When Points Fall Off Your Record in Texas: Surcharge Program Ended

Texas points stay on your driving record for 3 years from the conviction date. A speeding ticket assigned 2 points in 2023 will remain visible to insurers until 2026, even though the state no longer charges the separate Driver Responsibility Program surcharges that used to add $100–$200 per year on top of your insurance premium increase. The Driver Responsibility Program ended September 1, 2019, and the state forgave all outstanding surcharge debt. If you received a ticket before that date and still carry unpaid surcharges, those balances were wiped. If your license was suspended for unpaid surcharges, Texas lifted those suspensions and waived reinstatement fees tied to the program. Your insurance rate still increases after a violation, because carriers use their own surcharge schedules that mirror the old point values. A 2-point speeding ticket typically triggers a 15–25% rate increase that lasts the full 3-year window, regardless of whether the state itself charges additional fees. The DMV timeline and the insurance timeline are separate—points fall off your state record after 3 years, but most carriers continue the surcharge until the 3-year anniversary of the conviction, not the date the points technically expire.

Texas assigns 2 points for most moving violations and 3 points for crashes where you were cited. A speeding ticket of any amount over the limit earns 2 points. Running a red light, failure to yield, and following too closely each carry 2 points. An at-fault accident with a citation—such as failure to control speed or improper lane change—adds 3 points. All point-bearing violations expire exactly 3 years from the conviction date, not the ticket date. If you were cited in March 2023 but convicted in June 2023 after a court appearance, the 3-year clock starts in June. The conviction date appears on your driving record and on the court disposition notice. Alcohol-related violations carry steeper consequences. A DWI conviction remains on your record for life in Texas and typically triggers a 40–80% insurance rate increase for 3–5 years. Most carriers classify DWI separately from point-bearing violations and apply surcharges beyond the standard timeline, often continuing elevated rates until you reach 5 years conviction-free.

Texas does not suspend your license based on point accumulation alone. The 6-point threshold that triggers automatic suspension in many states does not exist here. You can accumulate 6, 8, or 10 points without facing a state-level suspension, as long as each individual violation was not severe enough to warrant its own suspension. Carriers treat multi-point accumulation differently than the state does. A driver with two speeding tickets in one year—totaling 4 points—will see a compounding surcharge. The first ticket might increase premiums 20%, and the second ticket might add another 25–35% on top of the already-elevated base rate. A driver with 6 points from three violations in 18 months will often lose access to preferred and standard carriers entirely, moving into the non-standard market where monthly premiums can double. The practical suspension risk comes from individual violations, not point totals. A ticket for speeds 25+ mph over the limit can trigger a separate suspension hearing. A second moving violation within 12 months for drivers under 25 can result in a provisional license restriction. These suspensions are conviction-specific, not point-total-specific, but they layer on top of the same violations that generate points.

Texas allows one defensive driving course dismissal per 12 months for eligible tickets. If the court approves your request and you complete the course within 90 days of the citation date, the ticket is dismissed and no conviction appears on your record. No conviction means no points, and no points means no insurance surcharge. The dismissal only works if you request it before your court date and the court grants approval. Not all tickets qualify—speeds 25+ mph over the limit, construction zone violations, and commercial driver citations are typically excluded. If you already used defensive driving in the past 12 months, the court will deny the request and the ticket will proceed to conviction. Completing the course after a conviction does not remove points already assessed. Some drivers confuse the dismissal option with a post-conviction point reduction program. Texas does not offer point reduction after conviction. Once the ticket is convicted and points are assigned, the 3-year timeline begins and no course, fee, or waiting period will shorten it. The only intervention is the pre-conviction dismissal, which must be completed within the court's 90-day window.

Carriers apply their own surcharge schedules based on conviction type and point value, independent of any state-level fine or fee. State Farm, GEICO, Progressive, and Allstate each maintain internal tables that assign percentage increases to specific violations. A 2-point speeding ticket might trigger a 20% increase at one carrier and a 28% increase at another, even though the state itself no longer charges additional fees. The surcharge period typically matches the 3-year DMV timeline, but some carriers extend it to 5 years for multi-violation drivers. A driver with one ticket will usually see the surcharge drop at the 3-year renewal. A driver with three tickets in 24 months might remain surcharged for 5 years under the carrier's habitual violator clause, even though all three tickets will have fallen off the state record by year 3. Preferred carriers—State Farm, USAA, Nationwide—often decline or non-renew drivers who cross internal thresholds. A single 2-point ticket rarely triggers non-renewal, but two tickets in 18 months will push most drivers out of preferred pricing. Standard carriers like Progressive and The General will still quote, but at rates 40–70% higher than the driver's pre-violation premium. Non-standard carriers—Acceptance, Safeway, Direct Auto—become the primary market once a driver accumulates 6+ points or combines points with a lapse in coverage.

A clean-record driver in Texas with liability-only coverage pays approximately $65–$95 per month with a preferred carrier. The same driver with one 2-point speeding ticket will see premiums increase to $80–$120 per month, a 20–30% surcharge that persists until the conviction reaches 3 years old. At the 3-year renewal, the ticket falls off the lookback window and the rate drops back toward the clean-record baseline, assuming no new violations appeared. A driver with two tickets in the same 3-year window will pay $110–$160 per month, and the surcharge does not begin to decrease until the oldest ticket crosses the 3-year mark. If the second ticket occurred 18 months after the first, the driver will see a partial rate decrease at year 3 when the first ticket expires, then a second decrease 18 months later when the second ticket expires. Drivers who combine points with a lapse in coverage or a non-renewal notice face the steepest increases. A 2-point ticket that leads to non-renewal, followed by a 30-day lapse before the driver finds a new policy, will often result in premiums 60–90% higher than the original clean-record rate. The lapse itself adds a separate surcharge that carriers layer on top of the violation surcharge, and both timelines run independently.

Most national insurance content platforms updated their Texas pages in 2019 when the program ended, but many still include outdated references to surcharge amounts, payment plans, and license suspension for unpaid fees. These articles were written during the program's active years and carry legacy content blocks that editors never removed. Drivers searching for current information encounter articles that describe $100 annual surcharges for the first 6 points and $25 for each additional point, rules that applied before September 2019. The articles are not technically wrong—they describe the program accurately—but they do not clarify that the program no longer exists. A driver reading these pages in 2024 may believe they owe the state an additional $100 per year on top of their insurance increase, when in reality no state-level surcharge applies. The confusion matters because it changes the financial calculation. A driver weighing whether to fight a ticket in court or accept deferred adjudication might assume the total cost includes both insurance and state surcharges, leading them to overestimate the penalty. Under current state DMV point rules, the only direct cost is the insurance rate increase, which makes the math simpler but does not reduce the actual dollar impact—preferred carriers still apply surcharges that mirror the old point values.