Last Reviewed: 4/16/2012

Today’s deep dive is on American Express Roadside Assistance. It’s a relatively straight-forward benefit with not too many loopholes (unlike, say, Amex’s baggage insurance benefit), so we’ll get right to the chase.

Amex Personal Cards Featuring Roadside Assistance

While several Amex credit cards offer only a very limited roadside assistance (basically, just calling up the towing company), only the following American Express cards offer the full roadside assistance detailed in this post:

• Delta Reserve Credit Card
• Platinum Card® from American Express
• American Express® Gold Card
• Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express
• American Express® Green Card®

American Express Roadside Assistance Details

Here are the key benefits and call-outs:

• At its simplest, you get up to 4 (possibly) free tows per year.
• You can only use this service once per every 7 days, with the calendar-year limit of 4 times.
• While there are some very specific coverage details, the gist of it is that 4-wheel vehicles and trucks with a carrying capacity of up to 2 tons are covered.
• Amex will have you towed to the nearest approved facility, or, at your request, to a location of your choice, but with a maximum coverage of $50.
• The policy only covers emergency situations, and does not cover unlicensed, illegally parked, or impounded vehicles.
• The policy won’t pay for the actual repairs (parts, labor, etc), just the tow.
• Coverage applies to the entire US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Well, there you have it, probably GetDebit’s shortest blog post to date.