An insurance expert is warning drivers to avoid calling for roadside assistance through their insurance provider when their car breaks down. Why? Because they might end up regretting it when they renew.
TikTok user Cara (@friendlyneighborhooduw) indicates she has a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU). A CPCU is a certification in property-casualty insurance and risk management. She recently posted a video with this “insurance fast fact” on April 7. It has since amassed 255,000 views.
“Using roadside assistance on your car insurance counts as a claim against your policy,” she says. “You are far better off getting AAA or some other roadside service and using that instead.”
Insurance fast fact on roadside assistance
In the comments, users disagreed over the veracity of this advice. Some users think it’s good advice, and others don’t think it’s accurate.
“Using insurance of any kind is bad on a policy and they all share that info,” wrote one user.
“From a former insurance agent: I’d definitely use AAA,” wrote a second user.
However, another person wrote, “This isn’t … true.”
Someone else said, “Roadside doesn’t affect mine. Probably depends on the company and policy.”
Does using roadside assistance impact your car insurance?
The answer isn’t as simple as yes or no. According to Insurance.com, companies generally don’t take roadside assistance claims as seriously as other claims. So if you use it once or twice over a period of years in real emergencies, you should avoid any additional charges.
It is important to note that filing too many claims in a short period of time could prompt your insurance provider to raise your rates or cancel your roadside assistance coverage altogether. “Roadside assistance claims usually aren’t severe,” the article states, “but if they’re frequent, it tells your insurance company that your car isn’t in great shape.”
If you’re not sure, Insurance.com recommends calling your company and asking what the rules are. If you’re allotted a certain amount under your policy without penalty, it might not make sense to pay for another service. Of course, that depends on the reliability of your vehicle. So it really just depends on your life circumstances and insurance company’s policies.
On this Reddit thread posted to r/PersonalFinance six years ago, several users backed this up. One wrote, “No, at the insurance company I work for, a major one, you need to file six roadside claims in a policy term for us to increase your premium non-renew.”
Is AAA the best deal?
So what about AAA? Is it worth it? Well, according to NerdWallet, AAA is hugely popular with drivers. The membership also comes along with discounts on car rentals and other services. Fees depend on your package and where you live, but it’s generally between $38-$164 for a membership.
Users on this Reddit thread posted to r/Frugal two years ago say that the service is more valuable the older your car is.
Update 10:07am CT, April 17: In a message to the Daily Dot, Cara wrote, “I was certainly hoping that [the video] reached the right audience – people who didn’t know that roadside assistance claims are still claims on the policy.”
But, she said, she wasn’t expecting her video to go as viral as it did.
“What I was actually most shocked by, was how many people said I was lying! Especially people who work in the industry as well. I think they felt like I was misleading consumers since most states consider roadside claims as ‘non-chargeable’ losses, which means your rate won’t necessarily be impacted,” she said. “But my objective has always been to educate.”
She continued, “And so many people do not know that calling your insurance carrier for a tow, or if you’re locked out of your car…it gets opened as a claim. So they end up being blindsided when they go to get another policy and are told they have claims, or if they get non-renewed by their carrier for claim frequency, or get the coverage removed. It’s just another way that the insurance industry ends up looking disingenuous. It’s important for consumers to know!”
@friendlyneighborhooduw Insurance Fast Facts: Roadside Assistance #insurance #insurancetiktok #insuranceagent #carinsurance #autoinsurance #financialliteracy #fyi ♬ original sound – Cara
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