Introduction
On Friday after work, my wife came out to her car, the Nissan Leaf, and saw the flat tire. She then called me to ask what to do. I asked her to look in the trunk and see if there is a spare tire. She didn’t know it at the time, but the Nissan Leaf does NOT come with a spare tire (don’t ask me why.) It comes with some gunk that you are supposed to pump into the tire to get you up to 50 miles, so you can take it to the repair shop.
Anyhow, before we knew that she had no spare tire, I asked her to look around for people to help her with changing the tire. Well it turns out she parks where there isn’t much pedestrian traffic. That’s when I remembered that my buddy @UtahShane mentioned that the AMEX Platinum card comes with FREE roadside assistance. I had cancelled AAA earlier last year, so I was glad I had heard of it.
Premium Roadside Assistance
You can read more about the Premium Roadside Assistance here. It’s different from the normal Roadside Assistance in that it’s free versus having to pay (a big difference.) The cards that have the premium are the Platinum cards (personal and business) and the Personal Rewards Gold card. Here are the benefits:
Premium Roadside Assistance provides the following services at no additional cost up to 4 times per calendar year when Card Member is present with the eligible vehicle: towing up to 10 miles, winching, jump starts, flat tire change when Card Member has a workable spare, lockout service when key is in vehicle and delivery of up to 2 gallons of fuel. Card Member will be charged for the costs of towing in excess of 10 miles and any other additional services. Coverage is available in the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This product does not cover some vehicles, e.g. rental vehicles, motorcycles, taxicabs, unlicensed vehicles, tractors and trucks over 10,000 lbs gross vehicle weight. Other important exclusions apply. In case of inclement weather, we may be unable to provide you with services. Services may not be available or may be at the cost of the Card Member on roadways which restrict access to certain service providers. Lockout service may be unavailable for vehicles with transponder keys. Subject to additional important terms, conditions and exclusions. For full Terms and Conditions, call 855-431-1156 or see americanexpress.com/RAterms.
My experience with the service
So my wife called 855-431-1156 at 5PM and they asked her for her Platinum card. I don’t carry the card around in my wallet, but due to all the AMEX Offers, I’ve saved the card info into the cloud (yes security risk, but so far the benefits > risk.) She had to give them the card number and CID (no 3 digit on back of card.) They said it would be 2 hours before a tow truck would arrive.
To speed up the story, they took 2:30 hrs to arrive (that’s where she was in the queue.) AMEX actually said there was another tow truck company closer to her, but they would take 3 hours. Thus, they booked the one up in Everett (probably an hour drive away without traffic.) Since we decided to tow the car to my house, which was 12 miles away (remember, first 10 miles are free,) AMEX actually charged us $19 for those extra 2 miles. That was fine by us. Later on, I realized it made no sense to tow it to my house and told her to have it towed to Discount Tire, which is actually within 10 miles. I may have her call back AMEX to see if we can get a refund since the location was within 10 miles. I thought the 2 hr wait was long, but it was free, so we can’t complain. I don’t know how fast a normal tow truck would have taken.
Discount Tire
At Discount Tire the next day, I asked how much it would be to replace the tire (couldn’t repair the flat) with the exact same tire. The reason I wanted the same tire was that the car was a lease and we were returning it in 6 months, and my Googling said that they check to see if the tires match and have appropriate tread depth left. Well, it turns out that the 2 front tires were 50% worn out due to it being front wheel drive. I was a bit shocked the Leaf used up 50% of the tires in 1.5 years, but then again, it does have 18,000 miles on it.
Anyway, it made no sense to replace ONE tire since it would be uneven. I then asked how much to replace all 4 with “equivalent tires” – $460 (and that was a hookup price vs $600 normal.) OUCH! Here’s the thing – since we’ve never taken the car in to Nissan in the 18 months, we’ve never rotated the tires in 18 months. This actually worked out for us because the tread depth on the 2 rear tires were around 80%, essentially brand new. So I just bought 2 tires to replace the 2 front ones ($210 hookup price.) In 6 months, it’ll wear down to probably 80% or so, and we should be able to turn it back into Nissan easily. If I had rotated them, the tires would have probably been 60%-70% worn, so it would have been a tougher choice to replace just 1 or 2 or all 4.
