I won’t even turn 49 for another 7 months and I got my AARP application today.
Hey, I’m not proud, if I can save some money on travel, get some powerful lobbyists working on my behalf to pass some pork barrel stuff for me, and get cheap insurance, I’m all in.
Except I thought I had to be 50? But it appears I can just mail in my $12.50 (because when you get this age, even though the multi-year discount looks good, you really can’t count on being around to take advantage right? I think that might be their first moneymaking scam) and be a fogey.
Mom’s going to be so proud, we’ll be in the same group together again!
I joined when I turned 50, and so far all it’s gotten me is a monthly magazine. I get better insurance rates elsewhere, I get the same break on hotel rates from AAA, and I’m too young to qualify for any real senior citizen discounts around here - most of those start at 60.
I don’t think I renewed - is it a one-time fee for life?? <shrug>
I’m pretty sure there’s a yearly membership fee. It used to be $10. Now they send out membership cards that look free, but they follow up with a letter asking for the money.
I signed up for a year, got the magazine, and 10% off at one museum. The discounts for things like car insurance, etc, aren’t that great.
I’ve considered it, but don’t have enough information to decide if it would be worthwhile.
The information they send is really pretty vague. You can get discounts at lots of hotels & restaurants – which ones, exactly? Any in my neighborhood? You get discounts on insurance – from what companies, and how big a discount? All generalities, so it’s quite hard to decide if it is personally a good deal.
Oddly enough, their membership appeals seem to be the same kind of vague, non-specific promises that they warn seniors about!
It’s probably not worth the money but they do have political clout and us old timers need that. I don’t know that I’ve ever received any discounts anywhere but the magazine is interesting from time to time. I hate to think I’ve been a member for 18 years and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
I considered joining when I turned 50. Since then, I’ve torn up the junk mail that comes 3 times/year. They definitely have some political clout, but not worth the money.
I like that it ended up “Aarp”. I thought it was cool that someone else pronounced it like that. When my mom started getting things from AARP, I told her that she seemed waaaay too young to get stuff from Aarp. She looked at me like I was nuts. She was probably right to look at me that way.
Only a little OT, did anyone else get a google ad for a fore-skin stretching site with this page? Do (near) retired folk long for the good ol’ days when they still had their fore-skin?
Bright eyed and innocent at age 50, I joined. Older and wiser at age 52, I unjoined. Now, 10 years later, they still send crap telling me my membership will be permanantly lost if I don’t start sending them money again. (This in the form of a bill.) :rolleyes:
The AARP is the most successful lobbying group in the U.S. The NRA is in second place the last time I looked. They need to combine forces and charter buses that travel to buffet restaurants that are full of old people with .357 magnums in holsters. That would get people’s attention.
That’s probably true, since I got an application and I’m 25. I actually thought about joining just to see what would happen. Do you think I could get a senior discount at IHOP if I did?
