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 2% catastrophe deductible on $300,000 of coverage means you pay the first $6,000 of storm damage yourself — 6x the $1,000 deductible that applies to everything else. That is $5,000 more you would need on hand after a named storm than after a kitchen fire.
Shown on North Carolina’s reference coverage level of $300,000. Enter your own coverage above for your number.
North Carolina is one of the 19 states plus DC that use hurricane deductibles, and on the coast a separate named-storm deductible is standard rather than optional. It is expressed as a percentage of the dwelling (sometimes personal-property) limit, typically 1% to 5%, reaching 10% on the highest-risk barrier-island and oceanfront property -- on a $400,000 home a 5% named-storm deductible is $20,000 before the insurer pays anything. Insurify's quote-database average across all North Carolina quotes is 1.79% of dwelling coverage, about $5,584. The structural quirk that matters more than the percentage: most standard homeowners policies written in the 18-to-20-county coastal beach area EXCLUDE wind and hail entirely, and that coverage is bought separately from the NCIUA Beach Plan. A single hurricane therefore splits into two or three claims -- the private carrier for non-wind damage, NCIUA for wind and hail, and NFIP for flood -- with separate adjusters, separate scopes and separate deductibles. Inland and Piedmont policies generally carry a flat all-perils deductible with no percentage component; hail and severe-convective-storm deductibles do appear in the mountains and Piedmont but are far less universal than the coastal named-storm structure.
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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