Best Car Insurance Companies for Roadside Assistance

Find out which insurance company has the best roadside assistance on the market.

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Just about every auto insurer offers some form of emergency breakdown coverage. But how do you know which offers better service? Our research shows that Travelers provides the best car insurance with roadside assistance.

Roadside assistance plans provide a helping hand when your car breaks down. Typical motorist support services include:

  • Towing
  • Battery jump-starts
  • Fuel delivery
  • Flat tire changes

These services are also relatively inexpensive considering how crucial they are when you need them the most. It’s easy to see why so many people subscribe to roadside assistance plans. They’re so popular that a wide variety of business offer them, including:

  • You can get it from a div:
  • Auto insurance companies
  • Auto clubs, like AAA or Good Sam
  • Car manufacturers
  • Credit card companies
  • Phone companies

In this article, we’ll go over the top options on the market for roadside assistance, including which company is the best and why. For a complete breakdown on which car insurance company is the highest quality overall, be sure to visit our article on the best auto insurers in the country.

Best Car insurance With Roadside Assistance: Travelers

Travelers has the best roadside assistance program among other leading auto insurance companies. It includes several types of 24/7 services, plus chances to get extra types of coverage and benefits.

Unlike most other insurers, Travelers has two packages: Roadside Assistance Coverage and Premier Roadside Assistance. Both packages include the following:

  • Towing up to 15 miles away from the incident (up to 100 miles away for the Premier package)
  • Battery jump-start
  • Fuel delivery
  • Flat tire change
  • Locksmith services
  • Winching

The extra benefits in the Premier package make Travelers’ the best option for breakdown coverage. If you decide to spring for Travelers’ Premier plan, you’ll get:

  • Trip interruption coverage. This reimburses you if your car breaks down 100 miles away from your residence. You’ll get $200 per day up to a total of $600 for temporary housing, food, and other means of transportation like rental cars or buses.
  • Personal property coverage. This gives you $500 of coverage if your belongings get damaged or stolen in collision, comprehensive, or glass claims.

Be aware that Travelers’ plan doesn’t cover the costs for supplies, such as fuel, parts, or replacement items, or work done on your car at repair shops.

Final Word on Travelers

Travelers offers the best help for stranded motorists, with the choice of adding extra coverage. This is something you can’t often get with any other auto insurer. Because of this, we place Travelers as the top car insurance company for roadside assistance coverage.

As a provider of auto coverage overall, Travelers ranks very highly. It’s the tenth-largest auto insurer in the US, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). Travelers also scores well for customer satisfaction and financial strength, garnering above-average scores from J.D. Power, A.M. Best, and S&P Global.

Second-Best Insurer With Roadside Assistance: Nationwide

Nationwide offers the second-best roadside assistance from an insurance company. It includes:

  • 24/7 service
  • Towing up to 15 miles (more for the Plus plan)
  • Winching
  • Battery jump-start
  • Fuel delivery
  • Flat tire change
  • Locksmith services (up to $100):
    • You lose your key or fob
    • Your key breaks off in your car’s ignition, door, or trunk
    • You lock your keys in your vehicle

Like Travelers, Nationwide offers two plans, Basic and Plus. Both include the above. However, Nationwide’s Roadside Assistance Plus includes:

  • Towing up to 100 miles
  • Trip interruption coverage is up to $500 if you’re stranded 100 or more miles away from your residence. This includes lodging, meals, and other modes of transportation.

You can access vehicle rescue service on the Nationwide mobile app or online.

Final Word on Nationwide

Nationwide offers two very good packages. On par with Travelers, Nationwide’s premium plan has services like trip reimbursement, which you often can’t get with other insurers. Offering breakdown service through a company called Agero, Nationwide offers additional coverages such as towing, tire changes, and more.

All in all, you really can’t go wrong if you choose Nationwide for both breakdown and auto coverage. Nationwide offers many coverages and discounts and is a well-rounded company. For this reason, we recommend the company as the second-best auto insurance carrier for roadside assistance.

Third-Best Insurance Roadside Service Plan: Progressive

Progressive offers the third-best insurer roadside assistance plan. It includes what you’d expect, plus some extras. Like Nationwide, Progressive provides auto breakdown service through Agero, which has over 80 million customers. The program is available for cars, RVs, and motorcycles.

Here’s what the Progressive plan includes:

  • 24/7 service
  • Towing up to 15 miles
  • Winching
  • Battery jump-start
  • Fuel delivery
  • Electric car battery charge
  • Locksmith assistance
  • Flat tire change
  • One hour of on-scene labor to help fix your car. However, you may need to take it somewhere else if they can’t fix it within an hour.

