What Does an Excess of 100 Mean on My Home Insurance?
You pay the first $100 of any claim yourself, and the policy covers the rest of the approved loss.
Free to compare
Per claim, not per year
The $100 comes out once per claim, not once per year. File three separate claims and you cover the first $100 of each one. It never stacks up or carries over between incidents.
Check how it's listed
Some policies set this as a flat dollar amount like $100. Others set it as a percentage of the dwelling coverage, often for wind or hail. Your declarations page shows which one applies to your house.
Why price depends on it
A $100 excess is low next to the $500 or $1,000 many insurers default to. The lower the number, the more the insurer pays on each claim, so the premium is usually higher. Raising it can lower the yearly cost.
Weigh small repairs first
If repairs cost close to $100, filing a claim may not gain much once that amount is subtracted. A claim on record can also affect renewal pricing later. Compare the repair cost to the $100 before deciding to file.
Before closing, insurers are quoting the same dwelling coverage at different prices, and the excess on each quote changes what you'd pay out of pocket later. A $100 excess costs more upfront than a $500 or $1,000 one, and the gap between insurers for that same low excess can be wider than expected. Comparing quotes now shows what that choice is actually costing you.
How a low excess affects a claim you actually file
Say a pipe bursts and causes $4,000 in water damage. With a $100 excess, the insurer pays $3,900 and you pay $100. That part is straightforward. What catches new buyers off guard is that the $100 only applies to the type of damage it is listed against. If your policy sets a separate, percentage-based excess for wind or hail, a storm claim works differently. That number can run into the thousands depending on your dwelling coverage amount. Your declarations page shows whether you have one flat excess for everything or a different one carved out for specific perils.
Lenders care about the dwelling coverage amount and that the policy is active by closing. They generally do not require a specific excess. That part is left to you, which means it is worth setting deliberately rather than accepting whatever default the quote starts with. A $100 excess feels safe because it caps your exposure low on any single claim. It is worth asking whether that safety is worth the higher premium you will pay every year you own the house, even in years with no claims at all.
Think about how you would actually use the policy. Homeowners insurance works best for damage that would be hard to pay for out of pocket, like a roof replacement or fire damage. It works less well for a $300 repair where a $100 excess eats a third of the payout anyway. If you would hesitate to file a claim for anything under a few hundred dollars regardless of the excess, a higher excess might cost you less overall. Each claim would take more out of your pocket when something bigger happens, but you would be paying less for that protection every year in between.
The house itself matters too. An older roof, a part of the country prone to hail, or a history of water damage at the property all make small and medium claims more likely. In that case, keeping the excess low reduces what you would owe each time one comes up. A newer house in a lower-risk area might make the case for raising it, since the odds of filing a small claim are lower to begin with. Either way, the right number depends on the house closing, not a default carried over from a sample quote.
Setting the excess before you close
Say a pipe bursts and causes $4,000 in water damage. With a $100 excess, the insurer pays $3,900 and you pay $100. That part is straightforward. What catches new buyers off guard is that the $100 only applies to the type of damage it's listed against. If your policy sets a separate, percentage-based excess for wind or hail, a storm claim works differently, and that number can run into the thousands depending on your dwelling coverage amount. Your declarations page shows whether you have one flat excess for everything or a different one carved out for specific perils.
Lenders care about the dwelling coverage amount and that the policy is active by closing. They generally do not require a specific excess. That part is left to you, which means it's worth setting deliberately rather than accepting whatever default the quote starts with. A $100 excess feels safe because it caps what you owe on any single claim low. It's worth asking whether that safety is worth the higher premium you pay every year you own the house, even in years with no claims at all.
Think about how you would actually use the policy. Homeowners insurance works best for damage that would be hard to pay for out of pocket, like a roof replacement or fire damage. It works less well for a $300 repair where a $100 excess eats a third of the payout anyway. If you'd hesitate to file a claim for anything under a few hundred dollars regardless of the excess, a higher excess might cost less overall. Each claim would take more out of your pocket when something bigger happens, but you'd pay less for that protection every year in between.
The house itself matters too. An older roof, a part of the country prone to hail, or a history of water damage at the property all make small and medium claims more likely. In that case, keeping the excess low reduces what you'd owe each time one comes up. A newer house in a lower-risk area might make the case for raising it, since the odds of filing a small claim are lower to begin with. Either way, the right number depends on the house closing, not a default carried over from a sample quote.
Before you pick a number
Look at the declarations page on each quote and check what excess it sets, flat or percentage, and against which kind of damage. Comparing that alongside the price shows what the $100 is actually costing you.
