What is a deductible?
On your personal insurance, your auto insurance, and your home insurance, you have deductibles.
A deductible is what you have to pay out of your pocket initially before the insurance company is going to pay any money towards a claim.
Auto Insurance Deductible
Deductibles on your auto insurance fall under comprehensive and collision coverage this is also known as your physical damage coverage.
Some times some insurance companies will put deductibles on other parts of your insurance policy. This may include your personal injury protection or your New York State no-fault coverage or also your Glass Coverage. Most insurance carriers include Full Glass Coverage with your comprehensive coverage but on occasion, we do see where that isn’t automatic.
Home Insurance Deductible
On your homeowners, you’ll have a deductible, usually one flat deductible all across all lines of coverage.
Some additional endorsements or jewelry riders or things along those lines might have a different deductible then your regular flat base policy limit deductible is.
In some other States, outside of New York, or if you are located on the coast, you’re going to have a different deductible for wind. But luckily upstate New York where we are, you don’t have that option.
What deductible should I have
A deductible is a part of your insurance policy. It’s very important to know what deductible you have on certain lines of coverage or different policies that you have.
This way you know what type of claims you should be looking to put in versus ones that maybe you’ll just pay out of your pocket because it’s under your deductible.
When it comes to your auto insurance on your comprehensive and collision coverage we try and recommend a lower deductible. No more than maybe $500 or $1000 for either of those.
For your homeowner’s insurance, we recommend at least a $500 or $1,000 deductible. Carrying lower deductibles like $100 or $250 may because causing you to have a surcharge on your property insurance. Insurance carriers want you to carry higher deductibles to avoid filing small claims that shouldn’t be filed.
What’s Next?
Make sure you check the different options, see what kind of cost savings you’re going to have on your insurance premiums by raising your deductible. If you didn’t know, the higher the deductible you have, the lower the insurance costs will be.
Hopefully, you are working with an independent insurance agent who can help you by providing options on your insurance and explain what you have and/or what you need.
If you don’t have a relationship with an agent or want a review of your insurance?
Click below to learn more about how to proceed.
