How Long Does an Accident Stay on Your Car Insurance?

An at-fault accident typically affects your car insurance rate for 3 to 5 years. The exact window depends on your insurer's surcharge lookback, your state's regulatory caps, and the severity of the accident. In published aggregator benchmarks the average at-fault surcharge adds about 44 percent to the premium for the duration of the lookback window, with the surcharge typically front-loaded (highest at the first renewal, declining each year until it drops off).

Lookback windows by carrier

• Progressive: 3 years for most at-fault incidents; 5 years for severe at-fault incidents and DUI.
• Allstate: 5 years is the standard surcharge lookback.
• State Farm: 3 years for minor at-fault accidents; up to 5 years for more severe accidents.
• GEICO: 5 to 7 years depending on state and severity (longer for DUI and reckless driving).
• USAA: 3 to 5 years, severity-dependent.
• California: state insurance code restricts the at-fault surcharge window to 3 years for most accidents regardless of the carrier's standard lookback.

At-fault vs not-at-fault

Most states and most carriers do not surcharge for a not-at-fault accident. A handful of state insurance departments have taken formal positions requiring insurers to disregard not-at-fault incidents in rating:

• California, New York, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, and others require insurers to omit not-at-fault accidents from the rate-setting process.
• Not-at-fault accidents still appear on your CLUE loss history for 5 to 7 years. A future insurer can see the accident existed even though it does not surcharge for it.

How the surcharge ages off

Most carriers apply the surcharge on a declining schedule:

• Year 1 after the accident: full surcharge (typically 30 to 50 percent).
• Year 2: moderately lower.
• Year 3: lower still (sometimes already removed in 3-year-lookback states).
• Year 4 to 5: tapering to zero.

Switching carriers mid-cycle does not erase the accident. The new carrier will see it on CLUE and typically apply its own surcharge schedule from scratch, often resetting the clock.

Accident forgiveness and the surcharge

If you had accident forgiveness on your policy at the time of the accident, your current carrier does not apply the surcharge. The accident still shows on your CLUE report, and a new carrier will typically see it and may surcharge.