Why join AARP?

[Chuckanut]

I joined AARP during the time I was doing a lot of travel. My insurance plan had good coverage for medical expenses out of state and even internationally. But, the cost of evacuation back home was not covered. I found a yearly policy for that. The AARP discount was far greater than the cost of AARP.

FWIW, I find the AARP magazine to be a rather useless celebrity rag. It seem to be obsessed with celebrity interviews which I find rather boring. The monthly newspaper is a bit better, I usually find one article worth 10 minutes of reading time.

Before Covid, I would occasionally get a small senior discount here and there. With the Covid lock downs I lost that habit. I suppose I should start again.

Mostly it seems like a tool to advertise to older folks, IMO

 

[Paulz]

AARP is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization.

Technically true, but not really.

The overall umbrella of AARP is a non-profit, but they have two for profit subsidiaries. AARP Services and AARP Financials are two parts that are for profit and generate the most mail that everyone is familiar with...the sales of financial products and services.

This is an interesting read-especially the part regarding their name change- https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/aarp/

Another interesting read regarding their healthcare affiliations- https://www.citizen.org/article/aarp-a-profitable-nonprofit-organization/

Note I stayed away from the political aspects since I think that has been discussed at length!

 

[athena53]

I hate the magazine, but love the eyeglasses, dentist, eye exam, hotel, cell phone…discounts.

I just got the Bulletin today (they have the Bulletin and the magazine) and they have a great article on ETFs, with caveats against buying those covering a very narrow slice of the market, those that track indices created by the sellers of the ETFs and those with high expense ratios (of course). They also note the advantage of ETFs over mutual funds with the same mix for after-tax income because the ETFs don't make annual CG distributions. They also mentioned that there are 2,400 companies trading on the NYSE and 2,500 US index funds.

None of it revolutionary, especially to this group, but this is stuff I've learned over a few years, tied up neatly in one article. Similarly, even though I consider myself very tech-friendly and not vulnerable to scams, I nearly always learn something useful on those topics, too. I can ignore their pleas to call my Congress critter on various issues.

 

[mickeyd]

I have been passing up AARP offers for over 20 years. I do not think that I needed to be a part of a multi-layered marketing data base.

 

[jw72]

I have been passing up AARP offers for over 20 years. I do not think that I needed to be a part of a multi-layered marketing data base.

Agreed, the marketing machine.

 

[harllee]

I just read the AARP Bulletin and found several interesting articles including one on implants for hearing loss and one on Index funds. I always read their magazines and enjoy them, a bargain for the price of membership.

 

[harllee]

Just saw in a short article in the AARP Bulletin that there is a new prescription eye drop called Vuity that helps people who have presbyopia (I do) read without glasses. I have never heard of this before so I am going to start a separate thread about it. I am always learn something from the AARP publications.

 

[Koolau]

This is a very 'cheapskate' reason to join AARP - Denny's discount of 15%. We have a Denny's not to far from our place, and we go once a week. Saves us about $4 every time we go...$200/year. Feel dirty for admitting this....

Heh, heh, haven't really been for a while due to Covid and also losing our favorite Denny's in Kaneohe - due to Covid, but we used to go at least once a month. Back when they had their $4 menu and 15% AARP discount, we would both waddle out of there for $10 with tip. I don't feel dirty - maybe a bit fat - but not dirty for admitting. YMMV

 

[athena53]

Heh, heh, haven't really been for a while due to Covid and also losing our favorite Denny's in Kaneohe - due to Covid, but we used to go at least once a month. Back when they had their $4 menu and 15% AARP discount, we would both waddle out of there for $10 with tip. I don't feel dirty - maybe a bit fat - but not dirty for admitting. YMMV

Denny's is not on my go-to list but BF decided he wanted biscuits and gravy for breakfast once so we tried the one in the next town. I was happy to find a few things on their breakfast menu that were a lot lighter and that I could get an AARP discount. Maybe he waddled out. I didn't.

 

[DallasGuy]

Last year I joined AARP so that I could subscribe to the AARP United Healthcare Medicare Part G supplemental medical insurance. One of the side benefits of that was that my healthclub membership at LA Fitness is now paid for by United Healthcare. Before you say that the higher premiums probably paid for this, as far as I could tell when shopping around for a Part G supplemental plan, the premiums were about the same as other Part G plans. I was surprised to have the "free" health club membership included because my understanding when shopping around for medicare coverage was that this was a benefit that was mostly just offered by the medicare AAdvantage plans and not the supplemental plans.

 

[gooddog]

Just found out yesterday that AARP members get a large monthly discount on AT&T's unlimited data plan - in Florida.

