The short answer: usually, if the accident was your fault, and by more than most drivers expect. The long answer depends on who caused the crash, how much damage it did, what state you live in, how clean your record was before it, and whether your policy carries accident forgiveness. Here is how each of those pieces moves the number, and when it makes sense to keep a small accident off the books.
If the accident was not your fault
Insurers surcharge drivers for accidents they cause. A crash the other driver caused should not by itself raise your rate, and California’s regulations spell out the logic: a driver is only “principally at fault” when their actions were at least 51 percent of the legal cause of the accident. That is why documentation matters so much at the scene. Get the other driver’s insurance and contact information, photograph everything, and let the police report establish fault rather than a handshake. If the other driver’s story changes later, the report is what your insurer relies on.
Not-at-fault does not mean invisible. The claim still enters your claims history, and the Texas Department of Insurance notes that while premiums can rise after claims and accidents, an insurer cannot charge you more for a claim that was never paid or for simply calling to ask what your policy covers. Ask questions freely; file deliberately.
If fault is shared
When both drivers contributed, insurers apportion fault between them, and your surcharge depends on which side of the line you land on. Under the California standard, a driver below the 51 percent threshold is not principally at fault; one above it is, provided the total damage exceeded $1,000. Other states draw their lines differently, but the mechanics are the same: someone assigns percentages, and those percentages drive the premium.
If the accident was your fault
Expect a real increase at renewal. A February 2026 LendingTree analysis of rates pulled in January found that auto premiums rise an average of 45 percent nationwide after an at-fault accident causing at least $2,000 in property damage — roughly $1,031 a year more, on full-coverage policies that already average in the $2,300s in 2026. The size of the surcharge scales with the severity of the crash and the state you live in, and a second accident on the record compounds it.
Small accidents can escape the surcharge entirely in some states. New York’s insurance law bars a surcharge for an accident that causes no more than $2,000 in total property damage, unless someone was hurt or it is one of several accidents in the rating period. California’s definition of principally at fault requires more than $1,000 in damage. Check your own state’s rules before you assume a fender-bender will cost you for years.
How long the surcharge lasts
There is no national rule, and the popular “three years” figure is a rule of thumb, not a law. The statutory examples point the same direction: New York limits conviction surcharges to serious violations within the 36 months before the policy takes effect, and California’s Good Driver Discount looks back three years, requiring a license for that period, no more than one violation point (a principally-at-fault property-damage accident counts as one), and no at-fault accident involving injury or death. The 2026 LendingTree study found at-fault accidents typically affect premiums for three to five years.
Your claims history outlives the surcharge. The C.L.U.E. database run by LexisNexis holds up to seven years of auto and property claims, and insurers check it when they quote you. You are entitled to one free copy every 12 months under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, at consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com or by phone at 1-888-497-0011. Pull it before you reshop after an accident; a wrong entry there follows you from quote to quote.
The no-fault wrinkle
Twelve states plus Puerto Rico run no-fault auto systems: Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Utah, with Kentucky, New Jersey and Pennsylvania letting drivers choose. No-fault means each insurer pays its own policyholder’s minor injury costs regardless of who caused the crash. It governs how injury claims are paid, not whether your premium goes up. An at-fault driver in a no-fault state still gets surcharged.
Accident forgiveness, and who actually gets it
Accident forgiveness is real, but it is not automatic and it is not universal. Progressive, for example, offers Small Accident Forgiveness, which keeps your rate unchanged after a first claim of $500 or less and is earned at policy start in most states; Large Accident Forgiveness, which forgives a bigger claim only after at least five years as a customer and five consecutive years without an accident or violation; and a purchasable version that forgives one eligible claim per policy period and varies by state. Allstate sells it as an optional add-on that you usually attach when you buy the policy, and it is not available in every state. Read your declarations page: if forgiveness is not listed, you do not have it, and the time to ask about it is before the accident.
Should you file at all?
Sometimes not. If the damage is close to your deductible, nobody was hurt and no other vehicle was involved, paying out of pocket keeps the claim off your record and avoids a surcharge that could cost more than the repair over three to five years. Run the arithmetic: repair cost minus deductible is what the claim pays you; the surcharge, multiplied by the years it lasts, is what the claim costs you. When the second number is bigger, self-insure it.
Two cautions. First, if another driver or any injury is involved, report it — state law often requires it, and a claim the other party files months later is far worse to face without your insurer on record. Second, your deductible is a lever you can set in advance: the Insurance Information Institute says raising a collision and comprehensive deductible from $200 to $500 can cut that part of the premium by 15 to 30 percent, and going to $1,000 can save 40 percent or more. Everything that raises your rate without an accident is in 5 Sneaky Reasons Your Car Insurance Went Up, and the 2026 market backdrop is in Auto Insurance in 2026: Premiums Finally Cool.