Roadside help you may already be paying for

Tick each box as you check it. The boxes are for your own use on this page; nothing is saved or sent. Set aside an hour and gather the paperwork first: insurance declarations, the warranty booklet from the glovebox, card agreements, the last phone bill. For every source, you are looking for the same three things: whether roadside help is included, what it actually covers, and the phone number or app you'd use.

• Your auto insurance policy

  Roadside or towing coverage is often an optional add-on, and many drivers don't remember whether they chose it. It may be tied to the specific car on the policy.

  look in: declarations page, endorsements list
• An auto club membership

  Memberships tend to follow the person rather than the car, sometimes into a borrowed or rental car. Tiers differ in tow distance and number of calls allowed.

  look in: membership card, renewal notice
• The new-car warranty

  Manufacturers frequently bundle a roadside program with the new-car warranty for a set number of years or miles. It usually expires on its own schedule, which may not match the warranty's.

  look in: warranty booklet, owner's manual
• A certified pre-owned program

  Certified used cars sometimes come with a roadside program for the length of the certified warranty. Check the certification paperwork you signed at purchase.

  look in: CPO warranty document
• An extended service contract

  If you bought one, roadside help may be among its benefits, occasionally as reimbursement rather than dispatch. The contract spells out which.

  look in: service contract "additional benefits"
• Your credit cards

  Some cards offer a dispatch service, where the card arranges help and you pay per use at a set rate; a smaller number include the service itself. Those are very different things, and card benefits change.

  look in: guide to benefits, issuer website
• Your phone plan

  Some carriers sell roadside help as a monthly add-on. It is easy to have accepted it years ago and forgotten.

  look in: itemized phone bill
• A tire purchase

  Road-hazard plans sold with tires sometimes include help with a flat, limited to the tires they cover.

  look in: tire receipt or warranty card
• Your lease

  A leased car is typically new, so any manufacturer roadside program generally applies. The lease itself may say how breakdowns should be handled.

  look in: lease agreement, warranty booklet

Where the coverage overlaps

A general map of how these sources tend to relate, not a description of any particular plan. Your documents decide what's actually covered.

The middle of the diagram is the point. The basic services, a tow, a jump-start, a lockout, a flat changed, a gallon of fuel, are what nearly every roadside offering advertises. A household holding three sources is often paying three times for that middle region.

The edges are where they differ, and they're what should decide which to keep:

What it's attached to. Insurance coverage generally travels with the insured car; a membership generally travels with the member. If one partner often drives the other's car, or you regularly borrow or rent, a person-based plan might be the one to keep and the car-based ones the ones to drop.

When it ends. The car's own programs quietly expire with a warranty or contract term. Plenty of people cancel a membership because "the car comes with roadside," then discover it didn't anymore. Write the end date down.

How it pays. Some sources send a truck and settle the bill themselves. Others ask you to pay the tow operator and submit a receipt. Others arrange the service but charge you for it. At the side of a highway at night, the first kind is worth more than a list of benefits suggests.

How it counts. Using roadside coverage on an insurance policy may be recorded differently from using a membership, and some insurers may treat frequent roadside calls as claims activity. Ask your insurer how they record it; don't assume.

What it won't do. Read the exclusions while you have the documents out. Common ones cover vehicles above a certain size, cars stuck off paved roads, repeat calls for the same problem, and parts or fuel beyond a small amount. None of that is unreasonable, but finding it out on a gravel shoulder is.

The one-page result

When you've been through the checklist, write a short card for the glovebox and a copy for your phone:

Then look at what is left over. Any source you're paying for separately, a phone add-on, an insurance endorsement, a membership tier, that duplicates the one you'll call first is a candidate to cancel. Tally what those cost per year; for a small line item it can be a surprising figure, and it's money you've been spending on a phone number you'd never have dialed. If you're trimming the insurance side, shopping your policy at renewal is the natural moment, and "full coverage" isn't a policy explains why the endorsements list deserves a close read.