A car insurance deductible is something that you pay to repair your car if you have an accident or you need to make a claim. Unlike with health insurance, you don’t have to meet your annual deductible, you just have to pay your deductible with most claims. It doesn’t matter how many deductibles you have per year or how long your policy lasts for, it’s something that you must pay if you want your car repaired. When you’re looking into auto insurance Wilmington, NC, you need to ensure that you are looking into both comprehensive and collision. This is because these are the two most common coverages that include deductibles as an option. Some people have deductibles for personal injury protection in some cases, and deductibles have the same process for all coverages.

How To Choose The Right Deductible

The cost of a deductible can vary from a low $500 right up to $2,000. A lot of drivers choose to go for the lower option, because they want to pay as little as possible for car repairs. To know which deductible you want to get, you have to ask yourself a few questions. The first, is how much you want to pay for your car to be repaired. The higher the deductible, the lower the car insurance rate but the higher the out of pocket expenses. The lower the deductible, the higher the car insurance costs and the lower your out of pocket expenses are.

You should always go for affordability with your deductible, so work out what you can pay out of pocket and don’t choose your deductible to be higher than that figure. It’s a gamble to go low on the premise that an accident ‘may never happen’ to you, so play it safe with your deductible choice and go for the higher amount you can afford to pay. If you’ve had accidents previously, there’s every chance you could again so it’s always better to err on the side of caution.

Your deductible is only applicable to damages that are done to your car. If your insurance company pays up for your repairs, then you must pay the deductible. It’s a simply rule: if they pay, so do you.

There are, however, a couple of common situations where you wouldn’t have to pay for your deductible. If the other drive has hit you and is deemed to be the one at fault, it’s their insurance company that should pay for the repairs, so you won’t have to pay your deductible. If you’re both at fault, you both share the cost and pay for some of your deductible – but not all of it. The other situation is if you choose not to repair the car. It’s unusual, but if he repairs are going to cost you more than the car’s value, you could choose not to repair it. In this case, your insurer will cut you a check for the repairs.

Please contact our office so we can help guide you through the best possible insurance options.