What Car Insurance Deductible Should You Choose?
The deductible is not one number and it does not attach to the coverage most people assume. One of them is set by statute, and Arkansas waives it outright under two conditions worth knowing before you pick anything.
Short Answer
The most you could pay without notice, this week, on top of whatever else went wrong that week. That is the whole test. Before choosing, get the premium quoted at each level rather than assuming the gap — and note that collision and comprehensive are set separately, which matters here because most Northwest Arkansas claims are the kind you did not cause.
A deductible is what you pay before the coverage pays. Almost everything else people believe about it is either specific to their carrier or wrong, and the two most useful facts on the subject are structural rather than financial: your policy has more than one deductible, and they do not all behave the same way.
It Does Not Attach to the Coverage That Matters Most
Deductibles sit on the coverages that repair or replace your property. They do not sit on the coverage that answers for harm you cause to other people, which is the part of the policy with the real exposure behind it.
| Coverage | Deductible | What it answers for |
|---|---|---|
| Liability, bodily injury and property damage | None | The other party’s injuries and property when you are at fault |
| Collision | Yes, its own amount | Your vehicle after a collision, whoever caused it |
| Comprehensive | Yes, a separate amount | Hail, wind, fire, theft, vandalism, animal strikes, glass |
| Uninsured motorist bodily injury | Generally none | Your injuries where the at-fault driver has no coverage |
| Uninsured motorist property damage | Yes, and it is statutory | Your vehicle where an uninsured driver damages it |
So raising a deductible never reduces what protects other people. That is a separate question about limits, and a far more consequential one — it is covered on the Arkansas minimums page and on what happens when a claim exceeds the limit.
The One Arkansas Sets, and Then Waives
The UMPD deductible is statutory, and two conditions remove it
Under Ark. Code § 23-89-404, every insured purchasing uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage must be given the opportunity to include uninsured motorist property damage, applicable to losses in excess of two hundred dollars. That two hundred dollars is a deductible written into the statute rather than chosen by you. The same section then removes it, where both of the following are true: the vehicle is insured by the same insurer for both collision and uninsured motorist property damage, and the operator of the other vehicle has been positively identified and is solely at fault. Splitting those two coverages between carriers therefore has a cost that never appears on a quote, and it is one of the few places where consolidating coverage produces a defined statutory result rather than a credit.
Two conditions on it worth knowing in advance
The property damage coverage is only available on top of the bodily injury coverage — you cannot buy the property damage part alone. And under the same section no insurer is required to offer property damage limits greater than the property damage liability limits you bought, so this coverage is capped by a choice you made elsewhere on the policy. How the underlying election and rejection work, and what a written rejection takes with it, belongs to our guide to uninsured motorist coverage in Arkansas.
Run the Break-Even on Your Own Numbers
The trade is always the same: more exposure up front for a lower premium. What decides it is how long the lower premium takes to repay the extra exposure, and that is arithmetic you can only do with figures your own carrier quotes.
- Ask for the premium at each level. Quote the same policy at each deductible the carrier offers rather than assuming the gap between them. The curve is not linear, and past a point a higher deductible stops paying for itself.
- Take the difference between the two deductibles. That is the extra amount you would have to find at claim time, and it is the number the decision is actually about.
- Divide it by the annual premium difference. The result is roughly how many claim-free years it takes before the higher deductible has paid for the risk you took on. Compare that against how long you actually expect to go without a claim.
- Then check whether the premium is the deductible’s fault at all. Carriers price the same vehicle and driver very differently. A premium that feels high is often a carrier question rather than a deductible question, and taking on exposure to fix a problem that belongs somewhere else is the expensive way round.
The question underneath is whether you would file at all
If your deductible is a thousand dollars and you would quietly absorb a repair somewhat above that rather than put a claim on your record, then you are already self-insuring at that level and a lower deductible is buying you something you would not use. If you would file as soon as the repair crossed the deductible, a lower one earns its cost. This is a question about your own behavior rather than about the policy, and it decides more cases than the arithmetic does.
Set the Two Sides Independently
Collision and comprehensive are separate deductibles and there is no reason for them to match. In Northwest Arkansas the distinction is not academic.
- Comprehensive is where the weather goes. Hail, wind, storm debris and animal strikes are comprehensive losses, they are frequent here, and none of them is within your control. What that coverage costs and how it behaves is set out on the hail page.
- Collision is largely within your control. Which is why many households end up with the two set at different amounts once they see them priced separately rather than as a single figure.
- Glass is frequently its own arrangement. A number of carriers file a reduced or waived deductible for glass and windshield work. It is an option rather than a rule, it varies, and it is worth asking about by name because it rarely comes up unprompted.
