Insurance deductables: What do you do?

[Maneiac]

At what levels are most using for their Car/Home Insurance deductables?
It takes just a small "ding" nowdays on a vehicle to drive the repair price to over $1000. so I would think that using a $1000 deductable for the collision portion of a fairly new vehicle and possibly the same amount for a home would be within reason to self insure until catastrophic loss takes over?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

$5000 on my home policy.
$2500 on old cars. I live with the scratches, dings and small dents.
$500 on newer cars...<4 years old. Them I might want to fix.

Bear in mind I've never filed a home claim, and never been in a car accident of any significance.

I've saved an awful lot of money and a lot of small potatoes aggravation.

 

[Nords]

At what levels are most using for their Car/Home Insurance deductables?
It takes just a small "ding" nowdays on a vehicle to drive the repair price to over $1000. so I would think that using a $1000 deductable for the collision portion of a fairly new vehicle and possibly the same amount for a home would be within reason to self insure until catastrophic loss takes over?

$5000 for home insurance and 2% for hurricane damage. If we got a big break on the premiums then we might go higher since we seem to have at least a decade between our hurricanes.

No earthquake insurance, which coulda been a problem last Oct & Nov but didn't cause significant damage to our house. I don't know when Oahu last had an earthquake that people could notice.

We don't usually carry collision or comprehensive insurance on our cars. I guess I'd do that for a car younger than five years but we haven't had one that young in over a decade.

The guideline is to insure what you'd be unable to recover from (a catastrophe) or to carry deductibles that pay for themselves through premium savings. However companies seem so eager to cancel policies that it almost compels customers to take minimum coverage & maximum deductible for the smallest premium we can negotiate.

And if we ever felt that we needed to make a claim, the first thing we'd do would be to hire a claims adjustor to do the negotiating for us...

 

[kumquat]

My rule of thumb is 'as high as possible/practical'. Cars, $700 (maximum here with the government in the insurance business), house $4000 (point where premiums don't go down much)

I know people who pay $250/yr to lower car deductable from $700 to $200. When I suggest the break even is an accident every 2 years I get blank stares.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

Max on house ($2500), liability only on car. Always self-insure whenever possible.

 

[W2R]

$1000 on house, except Allstate's mandatory 5% deductible on wind and hail (=hurricane). $1000 deductible flood insurance.

Minimum liability on car. My car is 7 years old.

$200 deductible on group health, with $15 co-pay and my drug card requires me to pay only 20% for prescriptions.

I absolutely HATE insurance companies. I regard them as g--d--- thieves, liars, and worse. Maybe I'm right (I am!!!), or maybe not, but I strongly lean towards self-insuring as much as I dare. In fact, now that my mortgage is paid off, I should see about raising the deductibles on my house.

 

[ESRBob]

Agreed, -- go with as high as possible. Idea is to help yourself make it through a calamity, not give the insurance company money so they can give it back to you minus administrative costs.

 

[Moemg]

27,000 deductible on house
1,000 on car
I live in Florida on the water so that is why my home owner's deductible is so high when the real estate market picks up I'm going to sell and move off the water .

 

[Maneiac]

I've saved an awful lot of money and a lot of small potatoes aggravation.

CFB: Being in Maine I can appreciate the "small potatoes" comment

I am surprised a bit that many actually go beyond my anticipated deductable range...some interesting comments from the group is causing me to rethink my deductable strategy.

If I owned the land and exterior of our present home (A single story Condo) I would definately consider more than a $1K deductable. Possibly the $1K I had in mind for the Condo deductable is still a bit low.

Thanks all for the insight.

 

[OAG]

Condo Insurance - What does the Condo Association carry. Here in OH they carry $1MM per 4 unit building. Seems plenty as all I insure the furniture and any personal improvements (very few to date) along with 300K Liability and 5K Medical and "loss of use" for that I pay $162.52 per year with a $1K deductible. I would check HOA to see what they carry in the "Master Policy" and not duplicate any of the coverages as the Insurance Companies WILL NOT pay twice. Also carry $1K deductible on the car for a 3 year old vehicle.

 

[Donzo]

I recently changed to $4000 for house and $1000 for all cars and motorcycle. This saved me approx. $150 per month. I would never start a claim for anthing less than this -- so why pay extra?