Many people do not know that their credit card companies may provide additional services beyond loaning money for purchases.
In fact, several credit card companies offer services through third party providers for things such as identity theft, travel planning and even roadside assistance. These services are not always marketed to credit card customers very well, and J.D. Power & Associates reports that only about 2/3 of people are even aware of their benefits, and even fewer people are using their credit cards to their full advantage. For this reason, many credit card companies are dropping extra benefits from their cardholder agreements.
In August 2015, Discover issued a new cardholder agreement that stated they intend to “simplify the suite of cardmember benefits that it provides by eliminating certain benefits in order to provide a better customer experience.” What this really means is that they are eliminating benefits to save themselves money. With recent laws in effect that restrict credit card companies on the kind of late fees and interest rates they can charge, many lenders are looking at cutting cardholder benefits and other services to save money and help their bottom line.
In fact, Sears MasterCard recently dropped its rental car collision coverage, travel assistance and roadside assistance benefits, and Bank of America is discontinuing its roadside and travel assistance benefits for its MasterCard Better Balance Rewards cardholders as well. With these heavy hitters leading the pack, it’s a logical assumption that other credit card companies will be following their lead and dropping third party services for their cardholders as well. So whether or not you have one of these cards listed above, you should start looking around for another provider for these services.
Even if you do plan to continue using your credit card company’s services, keep in mind that most credit card companies still charge their cardholders a fee to use their roadside assistance and these fees can run up to $70 per call. At that price, you should consider going with Best Roadside Service’s roadside assistance plan. In fact, a year of roadside assistance with Best Roadside Service, which includes up to 6 calls per year, only costs between $65-$80 depending on the plan chosen. Additionally, Best Roadside Service offers travel assistance, travel concierge services, travel discounts, coupons, a 24-hour emergency hotline, discounts at national automotive maintenance shops and more. Your discounts from these partners might just pay for your annual membership! You don’t have to have a particular credit card to have these services and you don’t have to pay a crazy interest rate to earn them. Individual plans are less than $80/year and vehicle plans are just $65 annually.
Why Choose Best Roadside Service
Going with a company that specializes in roadside assistance is also the only way to ensure you get the best and fastest service. Credit card companies are essentially playing the middle man to their cardholders – creating an additional step and costing the customer more time when they do need help on the side of the road. Best Roadside Service, on the other hand, has an average response time of just 34 minutes. And their service providers respond to over 70,000 calls per month. In the last 50 years, Best Roadside Service has unlocked over 170,000 doors, changed over 340,000 flat tires, towed over 6.8 million miles and delivered over 60,000 gallons of fuel!
But not all roadside assistance plans and providers are created equal. Whether you want to purchase a plan for a particular vehicle, no matter who is driving it, or a plan for an individual, no matter what vehicle they are driving – you’ll want to compare plans, and go with a Better Business Bureau A+ rated company that has been providing roadside service for over 50 years to consumers just like you.
The bottom line is that your credit card company is more concerned with their bottom line than customer perks and benefits. Ditch the middle man, and purchase an independent roadside assistance plan for you and your family from Best Roadside Service!
review sites to give them good ratings? Can you REALLY believe the review site? Take it with a grain of salt! You can find good online reviews but honestly, they may not be accurate or they can be outdated. We have certainly seen some good reviews for companies that didn’t have good PR or Facebook comments when you looked elsewhere. That left us us scratching our heads. It’s hard to know who to believe or what questions to ask before buying a product or service. But if you’re researching roadside assistance companies, we encourage you to ask yourself these questions as you read through reviews and rankings.