The question sounds like it should have one answer. It has at least three, because three separate clocks start after a DUI and none of them is tied to the others.
Our car insurance after a DUI page handles the other half, the get-me-a-policy-and-a-filing side, including what to send us and which states we place.
The three clocks
Clock one: how long the conviction stays on your driving record. That’s a state question, answered by a state DMV, and it’s the only one of the three with a published number you can look up.
Clock two: how long a company charges you more for it. That’s an underwriting question. Every company answers it privately, and there’s no universal published figure.
Clock three: how long you have to keep an SR-22 filing on file. Also a state question, and your own DMV notice states it for your case.
People run clocks one and two together constantly, then run both of them together with clock three. What follows is a driver who expects the price to fall on a specific date and is surprised when it doesn’t. Take them one at a time.
Clock one: the driving record
Your driving record is a state document. The DMV decides what goes on it and how long it stays there.
The California DMV says all DUI convictions remain on your driver record for 10 years. That’s a published, sourced figure about record retention. It says nothing about how long an insurance company must, may, or will charge you extra for the conviction.
Oregon, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada all keep their own records under their own rules. We haven’t verified those retention periods from primary sources, so we aren’t going to print numbers for them here. If you need your state’s figure, ask that DMV or pull your own record. It’s a short call or a short online request, and it gives you the real date instead of an approximation.
Here’s why it matters to your insurance. When a company quotes you, it pulls a motor vehicle record, and what it sees is whatever the state still shows. Once the conviction drops off the record, a company running a fresh record won’t see it there. Whether the company has other ways of knowing, and whether it asks you on the application anyway, is a separate matter. Applications ask about violations directly, and you answer them accurately regardless of what the record shows.
Clock two: how long a carrier rates for it
Here’s the part where a lot of published writing quietly makes something up.
There’s no credible published figure for how long every company charges extra for a DUI. Not three years, not five, not seven. Each one picks its own look back period for violations and its own weighting within that period, and those choices stay internal. Two companies can pull the same record on the same day and come back hundreds of dollars apart.
We aren’t going to swap an aggregator’s average in for a fact. An average across unnamed companies isn’t a rule that applies to your policy, and quoting one would let you plan around a date that doesn’t exist.
What you can actually do:
Ask your own company directly. Ask what look back period it applies to violations and how a DUI weighs inside it. Some will answer plainly. That answer is worth more than any general figure, because it’s about the policy you hold.
Shop again as the record ages. A driver one company wouldn’t write in year one may be writable in year three. The only way to find out is to ask again. Our note on what drives an auto insurance rate change covers the renewal side of this, and questions to ask before switching auto insurance covers how to make the comparison honest.
Don’t treat one quote as the answer. One company’s number tells you what one company thinks. That’s a data point.
Expect more than the conviction to be in play. Limits, the vehicle, your coverage selections, prior lapses and the other drivers in the household all sit in the same calculation. A conviction is one input, and treating it as the only input leads to bad guesses about what changes when.
Clock three: the SR-22 filing period
An SR-22 isn’t a policy and isn’t a coverage. It’s a certificate your insurance company files with the state to show you carry at least the required liability coverage, and it obliges the company to tell the state if the policy ends. Our SR-22 insurance hub covers the form itself.
For the five states we write, here’s what each one publishes about the DUI related filing period:
- Oregon. Under ORS 806.245, a DUII filing generally ends when more than three years have passed from the date the filing was required. For mandatory suspensions and revocations recorded on or after July 3, 2020, OAR 735-050-0100 starts that period upon reinstatement of driving privileges rather than when the suspension ends. See Oregon SR-22.
- Arizona. ADOT’s MVD says a DUI conviction suspension requires the filing for three years from the end date of the suspension. See Arizona SR-22.
- Colorado. The Colorado DMV says the period depends on the offense, generally from 9 months to 3 years, with repeat alcohol offenses at the long end. See Colorado SR-22.
- California. The California DMV says a court DUI conviction requires the California Insurance Proof Certificate, the SR 22, and that you’ll be required to keep it for three years. See California SR-22.
