Car insurance deductible calculator
Is the higher deductible actually worth it?
Raising a deductible is the fastest way to lower an auto premium, and the change people most often make without doing the arithmetic.
The trade is simple: you save every year, and you pay more the year you claim. This shows where the line sits.
Deductible trade-off
- Years to break even
- 2.8 claim-free years
- Extra risk per claim
- $500
- Could you cover it tomorrow?
- Not comfortably
- Saving over five claim-free years
- $900
You take on $500 more risk per claim and save $180 a year. If you claim sooner than this, the higher deductible cost you money.
The additional amount you'd pay each time you make a claim.
A $1,000 deductible exceeds the $800 you said you could cover. A deductible you can't pay turns a covered claim into a problem.
Only realised if you don't claim during that period.
This compares a premium saving you were quoted against the extra risk you'd carry. It doesn't estimate premiums or predict claims — enter a real quoted saving for a meaningful answer.
The break-even number
Divide the extra risk you'd carry by the annual saving and you get the number of claim-free years before the change pays for itself. Claim sooner than that and the higher deductible cost you money.
The question that overrides the maths
Could you pay the higher deductible tomorrow, without borrowing? If not, the break-even is irrelevant. A deductible you can't cover turns a covered claim into a crisis — the exact thing insurance was bought to prevent.
Fund the change, don't absorb it
If you do raise it, move the annual saving into savings rather than into spending. That way the higher deductible is actually funded rather than theoretically survivable.
Remember collision and comprehensive carry separate deductibles, and they don't have to match.
Turn this into a real number
A calculator works with the figures you give it. A licensed insurance professional can tell you what’s actually available to you and what it would cost.
This tool performs arithmetic on the figures you enter. It does not estimate premiums, predict approval, or account for your state’s rules. Quote My Policy LLC is a licensed insurance producer.