 

[bmcgonig]

Last year I joined AARP so that I could subscribe to the AARP United Healthcare Medicare Part G supplemental medical insurance. One of the side benefits of that was that my healthclub membership at LA Fitness is now paid for by United Healthcare. Before you say that the higher premiums probably paid for this, as far as I could tell when shopping around for a Part G supplemental plan, the premiums were about the same as other Part G plans. I was surprised to have the "free" health club membership included because my understanding when shopping around for medicare coverage was that this was a benefit that was mostly just offered by the medicare AAdvantage plans and not the supplemental plans.

Agreed. I pay around $120/mo. I get free gym membership that would cost $80 or something like that. Good gym too. Funny thing is that you can join as many of them as you like as long as you visit them every so often.

What’s interesting is that my friend has a plan from Humana that has Silver Sneakers. And her access to gyms is much less than mine. The United Healthcare one is called Renew Active. I’m quite impressed.

 

[tmitchell]

They also do a lot of lobbying/advocacy on behalf of seniors, so it’s not just about discounts. For instance, they work closely with Congress around keeping SS and fraud prevention.

I had to take over my elderly mom’s taxes last year and they offer free help which I found really useful.

I think it’s a great organization.

 

[Koolau]

They also do a lot of lobbying/advocacy on behalf of seniors, so it’s not just about discounts. For instance, they work closely with Congress around keeping SS and fraud prevention.

I had to take over my elderly mom’s taxes last year and they offer free help which I found really useful.

I think it’s a great organization.

It's true they do a lot of lobbying. It's not always in MY best interest though I'm solidly in the demographic they claim to be "helping." I'll just leave it at that, much as I enjoy bacon and also since YMMV.

 

[DallasGuy]

I received an email a couple of days ago with offer of 5 yrs at $9/yr....here's the website it sent me to. I'm not sure if it will work for others, but here it is. If it's not working for you, let me know and I'll delete my post. My membership was expiring in April 2022, and I signed up for the 5 years and it "extended" my membership.

https://appsec.aarp.org/mem/renew?c...=JDBOAGjyOz0UCkoHxYdSzRNwPEMa6jS9wU0T/DdXhck=

 

[misanman]

Are they paying people $9 to join? I think it would need to be more for me to consider it.

 

[DallasGuy]

Are they paying people $9 to join? I think it would need to be more for me to consider it.

I was passing the information on to people that actually want it....wasn't looking for sarcastic remarks. If you don't like it, don't get it.

 

[CatinKS]

AARP supports a political party that I don't wish to contribute too.

 

[MichaelB]

I received an email a couple of days ago with offer of 5 yrs at $9/yr....here's the website it sent me to. I'm not sure if it will work for others, but here it is. If it's not working for you, let me know and I'll delete my post. My membership was expiring in April 2022, and I signed up for the 5 years and it "extended" my membership.

https://appsec.aarp.org/mem/renew?c...=JDBOAGjyOz0UCkoHxYdSzRNwPEMa6jS9wU0T/DdXhck=

Link worked for me, thanks. I have the AARP/UHC MediGap plan that requires AARP membership, so I used the link to renew. My previous membership was good through next year and it added 5 more to that date.

 

[jimbee]

AARP supports a political party that I don't wish to contribute too.

Citation please.

 

[MichaelB]

Let’s all please remember the community rules and keep our political opinions to ourselves. If you don’t like AARP no problem, plenty of other threads to join.

 

[gooddog]

I received an email a couple of days ago with offer of 5 yrs at $9/yr....here's the website it sent me to. I'm not sure if it will work for others, but here it is. If it's not working for you, let me know and I'll delete my post. My membership was expiring in April 2022, and I signed up for the 5 years and it "extended" my membership.

https://appsec.aarp.org/mem/renew?c...=JDBOAGjyOz0UCkoHxYdSzRNwPEMa6jS9wU0T/DdXhck=

I got that email too, and re-signed up to AARP. Between the discount on the cell phone plan, restaurant discounts, and other stuff - it seemed silly to not to have the AARP card. Saving right about $100/month now because of AARP. $1,200/year or $12,000 over 10 years. Little decisions add up.

 

[bmcgonig]

Link worked for me, thanks. I have the AARP/UHC MediGap plan that requires AARP membership, so I used the link to renew. My previous membership was good through next year and it added 5 more to that date.

Don’t think that’s true Michael. You don’t need membership to renew, just to sign up.

 

[Calico]

Link worked for me, thanks. I have the AARP/UHC MediGap plan that requires AARP membership, so I used the link to renew. My previous membership was good through next year and it added 5 more to that date.

I have the AARP/UHC Medigap plan G. I'll have to give this link a try. Just thinking of what I could do with the $35 savings.

 

[Telly]

AARP supports a political party that I don't wish to contribute too.

I've been a AARP member for some years now, haven't seen that at all.


Now, if they interview a "Senator Acme" of the green-with-orange-stripes party who has introduced legislation that affects seniors, they WILL mention the senator's title and party affiliation, just like any news article, whether on TV, online, or newspaper will.