Hosted at CarShield.com, CarShield is marketed as an automotive protection service provider that provides US consumers with the ability to acquire vehicle service contracts. Oftentimes extended vehicle service protection plans are referred to as extended warranties, which are used to help prolong the longevity of your vehicle while limiting your financial liability. To learn whether CarShield is legitimate or a scam we invite you to continue reading our impartial review.
What is CarShield?
CarShield provides automotive protection plans for drivers who reside within the United States. According to their site, CarShield is able to deliver custom policies that enable drivers to select their own US or Canadian ASE-Certified repair facility, obtain rental car coverage, towing, and 24/7 roadside assistance.
Found on their About Us segment of the site would be how CarShield shares that over $1 billion in claims have been made while they have covered 600,000 vehicles since forming back in 2005. Overseen by their corporate entity CarShield LLC, CarShield LLC has received a great deal of controversial feedback over the past decade along with several warnings from the Better Business Bureau.
How does CarShield Work?
It is important to understand that CarShield explicitly states that they do not render extended warranties since “An extended warranty is an extension of your manufacturer’s warranty. CarShield is not connected to vehicle manufacturers or dealers in any way. Instead a CarShield service contract is designed to pick up where your existing warranty drops off, or to fill any gaps in coverage.”
Located in the footer of CarShield.com would be the disclaimer, “CarShield is a nationwide company marketing vehicle service contracts on behalf of leading 3rd party administrators.”
Meaning that although CarShield.com does not provide any automotive protection plans they are still able to assist you vehicle service contracts from companies such as Interstate National Dealer Services, American Auto Shield or United Car Care.
Essentially, CarShield sells other companies vehicle service contracts to you by determining which coverage plan is optimal for your needs. The criteria used to determine which plans are best for you are determined by the make, model, usage, milage, how old your vehicle is along with which state you live in and what your budget is. Once submitted, consumers can put a down payment down and put their new automotive protection contract into effect.
CarShield Protection Plans
Automotive vehicle protection contract rates are determined upon the criteria you submitted when applying for an automotive protection plan. Each protection plan varies from the next which is why CarShield.com does not disclose any specific prices.
Customer Support
According to the Better Business Bureau, CarShield LLC is headquartered from 333 Mid Rivers Mall Dr., Saint Peters, MO 63376-1516. Their customer service hours run from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. CST while their support team can be reached via telephone at +1(800) 587-4162. For those who are not in a rush to connect with CarShield you can email them at info@carshield.com.
What Others Are Saying
CarShield.com is a widely used automotive protection plan platform that supports over a couple hundred thousand monthly visitors so it comes to no surprise that there is a great deal of controversial feedback.
Perhaps the most troubling feedback would be at the Better Business Bureau, where CarShield has accrued 249 complaints in the last 3 years, reflects an F BBB ranking while receiving a couple of warnings.
While the feedback found at the Better Business Bureau is disturbing, according to other consumer feedback sites such as ConsumerAffairs and TrustPilot, CarShield has amassed a cumulative 4 star rating average out of a combined 1,500 reviews. Whether any of those reviews have been falsified we are unsure but below are a couple of the most recent consumer reviews we encountered:
“CarShield is a false sense of security. Sure they’ll approve certain claims to stay legal but being one of the lucky ones is like buying a lottery ticket. If you are lucky like I was, you’ll have car trouble early so your claim can get denied in time to cancel your policy before you lose a ton of cash making payments for months. Read the fine print in the contract!! It is written in such a way that they can deny almost any claim.”
“Representives are excellent in explaining policies and benefits. There is no pressure only good information.”
Popularity
CarShield.com was a privately registered domain that was created on January 19th, 2008. According to SimiliarWeb, CarShield reflects a US rank of 50,676 while supporting over 230,000 visitors on average. Approximately 98.83% of their traffic is US based while they reflect a vehicle car rental category rank of 192 as of August 14th, 2018.
Is CarShield a Scam?
Given the volume of positive consumer feedback and their overall corporate transparency we do not believe that CarShield is a scam.
We do, however, feel that they have much they could improve upon such as better addressing consumer complaints and member claims. Overall we feel that unless you are completely committed with utilizing their services that you should avoid them as a whole and seek other alternatives.
CarShield Review Conclusion
CarShield.com provides a unique service for US-based drivers looking to acquire automotive protection plans once their original vehicle warranties subside. Prior to committing with CarShield, it is important that you read the fine print and understand all the technicalities that are involved with your service protection plans. Swift through relevant community feedback and decide for yourself whether this automotive protection plan service provider is ideal for you.
Bottom Line: CarShield should be pursued at your own risk.
Site: CarShield.com
We encourage you to share any feedback or wisdom you may have in a comment below!
Purchased this product about a year ago.
Just had an oxygen sensor go out and it was not covered by Carscam.
