Deductibles are something that are one of the more complicated factors when it comes to car insurance. In most cases, your deductible is a part of your car insurance policy where you have to pay only a specific amount of money when there is a car accident. Once the deductible is met, the other portion of the money is covered by the car insurance company.
Understanding how deductibles work can be tricky. Deciding between collision or comprehensive coverage on your policy determines what you pay out of pocket if an accident occurs. Collision coverage deals with car accidents or collisions, and comprehensive coverage deals with damage to your car due to vandalism, a tree falling on your car, a fire, etc. Choosing the deductible amount for collision and comprehensive coverage is usually $500, but it is really up to how much you are willing to pay out of pocket if there is an accident. If an accident does occur, a claim needs to be sent to your insurance carrier. After sending in a claim for the damages from the car accident, you’ll pay your out of pocket deductible and your insurance provider will send you back a claims check, which will cover the rest of the costs.
Just to give an example… Let’s just say someone crashed into a guardrail on a curvy road. Their car received some damage, but not enough for it to be considered totaled. They get an estimate for how much the damage to their car is going to cost and it’s $2,000 worth of damage. If they choose to have a $500 collision deductible, they would have to pay $500 out of pocket and the insurance would pay the other $1,500 for the car damages.
At CURE Auto Insurance, we offer as low as a $50 deductible for comprehensive and a $100 deductible for collision, both range up to $2,500 as the maximum deductible. A good thing to keep in mind is that generally if a lower deductible is picked it will increase your monthly premium cost and vice versa with a higher deductible.