Note: Progressive imposes a yearly limit on emergency tow and repair services. This means you must pay extra for calls exceeding the annual maximum. Progressive also says their car trouble program can be subject to policy limits in some states.

Final Word on Progressive

Progressive offers great help for motorists with many helpful vehicle rescue services. Its electric car battery charge and on-scene labor guarantee are two features you don’t often see with other companies. You’ll also get winching, towing, and fuel delivery services.

Overall, Progressive is a great insurance company. It offers many coverage types and discounts. It also ranks highly for customer satisfaction in studies from A.M. Best, J.D. Power, and more. Due to the strength of its plan and excellent ratings, Progressive is our pick for the third-best roadside assistance insurer.

Honorable Mentions for Roadside Assistance

Travelers, Nationwide, and Progressive may top our list of insurance companies with roadside assistance support, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other good options. Several of the largest insurers offer great plans that’ll ensure you’re covered when the worst happens.

Here are the insurers that earned honorable mentions for their motorist assistance programs:

GEICO

GEICO offers a wide range of services you’d want and expect if you were stuck on the side of the road. It’s also easy to access online, on the GEICO Mobile app, or over the phone.

Here is what you get with GEICO’s Emergency Roadside Assistance:

  • 24/7 service
  • Towing to a nearby repair shop or facility
  • Fuel delivery
  • Winching
  • Battery jump-start
  • Locksmith services (up to $100)
  • Tire changes if you have a spare

With GEICO, you get a helping hand when you need it at an affordable price. Per the company’s website, its breakdown service can cost as little as $14 a year per car. It’s a good value for this many services, including towing, tire changes, and battery jump-starts.

Allstate

Allstate has a unique set-up for auto emergency assistance. You can get it as:

  • An individual membership plan
  • Pay-per-use
  • An add-on to your auto policy

The membership plan gives you access to exclusive benefits and family plans. It and pay-per-use tow and repair don’t require you to have an auto insurance policy with Allstate. You can buy them as standalone products.

Every Allstate roadside assistance plan features 24/7 coverage, can be accessed on a mobile device or phone, and includes towing and various emergency services.

Liberty Mutual

Liberty Mutual didn’t quite make our top three, but it’s on-the-road assistance has plenty to offer . Here is what this insurer’s roadside assistance program includes:

  • 24/7 service
  • Towing to a nearby repair shop or facility
  • Battery jump-start
  • Fuel delivery (with fees for the cost of fuel)
  • Flat tire change
  • Locksmith services

If Liberty Mutual’s already your auto insurance carrier, it may be a good idea to check out its breakdown and towing coverage. You can add it to your policy if you have “Towing & Labor Coverage” on your policy. You can access Liberty Mutual roadside assistance on your phone or the insurer’s website.

State Farm

The nation’s largest insurance company, State Farm has a good motorist assistance program. You can access the following emergency roadside assistance services on the mobile app, over the phone, or on State Farm’s website:

  • Towing
  • Fuel delivery
  • Locksmith services for one hour
  • One hour of labor for:
    • Battery replacement
    • Electrical problems
    • Transmission issues
    • Fluid leaks (excluding fuel)
    • Other mechanical issues

Note: you may have to pay fees for tires, fuel, batteries, etc.

State Farm didn’t make the top three because it didn’t go above and beyond to provide extra coverage types by default. Even so, you still get a good number of services. State Farm roadside assistance is worth a try if you already buy car insurance from the insurer.

USAA

USAA provides fewer car breakdown services than other insurers. But its roadside assistance plan still includes many of the core features you’d expect. You can also handily access it on your phone with the carrier’s mobile app.

Below is a list of USAA’s roadside assistance services:

  • Towing
  • Flat tire changes
  • Fuel delivery (with fees)
  • Battery jump-start
  • Locksmith services
  • Winching

To learn more about the cost of USAA emergency towing and repair plan, visit their website. It’s important to note that USAA only serves military members and their families. The company and it’s roadside assistance program is off the table if this doesn’t describe you.

Final Ranking

According to our research and thorough comparison of each of the above companies, this is our final ranking of the top five best auto insurers providing roadside assistance:

  1. Travelers
  2. Nationwide
  3. Progressive
  4. GEICO
  5. Liberty Mutual

How We Chose Our Winners

We made our selection for the best insurance company for emergency motorists services by looking at a variety of factors. We studied all of the leading auto insurers and compared their roadside assistance programs. Some things we looked at included:

  • Service offerings
  • Extra coverage
  • Ease of use
  • Limitations

Besides looking at each program, our study took a holistic approach. We wanted to ensure that the top companies not only had the best emergency assistance for stranded motorists but were also strong in other areas like financial strength and customer satisfaction.

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