I was JUST told that when I purchased the product that my vehicle had too many miles on it to get that coverage. Sure would have been nice if I was told that PRIOR to purchasing.
I do feel this place is disingenuous.
I emailed CarShield, after seeing their ad on TV. About 5 minutes after completing their short inquiry, I received a call from them (Sean). Listened to his presentation (Platinum Plan), and was very impressed. The cost? $129./mo. He requested my credit card info. Told him that I had to discuss it with wife. Then, he reduced the cost to $109. Still, not willing to buy until discussing it with wife, the price was reduced to $109. Sean remained persistent on the credit card info. Now, the price was $89./mo. Told him I was NOT going to give him the credit card info, until my wife approved the deal. Asked Sean if I could call him back in 2 hrs, with our decision. he stated that he would call me, at 4:30pm. Promised he would call, and asked if I would answer. I assured him that I was interested in the deal, and guaranteed him I WOULD ANSWER THE CALL. He NEVER called me. QUESTION: How is it that a Warranty Plan costing $129./mo could be reduced 31% in 5 min…and STILL have the same coverage? If it was a legitimate offer, how could they absorb the $40. loss and still provide the same guarantee? What business does this, and survives? Sean was very persistent in wanting my Credit Card No., promising me the $89. offer was guaranteed for 24 hrs. He would call back…NEVER HAPPENED. Personally…this has SCAM written all over it!
I called to get a quote & was given a price. When I said “no” they lowered the price again. I said it was still to high, they lowered the price again. I asked for them to send me a copy of their warranty contract they said I would get it when I signed up. I refused, and again wanted to read the coverages.. I then hung up.
I just called these guys because they sent me a letter about an extended vehicle service plan (EVSP), and that there will be a price increase. So, they wanted me to call so that I could hold my contract at a lower price.
The thing is…I don’t even remember making any contract with them, and when I did call, the salesman was unbearable. The prices were reasonable, but I told him that I didn’t have the amount on me yet. So, he immediately asks if I could use a credit card – I said no. I then asked what are my other options, but he was now saying that this is the only time I could pay. I still said that I didn’t have the money.
He then asks me on what would I do if my car were to break down. I jokingly said that I would scream and call my dad. Well, the salesman decided to ask if my dad could pay the amount for me, or if I could borrow. At this point, the man was simply begging and I told him that I won’t purchase because we’re not coming to an agreement. I promptly hung up the phone – and he calls back immediately!
I humored him by picking up the phone, and he says “Oh, sorry – we disconnected”. I then told him that I was the one who disconnected, and that I was no longer interested in carshield. I told him not to call me again. He kept talking at that point, but I hung up and blocked his number.
After all this hassle, I’m willing to say that carshield is a scam, or this man is absolutely bad at being a salesman.
Thank you for you comment. My experience is very similar.
I bought a vehicle from Coulter Nissan, Surprise Az, in 2017, including a bumper-to-bumper extended warranty to 100,000 miles at the time of purchase for which I paid $2,300. CarShield has been a nuisance ever since with phone calls as well as mailings. The CarShield employee who I spoke to today, giving him the above information, was insulting in that he continued trying to sell me additional coverage. For what? He would not quit. If I have coverage, I don’t need duplicate coverage. If this nonsense doesn’t stop, I will see a lawyer about filing legal action.
I really think it’s a good thing. However, if you can’t collect when you have a problem its not worth much. So I am looking at other companies but think they must all be crooks. Let me know if anyone has a good experience.
This company is a complete scam. I called them up today and made a claim for my 2002 GMC Yukon SLT and I was told that they don’t cover the seals or the block of the motor. Now when I bought the policy and went over their contract they said they did cover those parts. The contract is very confusing and I called the company and they reassured me that those parts would be covered well after I call the claims department and getting a very rude guy on the phone. I call the account Department and I explained to them that, “If y’all don’t cover the block and seals then what am I paying y’all for.” They said they could not refund me my money since it was longer than 30 days.
I’ve been having the policy for 2 months now but they lie to me to make me stay on the policy till time ran out. All the receptionist could tell me was, “Oh I’m sorry you had a bad experience.” I told her this is a scam and you are not an honest person. I also explained to her that if I did not get it fixed the vehicle would get worse over time and then they would not cover the policy because of negligence but it’s their fault that there is negligence in the first place so if you’re thinking about getting this policy with this company just don’t. Also they lie and say that the problem was solved and no it never was . the theives still have all my money. there are a lot of fake reviews here as well so beware when dealing with this scam of a company. if you see this as a reponce to any of the one star reviews
Vincent-
We are sorry to hear about your experience. Looks like you spoke to one of our customer service representatives and they were able to assist you.
If there’s anything you need, please give us a call.
It is a lie. Before you deal with this company please read the one star reviews they are not lieing to you but this company is. They are nothing but a bunch of Liars who ony want your monney. consumer beware.