- On a low-value vehicle the deductible can eat the coverage. Collision pays the vehicle’s actual cash value less the deductible, so a large deductible against a low value leaves very little to collect. At that point the deductible is the wrong question and whether to carry collision at all is the right one.
One storm, two deductibles
A hailstorm that damages the roof and the vehicles is a homeowners claim and an auto claim, each with its own deductible, payable in the same week. Some carriers offer an arrangement that applies a single deductible where both policies sit with them. Whether that exists for a given household is a carrier question, and it is worth asking before a storm rather than after — which is also part of what placing both policies together does and does not do.
Where People Get Caught
- Choosing an amount that cannot be funded. A deductible you cannot produce on the day is not a saving; it is a coverage gap you are paying premium for. The vehicle stays damaged and the policy sits there working perfectly.
- Setting it once and never revisiting it. The vehicle depreciates, the household changes, a driver is added. The amount that suited one set of circumstances rides along unexamined into another.
- Treating it as the premium lever of first resort. Discounts that have never been claimed and a carrier whose filing fits the household better are both available without taking on any additional exposure at all. Those are covered on the discounts page.
Where this sits in what you already pay
Across our carrier market full coverage generally runs $79–$105 a month. Cribb cross-market averages for Northwest Arkansas. Planning ranges, not quotes and not any carrier’s filed rates. Where a particular deductible lands inside that is a carrier question, which is why the useful step is having it quoted at each level rather than reasoning about it in the abstract.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What car insurance deductible should I choose?
The most you could pay without notice, this week, on top of whatever else went wrong that week. Before choosing, have the policy quoted at each deductible the carrier offers rather than assuming the difference between them, then divide the extra exposure by the annual premium difference to see how many claim-free years the higher amount takes to repay.
Does my deductible apply to liability coverage?
No. Deductibles attach to the coverages that repair or replace your own property, principally collision and comprehensive. Liability coverage answers for injuries and property damage you cause to other people and does not carry a deductible, so raising yours never reduces what protects them.
Can collision and comprehensive have different deductibles?
Yes, and there is no reason they should match. Comprehensive covers hail, wind, storm debris, theft and animal strikes, which are frequent in Northwest Arkansas and outside your control, while collision losses are largely within it. Many households set the two at different amounts once they see them priced separately.
Is there a deductible on uninsured motorist property damage in Arkansas?
Yes, and it is set by statute. Ark. Code 23-89-404 makes uninsured motorist property damage coverage applicable to losses in excess of two hundred dollars. That amount is written into the statute rather than chosen by you when you buy the coverage.
When does Arkansas waive the two-hundred-dollar UMPD deductible?
Under Ark. Code 23-89-404 it does not apply where both of two conditions are met: the vehicle involved is insured by the same insurer for both collision and uninsured motorist property damage coverage, and the operator of the other vehicle has been positively identified and is solely at fault. Both have to be true.
Can I buy uninsured motorist property damage on its own?
No. Under Ark. Code 23-89-404 the opportunity to include property damage coverage goes to insureds purchasing uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage, so the bodily injury coverage comes first. The same section also provides that no insurer is required to offer property damage limits greater than the property damage liability limits you purchased.
Do I pay a deductible if the crash was not my fault?
It depends which coverage pays. Where the at-fault driver has adequate liability coverage, their insurer answers for your vehicle and your own deductible is not involved. Where you claim through your own collision coverage first, you generally pay your deductible and may be reimbursed if your carrier recovers. Where the other driver is uninsured, uninsured motorist property damage and its statutory deductible may apply instead.
Does raising my deductible reduce my coverage?
Not in the sense that dropping a coverage would; the protection remains. It moves more of the first dollars of a claim onto you. The practical risk is funding: a deductible you cannot produce when the claim happens prevents the coverage doing its job, however sound the policy is.
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Disclaimer: This article is general information and is not insurance, legal, tax or financial advice, and it is not a substitute for the terms of your own agreements or policies. Deductible options, glass provisions, single-deductible arrangements and pricing at each level are set by each carrier’s filing and vary by carrier, vehicle and policy. Statutory provisions are summarized in substance rather than reproduced, carry conditions not fully set out here, and may be amended. Choosing a higher deductible moves financial risk to you. The policy actually issued to you controls in every case. Coverage is set by the insurance company and is subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued to you, which controls in every case. Cribb Insurance Group Inc is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas. Reviewed 2026-08-10; insurance law and carrier filings change, and this article may not describe the current position after that date. Cribb Insurance Group Inc, 1601 SW Regional Airport Blvd, Bentonville, AR 72713 · (479) 286-1066 · service@cribbinsurance.com.