What your storm deductible actually comes to in dollars, and whether raising your regular deductible is worth the exposure. Estimates only — not a quote.
A typical 1% catastrophe deductible on $300,000 of coverage means you pay the first $3,000 of storm damage yourself — 3x the $1,000 deductible that applies to everything else. That is $2,000 more you would need on hand after a named storm than after a kitchen fire.
Shown on Montana’s reference coverage level of $300,000. Enter your own coverage above for your number.
Montana is usually thought of as a wildfire state, and it is -- but the separate percentage deductible that actually shows up on Montana declarations pages is a wind/hail deductible, not a wildfire one. Insurify's 2026 hail analysis puts Montana's average wind/hail deductible at 1.10% of dwelling coverage ($3,786), high enough to sit in the same band as the Plains hail states and well above what a mountain-West state is usually assumed to carry; Montana recorded roughly 20 hail events in 2025 with some stones reaching four inches. On a $300,000 dwelling limit a 1% wind/hail deductible is $3,000, against a $1,000 flat deductible for other perils. Two important qualifications. First, this is carrier underwriting practice, not statute -- Montana has no mandated offer, no buy-back requirement, and no storm-naming trigger, so an ordinary summer hailstorm invokes it. Second, wildfire is handled differently: rather than a percentage wildfire deductible, Montana carriers have responded to wildfire exposure through non-renewal, tighter underwriting near open land, defensible-space requirements and outright withdrawal, which is why the state's availability problem is sharper than its deductible problem. About 29% of Montana properties face high wildfire risk and nearly 70% of the state's recorded wildfires have occurred in the last 26 years.
This needs your two real quoted premiums. We deliberately don’t apply a “typical savings” percentage: deductible credits vary by carrier, state, and filing, so a made-up multiplier would give you a break-even that looks precise and isn’t. Ask your insurer to quote both deductibles — it takes one phone call, and the answer is specific to you.
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