Be careful when using the roadside assistance coverage provided by your comprehensive & collision insurance provider.  Most consumers don’t know that a tow that is provided by your auto insurer’s roadside assistance program could boost your car insurance premium significantly.

When you use an insurance company’s roadside assistance or towing benefits too often it can affect your rates (not in your favor) or even your eligibility for their insurance coverage.  Some auto insurers even consider your calls for roadside assistance to be negatives, just like accident claims.  State Farm, one of the United States’ leading insurers, says that the use of their roadside assistance is a small factor in how they calculate rates or consider a consumer’s insurability though there is no way to verify this statement.  Some insurers report roadside assistance calls they receive to ChoicePoint, a company that compiles claims information for the insurance industry.  Nationwide and GEICO say that they report the information as well but claim that it has only a slight effect on their policy decisions.  Allstate claims that it doesn’t report usage by its members of the Allstate Motor Club, but it does report all towing claims that are made under its insurance policy.