Credit cards’ roadside assistance programs could save you the next time you’re stranded

A couple months ago, my 3-year-old daughter and I wearily arrived at our car in the long-term parking lot at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. We’d spent all day traveling back from California – it was after midnight at this point – and we were eager to get home. Unfortunately, when I started the car, the first thing I noticed was a low tire pressure warning.

My mind started to race. 

My family used to lease our car and the dealer included a roadside assistance program, but that lapsed more than a year ago and we now own the car outright. We haven’t subscribed to AAA in years. Can non-members use that service? Could I sign up on the spot? Was there a local mechanic I could find at that hour? If I dug the spare tire out of the trunk, would I be able to install it? Could I nurse the car along for the 40-mile drive to our house?

I ended up slowly driving the car to a gas station about a mile away. I filled the tire and thankfully was able to drive home safely. It was flat again the next day, but it was easier to deal with at that point. While I appreciated the happy ending, the experience got me thinking, what would I do if this happened again? Should I sign up for a roadside assistance program?

In a calmer moment during the light of day, it dawned on me that my credit cards could have helped me out.

Have a question about credit cards? E-mail me at ted.rossman@bankrate.com and I’d be happy to help.

Visa’s roadside assistance program

My Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card is a Visa card and all Visa cards provide roadside assistance benefits. Cardholders should call 1-800-847-2869 for service. The typical service call fee is $79.95, which includes:

• Standard towing (up to 5 miles)
• Tire changing (must have a good, inflated spare)
•  Jump starting
•  Lockout service (but not key replacement)
•  Fuel delivery (up to 5 gallons, plus the cost of fuel)
• Standard winching

How AAA stacks up

I compared Visa’s program with a Basic AAA Membership which offers a similar slate of benefits (four roadside assistance calls per year with towing up to three miles, fuel delivery, flat tire service, battery jump starting and replacement, vehicle lockout service up to $50 and identity theft monitoring). The Basic AAA Membership costs $3.54 per month, which works out to $42.48 annually. AAA is a better deal, assuming you use it at least once a year, but there’s also a chance you could pay for the membership and not use it. Visa’s roadside assistance charges only kick in if you use the service.

My family has two relatively new cars and this was the only time in the last several years that we considered roadside assistance. For us, it has historically been a better bet to avoid an annual membership fee. We’ll see if that continues, though. We had been in the habit of leasing new cars every three or four years, but now that we own both of our cars outright and plan on driving them for years to come, car maintenance may become more relevant to us.

Mastercard’s roadside assistance program

Certain Mastercard credit cards – particularly World and World Elite Mastercard products – offer roadside assistance via Mastercard’s Master RoadAssist Roadside Service. Within the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, this service helps you find a local service provider with pre-negotiated fees for standard services such as jump starts, towing, gas delivery and tire changes. Cardholders should call 1-800-MasterCard (1-800-627-8372) for service.

I was disappointed to learn that my Chase Freedom Flex® (a World Elite Mastercard) is not eligible for this coverage. Mastercard told me that card issuers decide which perks to offer and Chase did not opt to include roadside assistance on the Freedom Flex (although that card does have other helpful extras such as purchase protection and extended warranty coverage).

Do American Express and Discover offer roadside assistance?

Neither American Express nor Discover currently offers roadside assistance (American Express used to, but discontinued the program in 2020).

Do any other credit cards offer roadside assistance?

While most credit card roadside assistance programs are administered at the network level (e.g., Visa or Mastercard), some card issuers have their own programs. The Chase Sapphire Reserve, for instance, covers up to four roadside services per year (up to $50 apiece for towing, jump starting, tire changing, locksmith services and running out of gas).

It’s worth familiarizing yourself with your specific cards’ programs, keeping in mind that the card issuer (the bank extending credit) and the card network (the processor that facilitates transactions between consumers, card issuers and merchants) might have different options. Good ways to obtain this information are to peruse your “Guide to Benefits” or to make a call to customer service.

The bottom line

I hope that I won’t be stranded along the side of the road anytime soon, but my brush with a flat tire at JFK Airport led me to get better acquainted with various roadside assistance programs. Visa’s offering seems like it could be a good fit if I run into a similar situation again.

The information about the Chase Freedom Flex® has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.