genuinely cost you money.
A serious infraction can end the relationship entirely. If your carrier discovers the crash involved reckless driving or DWI, it may choose to non-renew your policy or even cancel it mid-term.
Accident forgiveness is worth understanding properly. It prevents a rate increase after a first at-fault accident at that carrier. It does not remove the accident from your CLUE report or your driving record. It is a discount on one clock, not an eraser for all three.
Clock Three: Your CLUE Report, 7 Years, and Nobody Told You
This is the clock that surprises people the most, and it also happens to be the longest of the three.
CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, and it is a claims database operated by LexisNexis which holds your insurance claims history for seven years, covering both at-fault and not-at-fault claims regardless of who was responsible.
Here is why that matters more than the other two clocks combined. When you shop for a new policy, the new insurer pulls your CLUE report, so the accident your current carrier stopped surcharging at year four is still sitting there at year five, visible to every company you apply to.
The good news here is genuine, because although a new insurer will still see the accident, it may well apply a smaller surcharge than your current carrier does. Different companies weigh the same claim differently, and that is the entire argument for shopping around rather than waiting.
You are entitled to one free CLUE report per year under federal law. Request it directly from LexisNexis at LexisNexisRisk.com. Read it carefully, and if something on it is wrong, dispute it through the LexisNexis consumer dispute process.
Almost nobody actually does this, yet it is fifteen minutes of work that can be worth hundreds of dollars, because an error sitting on your CLUE report is priced into every single quote you receive for seven years.
Texas Does Not Have a Driving Points System Anymore
This is worth stating plainly, because several pages currently ranking for this question still describe one as though it exists.
Texas repealed its Driver Responsibility Program in 2019. That program was where the points and the state surcharges lived. It is gone entirely, so Texas no longer uses a traditional point system to add state surcharges to your license.
Violations obviously still carry consequences, including fines and penalties, license suspensions under Texas Transportation Code Section 521.292 for serious offences, and the insurance effects described above. But if you read that “points from an accident stay on your Texas record for three years,” you are reading something written before 2019 or copied from a page that was.
What Happens If You Don’t Report an Accident in Texas, and the Blue Form Is Dead
Two entirely separate duties get tangled together here, so let us separate them properly.
Your legal duty to report. Under Texas Transportation Code Section 550.001, you must report a crash to authorities if there is an injury or the damage appears to exceed $1,000. Law enforcement then has an obligation under Section 550.062 to file a CR-3, the Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report, with TxDOT within 10 days where there was injury, death or property damage of $1,000 or more.
The CR-2 Blue Form no longer exists as a requirement. This is the correction most Texas pages have not caught up with.
Effective September 1, 2017, under Senate Bill 312 of the 85th Texas Legislature, the Driver’s Crash Report (Form CR-2) is no longer retained by TxDOT. As of January 1, 2019, the retention period expired for all CR-2 forms. TxDOT states on its own site that it no longer has any Driver’s Crash Reports in its records and no longer hosts or provides the form. Any CR-2 submitted to TxDOT now gets destroyed under its records retention policy.
Officers still hand them out occasionally, mostly as a way of documenting a minor crash they would rather not write up, so keep it for your own records if you are given one. Do not mail it to TxDOT, because nothing whatsoever will happen to it.
Your contractual duty to your insurer is entirely separate and it still applies. Tell your own insurer promptly, even when you were not at fault, and even when no police report exists. You do not want your carrier hearing about a crash from the other driver first, and most policies require prompt notice as a condition of coverage.
So what happens if you skip it? On the state duty, failing to report a reportable crash can carry legal consequences, while on the insurance duty, late notice can give your insurer grounds to deny the claim outright. And practically, if the other driver reports it and you did not, you have handed them the only version of the story.
How Long After a Car Accident Can You Sue in Texas?
Two years from the date of the accident for a personal injury claim. That is the Texas statute of limitations, and it is close to absolute.
Two things about that deadline:
It runs from the crash date itself, rather than from when the claim was resolved or from when you discovered how bad the injury actually was.
