One of the most frustrating situations is when your vehicle breaks down. Our vehicles are vital to our mobility. What’s even more dangerous is when our vehicles break down on us in more remote locations. When we’re far from help, we can feel very vulnerable.
Being covered by roadside assistance gives you a great sense of security. You know that someone is going to be able to help you out when things go wrong for you.
Roadside assistance comes in several forms. Many companies like AAA offer roadside assistance as an individual separate coverage. You’ll pay a monthly or yearly fee and can choose one of their various packages of coverage. Insurance companies will often include roadside assistance into their insurance packages. This allows you to keep all potential auto issues under one roof.
What’s Covered
Roadside assistance programs have a variety of different services that they can provide. While different packages provide different services, there’s a lot of the common ones that are available throughout almost all packages. Here’s some of what is covered in a roadside assistance package:
- Towing – Depending on the package there is a varying level of a towing service. Generally your towing is based on a certain number of miles. You’re able to receive multiple tows in a year as long as it doesn’t go over the miles. If you do need to go over the miles restriction, they will still be there for you, but you’ll have to pay fo rit.
- Flats – A flat tire of puncture can be incredibly frustrating. If your package covers it, they will arrive and help change your spare tire. For some advanced plans, they can actually arrive with a new tire and properly balance and inflate it on your rims on a mobile station.
- Locksmithing – When you get locked out of your own car, a lot of roadside assistance programs will assist you with getting back into your car. Since you have your car registered, they are willing to assist you with getting into your car. If they are unable to
- Gas – If you run out of gas, roadside assistance will bring some to you so that you can fill up once again.
- Winching – If for whatever reason, your car ends up in a ditch or gully, it will probably need winching out of there. Roadside assistance will help you get your car out of there and back on the roads where it belongs.
Cost of Coverage
Multiple plans naturally means multiple costs. The biggest variation is in plans offered by insurance companies. They will look at everything, just like they do for the insurance costs. The age and condition of your vehicle will be affected as well as your driving history.
If you are using a program like AAA, they have multiple costs. Their programs vary and range from about $65 to $125 dollars per year. Additionally you can also add additional family members onto those packages. Those increase the cost from $30 to $65. AAA is an affordable yearly cost and can make a big difference when there’s an incident. Even if you don’t use it for a few years, it will pay off in the long run.