Offshore wind energy converters (OWEC) are often erected on monopile foundations. When designing laterally loaded piles, uncertainties due to the inherent variability of the soil properties and loads are taken into account by using partial factors of safety. These factors shall establish at least a minimum safety level of β = 3.8 for reliability class RC2 according to the reliability index concept in Eurocode-0 in conjunction with Eurocode-7. The reliability of the system depends heavily on the choice of the prespecified safety factor and the choice of the characteristic soil properties. The safety factors stated in the standards are mainly based on experience. In current engineering practice, no general accepted method of the calculation of a characteristic value exists. In this study the influence of the chosen quantile values of the deterministic system for a laterally loaded monopile foundation calculated with p-y curves will be presented. Finally, a recommendation for an appropriate quantile value for the necessary safety level according to the standards for a deterministic design is given.