The portion of a loss that you are required to pay before your insurance coverage will respond. Also known as a SIR: Self-Insured Retention. Deductibles can be used to reduce your physical damage premiums. For example, if you owned a policy with a $200 deductible and you suffered a covered loss totaling $1,000, you would pay the first $200 and the Insurance Company would pay the remaining $800. If the loss were only $200, you would pay the entire amount and the Insurance Company would pay nothing.