A car insurance deductible is the dollar amount that is deducted from the payment that the insurance company makes to you on certain types claims. These types of insurance claims are those made under the comprehensive or collision part of your policy. These parts of your car insurance policy pay you for damage to your car or other possessions.

This means that if it costs $5,000 to repair the body damage to your car and you have a $1,000 deductible, the insurance company will pay $4,000 and you will pay the $1,000 difference. This is because the deductible is deducted from the total before the insurance company cuts a check.

The deductible never applies to payments made to other persons to repair their cars. It does not apply to the liability portion of your policy.

It is also not an issue when your policy pays you for your personal injuries. Your no fault coverage, uninsured coverage and under insured coverages can pay you and your car’s passengers for bodily injuries.

Unlike the deductible in a typical health insurance policy, the deductible on a car insurance policy is on a per incident (this basically means per accident) basis. This means that you can pay more than one deductible in a year. Health insurance deductibles are typically limited to once per calendar year.