Alignment is one of those jobs that nobody schedules until the tires are ruined. The car tells you first. It pulls toward one side on a flat road, the steering wheel sits off center when you drive straight, or the front tires show a smooth band on one inner or outer edge. Each sign is cheap to notice and expensive to ignore.
Check it yourself each month
On a flat, empty road with the steering wheel released for a moment, note whether the car drifts. Look at the tread across the width of each tire, not just the middle. Run a hand across the tread in both directions. Write down what you find with the date and odometer reading, so you can show a pattern later rather than a single bad afternoon.
Ask who books the visit
Decide in advance who schedules an alignment, who pays the shop, and who gets the printout. If the car is still under a contract, find out whether the form requires an approved facility before any steering or suspension work. A visit to a shop outside that list can change the paperwork even when the work itself was sound.
Read the form for wear, not just breakdowns
Many forms separate mechanical failure from wear, maintenance, and routine items. Find out where alignment and tire wear sit. Some forms may list them as excluded. Some may say nothing and leave you to argue the point later. Ask for that page in writing before you rely on it. Do not assume a part is covered because the failure looks serious.
Keep the link between the two problems visible
Worn tires and a drifting car often share a cause, and a repair that fixes only one can leave the other to wear quickly. Ask the shop to write down the readings before and after the adjustment, and keep that printout with your service file. If a later claim involves steering or suspension, that record shows what was done, when, and by whom.
None of this tells you what any contract will pay. It tells you what to check, what to write down, and who has to act so that the question never reaches a claims desk as a surprise.