AARP has been terrific for us

[firewhen]

There is another thread but it was getting more political and policy oriented, so I wanted to share the savings here we have gotten as people have been very helpful over the years. First, while membership is $16, when my renewal came up, they started sending letters (about 6 months in advance) but I waited them out and in the last weeks I got an offer for 5 years for $49. Then the past few years the bulletin had an offer from P&G for a $15 mail in rebate for buying $50 in products we use anyway. I think they have had that offer 3 times already so we basically recouped the membership. But the big savings is gift cards. They sell them at 10% off. They are real and we have bought about $15,000 at a savings of $1,500. AARP has been a big win for us financially

 

[pb4uski]

Interesting.... who are these gift cards to/from? Top 5 or 10.

 

[firewhen]

I did a copy and paste. They do get sold out sometimes, individual stores anyway. The number is the variety of cards for that store.

Shutterfly (1)
Banana Republic (1)
Bath and Body Works (1)
Belk (2)
Bloomingdales (2)
Bon-Ton (2)
Brookstone (1)
Build-A-Bear (1)
Burlington Coat Factory... (3)
CVS/pharmacy (2)
Dave and Busters (1)
Express (2)
Finish Line (1)
Foot Locker (1)
GNC (1)
Groupon (1)
Jared the Galleria of J... (2)
JCPenney (1)
Kay Jewelers (2)
L.L. Bean (1)
Lands End (2)
Lord and Taylor (2)
Macys (4)
Neiman Marcus (2)
Office Depot (1)
Old Navy (2)
Sally Beauty Supply (2)
Staples (1)
Sunglass Hut (2)
TJ Maxx (3)
Zappos (1)

Here is an example:

Bloomingdale's Gift Card $500

Retail Price:$500.00
Points: – 5,000
You Pay: $450.00
(10% Savings)

You also need to take these general interest quizzes to earn the points to pay for the discount. It is not that hard to earn the points, I have about 50,000 points now so I could buy 10 of these cards if I needed them. They usually have $100 cards too.

 

[flyingaway]

There is another thread but it was getting more political and policy oriented, so I wanted to share the savings here we have gotten as people have been very helpful over the years. First, while membership is $16, when my renewal came up, they started sending letters (about 6 months in advance) but I waited them out and in the last weeks I got an offer for 5 years for $49. Then the past few years the bulletin had an offer from P&G for a $15 mail in rebate for buying $50 in products we use anyway. I think they have had that offer 3 times already so we basically recouped the membership. But the big savings is gift cards. They sell them at 10% off. They are real and we have bought about $15,000 at a savings of $1,500. AARP has been a big win for us financially

So you buy $15,000 gift cards to sell and make a profit of $1,500?

 

[firewhen]

No I never have done that. Not into reselling and advertising on the web etc. We use them ourselves. As in the example get a $500 gift card for $450.

 

[pb4uski]

If I took what we spent at those stores in 2017 I would be surpriseed if it totals $2,000.

Only ones we frequent at JCP, occasional purchases at Staples and Office Depot. Rarely step foot in any of the others... IME it would be 10% off our already outrageous prices.

 

[Texas Proud]

What are the points?

IOW, where can you use them? How is it $50 for 5000 points?


Any restaurants? None that I saw...

 

[sengsational]

The discounts from AARP didn't work for me.

Glasses: Ordering online from Zenni is an order of magnitude cheaper than the stores.
Hotels: The "exit guide" coupons are cheaper than the 10% or so they take off for the AARP or AAA card.
Gift Cards: You can buy them all day long on gift card granny for way less than the face value.
Health Insurance: Can't comment. Mine is mostly covered by the PTC and am not old enough for Medicare.

 

[Bamaman]

I just don't like the fact that they are a political organization that spreads money to candidates and a political party that I don't agree with.

 

[sengsational]

I just don't like the fact that they are a political organization that spreads money to candidates and a political party that I don't agree with.

Please take this topic over to Is there any benefit to AARP? , where they're covering that.

 

[travelover]

I just don't like the fact that they are a political organization that spreads money to candidates and a political party that I don't agree with.

I think the OP started a new thread to shake off the political posts.

 

[Ready]

I started the previous thread mainly because I was curious about the discounts. I really hadn't given any thought to the politics.

