Your Arkansas Wind and Hail Deductible: the Number Most Homeowners Do Not Know
You probably know your deductible is a flat amount. On most Arkansas policies written today, that number does not apply to the claim you are most likely to file.
Short Answer
Most Arkansas homeowners policies carry a separate deductible for wind and hail, and it is usually set as a percentage of your dwelling limit rather than as a flat amount. It applies to exactly the losses Northwest Arkansas files most: hail, wind and storm. It is not printed anywhere as a dollar figure, so you have to work it out yourself.
Almost every homeowner can tell you their deductible. Very few can tell you the one that would actually apply to a hailstorm, because on most Arkansas policies written in the last several years those are two different numbers, and only one of them is a figure you can read straight off the page.
This page is about the second one: what it is, the arithmetic, where to find it, and how it interacts with the way your roof is settled. It takes about five minutes with your declarations page and it is the single most useful five minutes a Northwest Arkansas homeowner can spend on their policy.
You Have Two Deductibles. Most People Know One.
Open your declarations page and you will generally find two separate deductibles doing two separate jobs.
| All other perils | Wind and hail | |
|---|---|---|
| How it is written | Usually a flat dollar amount, such as $1,000 | Increasingly a percentage of your dwelling limit |
| What it applies to | Fire, theft, a burst pipe, a tree through a window | Hail, windstorm and tornado damage |
| How often it comes up here | Occasionally | This is the claim Northwest Arkansas actually files |
| Can you read it as a dollar figure? | Yes, it is printed | No. It is printed as a percentage and you have to do the multiplication |
The Percentage Is of Your Dwelling Limit, Not of the Damage
This is the part that surprises people, and it is worth reading twice because it is not intuitive.
The percentage does not scale with the loss
A percentage deductible is calculated against Coverage A, your dwelling limit — the amount the policy insures the structure for. It is not a percentage of the claim. That means the figure is the same whether the hail did modest damage or took the whole roof off, and on a smaller loss it can exceed the damage entirely. It also is not a percentage of what your house would sell for, which is usually a different and larger number.
The Arithmetic
Here is the multiplication, done. Find your dwelling limit on the left and your percentage across the top.
| Dwelling limit | 1% | 2% | 5% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $250,000 | $2,500 | $5,000 | $12,500 |
| $400,000 | $4,000 | $8,000 | $20,000 |
| $600,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 | $30,000 |
| $800,000 | $8,000 | $16,000 | $40,000 |
Now notice what that table implies about time. Your dwelling limit is not static — most policies increase it at renewal to keep pace with construction costs, and in Northwest Arkansas it has been moving. Every one of those increases raised your wind and hail deductible too, by the same percentage, without a phone call and without anything on the renewal notice drawing your attention to it. The number you worked out three years ago is not the number today.
Why Arkansas Policies Are Written This Way
This is not carriers being awkward. Arkansas sits where hail is routine rather than exceptional, and a peril that arrives every spring across an entire region behaves differently from one that strikes individual houses at random. When a single storm can put thousands of roofs into the claims queue on the same afternoon, insurers price and structure for that.
A percentage wind and hail deductible is one of the standard structural responses, and it is used across hail-exposed states rather than being an Arkansas peculiarity. The honest way to see it is as a trade: you carry the first layer of a hail loss, and in exchange the coverage remains available and priced at something. That trade may well be the right one for your household. The problem is that for most homeowners it was never a decision — it was a default they inherited and never converted into a number.
The Stack Nobody Explains: the Deductible and the Roof Settlement
This is the most expensive thing on this page.
Two separate reductions can apply to the same roof claim
The deductible is only the first one. If your roof has reached the age where a filed schedule applies, the policy may also settle it on an Agreed Roof Payment Schedule rather than at full replacement cost, which is a second reduction on the same loss. Both of those terms are in your policy right now, neither appears on your monthly payment, and almost nobody looks at them together. If you are going to check one, check both in the same sitting.
How to Find Yours in Five Minutes
- Pull the declarations page, not the bill. It is usually the first page or two of the policy packet, and your carrier’s app or portal will have a copy.
- Find the deductible section and look for two entries. You want language along the lines of all other perils on one line and windstorm or hail, wind and hail, or named storm on another. If the second shows a percentage rather than a dollar amount, that is the one that matters here.
- Find your Coverage A dwelling limit. Same page, usually at the top of the coverage schedule. This is the figure the percentage is applied to.
- Do the multiplication and write the answer down. That result is what you would pay out of pocket before a hail claim paid anything. Put it somewhere you will find it again, because it is not printed anywhere in the policy.