Texas uses modified comparative negligence. Your recovery gets reduced by your share of fault. Settle a $20,000 claim while 25% responsible and you receive $15,000. Above 51% at fault and you generally recover nothing.
If a serious injury is involved, do not run this clock down while you negotiate with an adjuster. Once it expires, your bargaining position disappears entirely.
What Is the 15/30/5 Rule? It Is Not Texas
This question shows up alongside Texas searches constantly, and the answer is a straightforward correction.
15/30/5 is not a Texas rule. Texas requires 30/60/25:
- $30,000 for bodily injury per person
- $60,000 for bodily injury per accident
- $25,000 for property damage
15/30/5 is a liability minimum format used elsewhere, and it is roughly half of what Texas requires. If you are a Texas driver operating on the assumption that 15/30/5 is your legal minimum, you are underinsured against your own state’s requirement, and badly underinsured against the cost of a real crash.
Honestly, so is 30/60/25, because a single serious injury blows through $30,000 very quickly, which is why Texas itself encourages drivers to carry more than the minimum. The minimum is a legal floor rather than a plan.
How Much Will My Insurance Go Up After a Minor Accident in Texas?
It varies according to your carrier, the severity, your record and where in Texas you live, so any single percentage you see quoted is really a guess dressed up as a fact.
What can be said honestly:
A not-at-fault claim typically adds 7% to 12%, and Texas permits this.
An at-fault accident costs more and lasts longer, generally the full 3 to 5 years.
Severity drives duration. A minor at-fault crash with no injuries generally sits on your driving history around three years. A crash causing severe injuries or fatalities, or one involving reckless driving or DWI, follows you considerably longer, potentially 7 to 10 years for the associated violations.
Your carrier matters more than the accident does. The same crash produces genuinely different surcharges at different companies, which is the single most useful fact in this entire section.
How to Remove an Accident From Your Insurance Record
Mostly you cannot, and anybody promising otherwise is selling you something, but there are four legitimate moves available.
Dispute genuine errors. If the claim is recorded wrong, wrong date, wrong fault, wrong amount, or is not yours at all, dispute it with LexisNexis. This is the only route that actually removes anything from the record, and it works only when something is genuinely factually wrong.
Shop the accident to a different carrier. You are not removing it at all, you are simply reducing what it costs you. New insurers see the CLUE entry but weigh it differently, and some are meaningfully more forgiving after three years than others.
Take a Texas-approved defensive driving course. Some insurers will offer a discount or a better rate for completing one, although it does not delete anything from your record.
Wait out the correct clock, which means knowing precisely which one you are actually waiting on. If your current carrier’s surcharge is done at year three but you are still being quoted high elsewhere, that is the CLUE report at work, and it has seven years to run.
What Not to Tell Your Insurance Company
This gets searched constantly, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a knowing wink.
There is nothing you should hide from your own insurer about the crash. Report it promptly and accurately. Concealing a crash, or misrepresenting how it happened, is material misrepresentation, and it gives your carrier grounds to deny the claim and void the policy. That trade is never worth making, because it turns a survivable rate increase into an outright catastrophe.
What people are actually reaching for is a different and legitimate question: what should you be careful about saying at the scene and afterwards? That has real answers.
Do not speculate about fault. Report what happened. “I’m sorry, it was my fault” is a legal conclusion you are not qualified to reach at the roadside with adrenaline running, and Texas apportions fault by percentage. That sentence can cost you 25% of a settlement.
Do not guess about anything. If you do not know your speed, do not estimate it, because guesses quickly become facts in a file.
Never say how badly you are hurt at the scene. People walk away from crashes feeling fine because shock masks pain, then wake up the next morning unable to move. “I’m fine” gets quoted back to you three weeks later. Say you will be assessed by a doctor.
What Not to Say to the Insurance Adjuster
The key distinction here is whose adjuster you are actually speaking to.
Your own insurer’s adjuster is working under a contract that you bought and paid for, so be honest and complete with them.