But 10% off on gift cards to those stores really doesn't matter to me as I rarely if ever shop at any of them.

I do routinely buy gift cards at Costco for 20% off, but lately I've been holding off until they have specials where they have $100 gift cards to our favorite restaurants for $70, or 30% off. Then I combine them with $10 coupons the restaurant sends me, and go during happy hour to get cheap drinks and appetizers.

Now if somebody offered me 10% off at Costco, that would get interesting. Unfortunately, the stores that offer discounts can do so because their markups are so outrageously high that they have plenty of margin to spare.

 

[AllDone]

My parents buy their homeowners and auto insurance through them. My mom says it's a good deal. I haven't looked into it yet.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I like Reading the Magazine and News Paper.

 

[RobbieB]

As I said I'm way ahead with just the discount on the phone bill.

I encourage all my over 50 friends to join.

 

[CaptTom]

I was hoping to find some good info about AARP here. In spite of my concerns expressed over on the other post, I'm a member and would love to see some benefit.

As for the discounts, I've shopped at exactly 3 of those retailers this year. Two (Shutterfly and CVS) send me discount coupons all the time anyway. At Staples I ran some copies for a non-profit I work with. It was a last-minute thing and I didn't have time to buy a gift card anyway.

Hope springs eternal, but they're still batting zero with me.

 

[CRLLS]

We have the lowest AARP Road Assistance Plan. We have used the towing several times over the years. The AARP plan covers us, not the cars. So even when I'm riding in a friend's car, they are covered thru me. I'm not sure if others plans act the same.

 

[pb4uski]

AAA works that way.

 

[Focus]

As I said I'm way ahead with just the discount on the phone bill.

What discount is that? (Thanks in advance for elaborating. If it's been covered elsewhere, I haven't seen it.)

 

[Sunset]

I'm thinking of buying some of the cruise gift certificates to save 10% on our upcoming 2 cruises with Carnival. Since we will spend easily $1,000 on tips and port trips, it seems an easy way to save $100.

 

[Sunset]

The discounts from AARP didn't work for me.

Glasses: Ordering online from Zenni is an order of magnitude cheaper than the stores.
Hotels: The "exit guide" coupons are cheaper than the 10% or so they take off for the AARP or AAA card.
Gift Cards: You can buy them all day long on gift card granny for way less than the face value.
Health Insurance: Can't comment. Mine is mostly covered by the PTC and am not old enough for Medicare.

What is this "exit guide" ?

Are you meaning the coupon books a driver picks up when crossing the State line, which have great deals and have caused me to stay in some pretty sketchy hotels

 

[RobbieB]

It's 10% on the phone part (not the data) on AT&T. Which saves me 3 bucks a month or $36 a year. More than the membership cost.

 

[pb4uski]

It's 10% on the phone part (not the data) on AT&T. Which saves me 3 bucks a month or $36 a year. More than the membership cost.

Yeah, but if you have to tolerate their junk mail, phone calls and read their publications then you are not ahead as much as you think.

 

[target2019]

Call us casual users of AARP. Maybe once a year or two we've taken trips, and found that booking hotels or packages through AARP is convenient. Of course we've compared prices, and just found that each time we've gone with an AARP package. This doesn't mean better deals can't be found, and I'm sure some disagree with our positive experience.

Recently signed up for 5 more years.

 

[target2019]

There is another thread but it was getting more political and policy oriented, so I wanted to share the savings here we have gotten as people have been very helpful over the years. First, while membership is $16, when my renewal came up, they started sending letters (about 6 months in advance) but I waited them out and in the last weeks I got an offer for 5 years for $49. Then the past few years the bulletin had an offer from P&G for a $15 mail in rebate for buying $50 in products we use anyway. I think they have had that offer 3 times already so we basically recouped the membership. But the big savings is gift cards. They sell them at 10% off. They are real and we have bought about $15,000 at a savings of $1,500. AARP has been a big win for us financially

You make a good point about discounts. I've found that using specific credit cards or association membership for specific purchases often makes a lot of sense.

For example, you buy gift cards at a discount of 10%. You are rewarded, and life goes on. Others may not do that, and life goes on.

I keep an old Penfed CC, and get 5% off all gasoline purchases. Some may use another card that gives them a different discount. It is all good, in my opinion.