- Check the roof settlement terms while you are in there. The two stack, and reading them in the same sitting is the only way to see what a hail claim would actually leave you with.
- Ask the only question that counts. Could you write that check next week, without borrowing against something? If not, the deductible is not a savings strategy. It is an exposure you have not priced.
Should You Take a Higher Percentage?
Sometimes, honestly, yes. A higher wind and hail deductible reduces what you pay for the policy, and for some households that is the right trade made deliberately. The question is not whether higher is bad. It is whether you chose it.
| A higher percentage may suit you if | A lower percentage is worth pricing if |
|---|---|
| You hold liquid savings you could deploy tomorrow | The deductible exceeds what you could readily cover |
| Your roof is newer and settles at replacement cost | Your roof is older and may settle on a filed schedule |
| The premium difference is meaningful to you and you would put it to work | The premium difference is modest against the added exposure |
| You are comfortable self-insuring the first layer of a hail loss | A large out-of-pocket hit would force genuinely hard choices |
The mistake is not carrying a percentage deductible. The mistake is carrying one and believing you have the flat figure you remember from years ago.
What to Do About It
- Know the number as a dollar figure before storm season, not as a percentage.
- Ask what the other tiers price at. Carriers differ substantially on which options they offer and on what each one costs, and that variation is invisible unless somebody compares.
- Look at the roof settlement terms in the same conversation. They stack, so seeing them apart tells you less than half the story.
- Confirm the dwelling limit is right. Too low and you are underinsured; it also sets the deductible, so the two questions are the same question.
- Do not file below the deductible. There is nothing to collect and the claim still goes on the record.
- Re-run the arithmetic after any increase to your dwelling limit, because your deductible moved with it.
Or let the document be read for you
Upload the policy to Coverage Compare and it will find the wind and hail deductible, convert it into a dollar figure, and pull the roof settlement terms out at the same time. Both numbers are already in the document. Most people have simply never had them read out loud.
Ask Cribby about your deductible
Cribby is Cribb Insurance Group’s AI assistant. Ask a question in plain English, or tap one to start:
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a wind and hail deductible in Arkansas?
It is a separate deductible that applies only to wind, hail and storm damage, instead of your standard all-other-perils deductible. Many Arkansas policies express it as a percentage of the dwelling limit rather than as a flat dollar amount, which means it is not printed anywhere as a figure you can simply read.
How is a percentage deductible calculated?
Against your Coverage A dwelling limit, not against the damage. Multiply the dwelling limit by the percentage and that is the amount you carry before the claim pays anything. It is the same figure whether the loss is small or total, so on a modest loss it can exceed the damage entirely.
Where do I find it on my policy?
On the declarations page, in the deductible section, usually as a second entry beneath the all-other-perils deductible. Look for windstorm or hail, wind and hail, or named storm. If that entry shows a percentage, you need your dwelling limit from the same page to work out what it means.
Why do Arkansas policies use percentage deductibles for wind and hail?
Because hail here is routine rather than exceptional, and a single storm can put thousands of roofs into the claims queue on one afternoon. Percentage wind and hail deductibles are a standard structural response in hail-exposed states, and they are part of how coverage stays available. The trade is that the policyholder carries the first layer.
Can I change my wind and hail deductible?
Often, though the available tiers vary by carrier and by property. A lower percentage generally costs more in premium and a higher one costs less. It is worth asking what each option actually prices at rather than accepting whichever one the policy defaulted to when it was written.
Does my deductible affect what a roof claim pays?
Yes, and it may not be the only reduction. The deductible comes off first, and if the roof has reached the age where a filed schedule applies, the policy may also settle it on an Agreed Roof Payment Schedule rather than at full replacement cost. Two separate reductions can apply to the same claim, so the two terms are worth reading together.
My dwelling limit went up at renewal. Did my deductible change?
Yes, if it is written as a percentage. The deductible is calculated from the dwelling limit, so any increase to that limit raises the deductible by the same proportion, automatically and without a separate notice. Anyone whose coverage has been adjusted for construction costs in recent years is carrying a larger figure than they worked out last time.
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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 structures, available tiers, roof settlement provisions and eligibility vary by carrier, policy form and property and are subject to change; your policy language controls in every case. The figures in the table are arithmetic illustrations on stated dwelling limits. They are not quotes, not typical or average figures, and not a prediction of what you would pay out of pocket. Nothing here is a coverage determination. 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 2026-08-09; 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.