The other driver’s adjuster is not your adjuster. Their job is to resolve the claim for as little as possible, and they are good at it.
With the other side’s adjuster:
You are not required to give a recorded statement, and it is reasonable to decline until you have advice. A recorded statement is a permanent record made before you know the extent of your injuries.
Do not accept the first offer as a matter of course. Early offers commonly arrive before the medical picture is clear, and once you have signed a release you are finished.
Do not minimise your injuries. “It’s just a sore neck” is precisely the sentence that gets read back to you later.
Do not sign a blanket medical authorisation without understanding what you are opening up.
None of that is a trick at all, it is simply the difference between being honest and being your own opposing counsel.
What Scares Insurance Adjusters?
Not clever phrases, because there is a whole small industry of content promising magic words, and those words do not exist.
What actually changes an adjuster’s posture is unglamorous:
Documentation. Photos, the CR-3 report, witness names, medical records with dates, and repair estimates in writing, because an organised file is considerably harder to lowball than a story.
Consistency. A version of events that has not changed over time, because inconsistencies are the very first thing an adjuster looks for.
Medical treatment that started promptly and then continued. Gaps in treatment are the most common way that a genuine injury ends up being valued as a fake one.
Knowing the deadline. Texas gives you two years. An adjuster who senses you have no idea about that has a very different conversation than one who knows you are aware of it.
Representation, where the injury is serious. An attorney letter changes the arithmetic, because it changes what happens if the claim is not resolved fairly.
That is the honest list, and it amounts to preparation rather than incantations.
The Honest Read: What to Actually Do in Texas
Work out which clock you are actually on. If your current carrier is still surcharging you at year four, that is their own rule and you can shop it elsewhere. Getting bad quotes from everyone at year five? That is CLUE, and it has seven years.
Pull your free CLUE report today, since you get one per year at no cost from LexisNexis. If an error is sitting on it, that error is being priced into every quote for seven years, and you are the only person who will ever notice it.
Shop after an accident rather than waiting it out. Carriers weigh the same crash differently, and that spread is the fastest money on this page.
Do not rely on Texas law to protect you here. It sets no fall-off date at all, and unlike California and Oklahoma it permits insurers to surcharge you for crashes that were never your fault.
Report to your own insurer promptly, and be accurate about it. A rate increase is survivable, whereas a voided policy is not.
Do not mail anyone a Blue Form, because it has not existed since 2017 and TxDOT will simply destroy it.
And if there is a real injury, keep watching the two-year clock, because it is the one deadline on this page that ends your options entirely.
Final Word on When Accidents Fall Off Insurance in Texas
The reason nobody can give you a straight answer is that the question assumes a single date, and there is no single date. There is a DPS record running about three years, a carrier surcharge running three to five, and a CLUE file running seven. They are kept by different organisations, they answer to different rules, and Texas legislated none of them.
Which means the genuinely useful move is not waiting at all, but knowing which record is costing you money right now and doing the one thing that works against it. Pull the CLUE report. Check it for errors. Shop the policy. And keep the two-year lawsuit deadline in view if anyone was hurt.
The accident does fall off eventually, but what you do in the meantime is worth considerably more than the date itself.
FAQs
When do accidents fall off insurance in Texas?
There is no single date, because three clocks run at once and Texas law sets none of them. Your DPS driving record generally shows an accident for about three years, your insurer’s surcharge usually lasts three to five years, and your CLUE report at LexisNexis keeps the claim for seven years.
How long does an accident stay on your insurance in Texas?
Most insurers surcharge for three to five years, using their own look-back window rather than any Texas law. That is why Progressive, State Farm and GEICO can all give different answers for the same crash, and why shopping your policy after an accident often works better than waiting.
What is a CLUE report and why does it last seven years?
CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, a claims database run by LexisNexis that retains both at-fault and not-at-fault claims for seven years. Any insurer you apply to pulls it, so a claim your current carrier has stopped surcharging can still affect new quotes.
How do I get my CLUE report?
