No matter where I am, AARP finds me. (I’ve often joked that they should have sent them to find Osama bin Laden.) Now that it’s six weeks before my birthday, the latest application has shown up.
One friend told me, “It’s great, you get all these discounts!” But really, I don’t – because I don’t buy most of that stuff. When I travel (which is rarely), it’s on the cheap and I crash on a friend’s couch.
I just don’t like spending money on anything unrelated to art, books, movies, music or food. I certainly don’t purchase financial services (hell, no!), I don’t use credit cards and by the time you apply the discount to items like eyeglasses, it’s still more expensive than the discount chain.
But this year, I’m going to join anyway. Why is this year different from all others? Since the Catfood Commission will attempt to raise the retirement age to please some mythical demand in the bond market (put it this way: Social Security funds are in T-bills, and if they’re in trouble, we’re ALL in trouble), I’m looking to groups like AARP to protect us.
So this is the year. Hear me roar!
Although it’s true most of the AARP-sponsired “discounts” are worthless (hello, Hartford Insurance, I’m looking at you), you don’t have to show your AARP membership card to get senior discounts at hotels and the like. Just ask. Ask everywhere. I get discounts at the grocery store, Goodwill, motels, anywhere they give senior discounts for those if us over 55.
I will never join AARP. They sold out the seniors with Medicare part D. Go check out all the insurance companies they hawk, they have now been bought off. They used to be the advocates for social security. Now they are part of the problem.
Susie, I suggest you make a clear statement on your application that you are joining only bcz you believe the AARP will fight against the Obama/Peter Peterson Cat Food Commission’s recommendations. Period.
No fight to protect SocSec and Medicare/Medicaid for everyone, you drop them and want your fees back in total.
I was a member for a short period of time, but I didn’t renew my membership for the same reasons pdgrey and Whitecate mentioned. Alls you get are the freakin magazines, and the info that’s affordable for most seniors is minimal at best. Car insurance? Hartford is a ripoff, and most “discounts” you can get without being a member. IMHO they are in bed with the big corporations, not really doing much for folks who are living off SS and maybe a small pension.
I’m w/pdgrey, jawbone & dandy above. Just like w/Medicare Part D, $$ to donuts when the Catfood Commission plan to gut SS comes out AARP will line right up w/righttards & the blue dogs. AARP makes a lot of money from their Medicare Part D policies.
AARP apologized for that shortly after it passed – they lost a lot of members over that. Also, they’re already working with the coalition formed to protect Social Security. I don’t think they’re going to make the same mistake twice.
“AARP apologized for that shortly after it passed…” How convenient.
“…they lost a lot of members over that.” Me included.
There are plenty of alternatives for fighting this fight without aligning oneself with AARP.