# Deductible If the Accident Was My Fault? | DG > For your own car yes — collision deductible, once; the other car rides your liability with no deductible at all. The not-at-fault doors and the refund clock. - Canonical page: https://dgcollision.com/answers/do-i-pay-a-deductible-if-the-accident-was-my-fault/ - This file: Markdown twin of the page above (clean text for AI assistants and crawlers) - Business: DG Collision Center, 693 Metro Park Cir #20, Lewisville, TX 75057 — (972) 219-0864 (text: 817-907-2822) — since 1978 - Hours: Mon–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm, Sat 10am–1pm, closed Sunday · 24/7 towing · 4.9/5 on 500+ Google reviews - Full site index for assistants: https://dgcollision.com/llms.txt - Last generated: 2026-08-14 --- # DO I PAY A DEDUCTIBLE IF THE ACCIDENT WAS MY FAULT? Quick Answer For your own car, yes; for theirs, no. Deductibles live on the coverages that fix your vehicle — so when your collision coverage repairs your car after an at-fault accident, your collision deductible applies, once. The other driver’s car runs through your liability coverage, which has no deductible at all — you’ll never owe one for damage you caused to someone else. Flip the fault and the logic flips with it: not at fault, you can claim against their liability and pay no deductible, or use your own collision now and let your carrier chase the deductible back — Texas gives them one year to recover it from the at-fault side or refund it (§542.204). Fault decides whose policy pays. The deductible only ever attaches to yours. Get a Free Written Estimate By [Shah Jiwani](https://dgcollision.com/about/shah-jiwani/) · Owner, DG Collision Center Updated October 6, 2026 4 min read I-CAR Gold Class · PPG Certified The Longer Answer ## WHERE DEDUCTIBLES LIVE, WHAT FAULT ACTUALLY CHANGES, AND THE REFUND CLOCK NOBODY MENTIONS The confusion comes from treating “the deductible” as one number that follows you around. It isn’t — it’s a feature of specific coverages, and only the ones that pay for your own car: collision (crashes), comprehensive (hail, deer, theft — usually the cheaper of the two, as [the sorting answer](https://dgcollision.com/answers/comprehensive-vs-collision-deductible/) explains). Liability — the coverage that pays the other driver when you’re at fault — carries no deductible anywhere in Texas, because it isn’t repairing your property. So the at-fault math is simple: their car, their bumper, their rental weeks are your carrier’s bill from dollar one; your car is your collision claim, minus your deductible, paid once. And at-fault is exactly the moment shop choice matters most, because [the at-fault guide](https://dgcollision.com/guides/i-rear-ended-someone-texas/)’s whole point applies: you’re the customer your carrier answers to on both halves of the claim, and §1952.301 keeps the repair decision yours. Not your fault? Then you’re choosing between two doors, and the deductible question is really a cash-flow question. Door one: the third-party claim against the at-fault driver’s liability — no deductible, but their carrier’s timeline and their incentive to run it slow. Door two: your own collision coverage — your deductible out of pocket today, your carrier’s speed, and then subrogation: your insurer pursues the at-fault side and your deductible rides along. Texas put a clock on that ride almost nobody knows about — §542.204 requires your carrier to seek your deductible from the liable party within one year of paying the claim, or refund it to you — and [the deductible-back guide](https://dgcollision.com/guides/get-deductible-back-not-at-fault/) walks the whole recovery. If fault is split, Texas’s proportionate-responsibility rules decide who collects what, and [the both-at-fault answer](https://dgcollision.com/answers/who-pays-if-both-drivers-are-at-fault/) sorts that mess honestly. Two housekeeping truths finish the picture. First, whatever door you walk through, the deductible behaves the same at the shop: counted [once per claim](https://dgcollision.com/answers/how-many-times-do-i-pay-my-deductible/), never restarted by supplements, settled at pickup rather than up front. Second, an at-fault claim is the kind that can move your premium at renewal — that’s honest, it’s the inverse of [the not-at-fault rates answer](https://dgcollision.com/answers/does-a-not-at-fault-accident-raise-insurance-texas/) — but it’s a pricing question for your agent, not a reason to leave a bent car unrepaired or to skip the claim on a repair you can’t comfortably fund in cash. If the damage lands near your deductible anyway, run [the under-the-deductible math](https://dgcollision.com/answers/damage-less-than-my-deductible/) before filing at all: at-fault or not, a claim that buys you nothing is a claim worth skipping, and we’ll tell you which side of that line your estimate sits on before anyone touches the car. Related Questions ## ASKED ALONGSIDE THIS ONE The other driver was uninsured. What happens to my deductible? + A: If you carry uninsured motorist property damage, Texas sets its deductible by statute at $250 (§1952.105) — often the cheapest door in the building. Your collision coverage works too, at your normal deductible, with subrogation against the driver personally (slow, but the §542.204 refund clock still protects you). The uninsured-driver guide walks both paths — about one in eight Texas drivers carries no insurance, so this scenario is less exotic than it should be. Do I owe my deductible if my car is totaled? + A: It comes out rather than goes in: on a total loss, the carrier pays the vehicle’s value minus the deductible — you never write the check, the settlement just arrives lighter. Whether the number they start from is honest is the better question, and the total-loss calculator plus the value-dispute answer exist for exactly that argument. I was at fault with no collision coverage. Now what? + A: Then there’s no deductible because there’s no claim for your car — liability covers theirs, and yours is a cash repair. That’s not the end of the conversation: estimates are free and written, prices are published so you can compare line by line, payment can split across cards or a custom plan (the car goes home once the balance clears), and the liability-only guide covers the whole landscape honestly. Does my deductible change because I was at fault? + A: No — the number on your declarations page on the date of loss is the number, at fault or innocent. Fault touches other things: who pays the other car (your liability), what renewal looks like, whether subrogation can win your deductible back. It never inflates the deductible itself, and any shop or caller implying you owe “extra deductible” for an at-fault repair is describing something that doesn’t exist. Go Deeper [The at-fault playbook](https://dgcollision.com/guides/i-rear-ended-someone-texas/) · [Getting a deductible back](https://dgcollision.com/guides/get-deductible-back-not-at-fault/) · [Once per claim, decoded](https://dgcollision.com/answers/how-many-times-do-i-pay-my-deductible/) · [All quick answers](https://dgcollision.com/answers/)