Lessons Learned
- Don’t forget about the AMEX Platinum and PRG “premium” roadside assistance. Up to 4 times per year.
- It’s not the fastest service in the world
- When returning a leased car, all 4 tires have to match (YMMV)
- Rotate your tires on a regular basis
The only problem with this is that you may have a longer wait time for a tow truck to arrive, since you are basically waiting for the insurance company to contact towing companies on your behalf and make a deal for the tow. Out here in East Phoenix, I’ve had a great experience with this towing service
I used such service from Amex Gold many times, because its 4 times per AU per year. Takes longer then AAA, but free. BTW, all new cars have free roadside assistance while on warranty. Reg. $19, complain to Amex about wait and they will remove them.
Oh wow, I didn’t know the AU’s got it 4 times per year too. Good to know. Thanks.
I’m not sure I agree abt the value proposition here Vinh. sure it’s free, but doesnt sound like it was worth it. def wouldnt keep the card for this benefit (alone) etc.
if your wife had just called the nearest tow truck to her geo-location, and had it towed a small distance, it prolly would not have cost you more than $50-60. that person most likely would have gotten to you in 20-30 mins as well. I know weather was bad but they would have been quicker than the AMEX contracted company.
not to mention your wife wouldnt have to sit out there in the bad weather, instead of getting on w/her day. and if this delayed her for work/business etc, then its even worse when she could have been making money in the time you waited for your ‘free roadside assistance’
You make a great point BW. Wife was not happy waiting that long. I actually don’t know how much a normal tow truck would have cost. All of my tows have been involuntary and have run about $150. That’s why I didn’t even explore that route since I thought her time was worth the $75/hr savings. Now that I think about it, we should have had at least called a normal tow to see how much it would have charged. Oh well.
You’re right; definitely not worth the AF, but it’s a good cheap alternative to AAA. I doubt we’ll use it again unless another incident like this happens.
I have had several tows in Phila suburbs, and the MINIMUM tow fee is $150, even just for 15 min tow. If vehicle is off roadway, add $100, plus $45/day storage. Free beats the hell out $150 if no other options.
Yeah that’s the price I was expecting for a normal tow. Thanks for data point Jason.
If you need a tow from Amex or AAA, get a phone number of tow company/driver from them and call them to tell that you need to leave and you will hide the keys in a certain place. Then take uber and get on with your day. Make sure to keep calling and checking on them every hour or so to make sure they are able to tow the car, etc. Works fine if your car is not in a middle of a freeway 🙂
Great idea there Alex.
A few months ago, I had a flat and called up Amex RA. Even I knew the service was free (with the PRG and Platinum) , the CSR insisted the service call was $62.50. I argued with her but she wouldn’t budge. I relented since I needed the tow. I am still trying to recoup that money from Amex!
Hmm I wonder if you need to call the premium RA number (not sure if they are diff numbers.) My wife called and they only quoted her the $19 which was the towing distance overrage, so not sure what happened in your case.
I have used this service A LOT, because I have kids with older cars. My experiences have been mostly positive – the one exception was the fault of the service they sent. I live in LA and the trucks are always there in a hour or less.
Ah good to hear. It was just a bad weather day, so that was probably what caused the delay.
I have used various roadside assistance services (AAA, ones that were included with car, etc). 2 1/2 hours is not acceptable under any circumstances unless you were quite a distance from civilization.
All of my AAA issues in past were within an hour. I’ll give benefit of doubt of bad weather that day for it to be 2.5 hours. This was near downtown Seattle so who knows.
AAA is mostly within an hour. Other services, like Amex have less tow companies contracted with them (or may be just pay less) and they always take much longer.