In
insurance, the maximum amount that a
policyholder must
pay for a
claim before the
insurance company will make any payments at all. That is, if one or more insured events happen in a given year, the policyholder is responsible for covering
damages up to a certain dollar amount, at which point the insurance company begins
coverage. Because the deductible is calculated annually, if two insured events happen in a year, the deductible is only applied once. Generally, the higher one's deductible is, the less one pays in
premiums on the policy.