- Nevada. The Nevada DMV says the SR-22 after a DUI must be kept for three years, 36 consecutive months, and that a break in the filing suspends the license and restarts the three year requirement. See Nevada SR-22.
Read those starting points again, because they’re why two drivers convicted in the same week finish on different dates. Arizona counts from the end of the suspension. Nevada counts from reinstatement. Oregon counts from the date the filing was required, and for suspensions recorded on or after July 3, 2020 the rule starts that period at reinstatement. ODOT’s rulemaking notice explains the purpose plainly: the change keeps a driver from running out the filing period by waiting out the suspension and never reinstating.
So in Oregon, staying suspended longer than the minimum earns you no credit. The three years start when DMV reinstates you, so the filing has to be in force from that day forward.
Oregon adds a fourth thing, and it is not a clock
Oregon does something the other four states on this page don’t. ORS 806.075 requires a person convicted of DUII under ORS 813.010 to carry at least 50,000 dollars for bodily injury to one person and 100,000 dollars for two or more people in one accident. It requires future responsibility filings at those limits for three years from the date the first filing is required.
That’s double Oregon’s general bodily injury minimum, so a standard 25/50 policy won’t satisfy it. The policy still has to meet the rest of Oregon’s minimum on top of that, including property damage, personal injury protection and uninsured motorist coverage.
This one catches people who shop on price alone and buy at the general state minimum. The certificate has to show the higher limits. If you’re in Oregon and a filing is in play, check the limits on every quote before you compare the premiums, because a quote written at the lower limits isn’t comparable. Our explainer on auto liability limits walks through what each number actually pays.
A minimum is still a minimum. Satisfying a filing requirement and carrying enough liability for a serious at-fault crash are different standards, and the state only sets the first one.
Why the clocks get confused
The confusion makes sense. All three clocks are often around three years, and all three are about the same conviction.
Watch what happens at the end, though. The SR-22 period ends, the filing comes off, and the price doesn’t move. The conviction is still on the driving record, and the company is still pricing for it. The filing period and the pricing period were never linked.
It runs the other way too. A driver sees the 10 year retention in California and assumes the higher price must run 10 years as well. It might not. Retention is what the state keeps. Pricing is what the company does with what it sees.
Treat each clock separately and ask the right party about each one. The DMV for the record and the filing. Your insurance company for the price.
What to do in the meantime
Don’t let coverage lapse while a filing is active. If the policy ends while the filing is required, your company tells the state. The Colorado DMV says the SR-22 requires the company to notify DMV of any cancellation, and that your license will be suspended for that reason alone. If you switch companies, the new filing goes in before the old policy ends. Colorado’s DMV says exactly that. Nevada says a break in coverage suspends the license and restarts the three year clock.
Answer applications accurately. Every application asks about violations and license actions. Companies pull motor vehicle records, so the real question is whether your answer matches what they find. When it doesn’t, the outcome depends on the policy language and state law, and it can include a re-rate, a cancellation, or a contested claim.
Be straight about the household. If a driver with a conviction lives with you, the company will want to know. Some households list that driver and some exclude them, where the company and the state allow it. Our guide to excluded and household drivers explains what an exclusion costs you if the excluded driver ever takes the car.
Put a re-shop date on the calendar. Make it a recurring reminder to compare again, since nobody can hand you a date for when the higher price ends. The record ages whether or not anyone is watching it.
The honest summary
How long does a DUI affect car insurance? Longer than the filing period, for a length nobody publishes, on a record whose retention your state does publish.
If you want an answer about your own situation, the two documents that matter are your DMV notice and your own driving record. Bring those and we can talk about what the filing needs and what companies are currently doing with a record like yours.
Questions to ask your advisor
- What look back period does this company use for violations, and where does a DUI sit in it?
- Does my state’s DMV still show the conviction on my record, and for how much longer?
- What’s my filing end date, and what date does it count from?
- If I’m in Oregon, does this quote carry the 50,000 and 100,000 bodily injury limits the filing needs?
- Which other companies would look at my record today, and which ones only later?
- When should I shop again if nothing else about my record changes?
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