Federal law entitles you to one free CLUE report per year, requested directly from LexisNexis at LexisNexisRisk.com. Read it for errors, since a wrong entry is priced into every quote you receive for seven years, and dispute anything incorrect through the LexisNexis consumer dispute process.
Do all accidents show up on your driving record in Texas?
No. You generally have to be found at fault or receive a citation for a crash to affect your Texas driving record, and what actually lands there is a conviction rather than the crash itself. A not-at-fault accident can leave your DPS record untouched while still costing you money through CLUE.
Can Texas insurers raise my rates for an accident that was not my fault?
Yes. Most insurers raise rates roughly 7% to 12% after a not-at-fault claim, and while California and Oklahoma prohibit this by law, Texas does not. Being hit by someone else can cost you money in Texas.
Does Texas still have a driving points system?
No. Texas repealed its Driver Responsibility Program in 2019, which is where the points and state surcharges lived. Violations still carry fines and possible license suspension under Texas Transportation Code Section 521.292, but pages describing a Texas points system are out of date.
Is the CR-2 Blue Form still required in Texas?
No. The Driver’s Crash Report, Form CR-2, was retired effective September 1, 2017 under Senate Bill 312. TxDOT no longer retains, hosts or provides it, and any CR-2 sent to TxDOT is destroyed. Officers still hand them out, so keep it for your own records only.
What happens if you don’t report an accident in Texas?
Texas Transportation Code Section 550.001 requires you to report a crash to authorities if there is an injury or damage appears to exceed $1,000, and law enforcement must file a CR-3 with TxDOT within 10 days. Separately, failing to notify your own insurer promptly can give it grounds to deny your claim.
How long after a car accident can you sue in Texas?
Two years from the date of the accident for a personal injury claim, running from the crash date rather than from when you discovered the injury’s extent. Texas also uses modified comparative negligence, so your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault.
What is the 15/30/5 rule and does it apply in Texas?
It does not apply in Texas. Texas requires 30/60/25, meaning $30,000 bodily injury per person, $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 property damage. 15/30/5 is a liability minimum used elsewhere and is roughly half what Texas requires.
How much will my insurance go up after a minor accident in Texas?
It depends on your carrier, the severity, your record and your location, so any single percentage is a guess. A not-at-fault claim typically adds 7% to 12%, while an at-fault accident costs more and generally lasts the full three to five years.
Does accident forgiveness remove the accident from my record?
No. Accident forgiveness prevents a rate increase after a first at-fault accident at that carrier, but it does not remove the accident from your CLUE report or your DPS driving record. It is a discount on one clock, not an eraser for all three.
How do I remove an accident from my insurance record?
Mostly you cannot, and only genuine errors can be removed by disputing them with LexisNexis. What you can do is shop the accident to a carrier that weighs it less heavily, take a Texas-approved defensive driving course for a possible discount, and wait out the correct clock.
What not to tell your insurance company after a Texas accident?
Nothing should be hidden from your own insurer, since concealing or misrepresenting a crash is material misrepresentation that can void your policy. What you should avoid is speculating about fault, guessing at your speed, or saying you are fine at the scene before a doctor has assessed you.
About the Author
Md Shahinuzzaman is an Insurance and Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Cost Specialist with 16 years of experience in banking and insurance. He writes plain-English guides that help people understand what they are being charged and why. Every figure on this page traces to a named source, and where a number cannot be verified, it is not published. This article is general information and not legal advice. Reviewed July 2026.
Related Reading
Sources
Texas Department of Insurance, auto insurance consumer information: https://www.tdi.texas.gov/auto/index.html
Texas Department of Transportation, Crash Reports and Records (CR-2 retirement, SB 312): https://www.txdot.gov/data-maps/crash-reports-records.html
Texas Transportation Code Section 550.062 (peace officer crash report duty): https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.550.htm
Texas Transportation Code Section 521.292 (license suspension): https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.521.htm
FindLaw, Texas Car Accident Report Basics (30/60/25 and two-year limit): https://www.findlaw.com/state/texas-law/texas-car-accident-report-basics.html
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