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I am wondering about my mother. She is 55 and primarily looking for health and travel discounts.
Your mother will find health and travel discounts galore with AARP - along with some other things she may not be so crazy about.
If your mother believes in or donates to any type of conservative causes, she will be canceling out her beliefs/support by joining AARP. They are an extremely liberal organization, and push the liberal agenda. You may wish to look into this first, by googling AARP and what their agenda is.
Secondly - and by far the worst - is that in exchange for their piddling discounts and semi-glossy newsletters, they take your name and put it on a list that is shared with entities which you have no clue about. Your mom will be identified in a gazillion databases as "retirement age", "liberal", "requiring financial services/assistance", "requiring health services/assistance", "requiring elderly services/assistance", and who-knows-what-else. She will lose considerable privacy, and will be hit up for everything from investment solicitation to insurance schemes of dubious merit. Her name, address, age, and some other personal information will be shared with some outfits that she'd rather not have that info.
Your mom can get health and travel discounts in so many other ways just by asking or looking around. She need not divulge all her personal info to get it, either. AARP is not the worst organization in the world. I just don't care for the way they operate behind the scenes, while projecting an image of squeaky-clean helpfulness to older deserving citizens.
IMHO, your mom can do better elsewhere, privately.
I'm not sure if I posted this thread on the "correct" forum or not so please excuse me if it belongs elsewhere
Anyways, I am looking for opinions on AARP. I am wondering about my mother. She is 55 and primarily looking for health and travel discounts.
Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!!
the fee is cheap, travel you get 10 to 20 percent off. they send you a newsletter. she can try it
and then when it renews not pay the fee. You have not much to loose.
I am 75 and find them very usefull and informative and have not received any unwanted mail.You can exercise your own mind as what is useful.I have had term life now for many years at a reasonable rate to protect my wife.Who else is out there to provide information.
The fee is cheap and if you don't like the politics, you are likely to get more attention as a letter-writing member complaining than an outside whinger. Kinda like how U.S. citizens don't much care what the French think, and visa versa.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,819,070 times
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AARP is a good organization even without the benefits because it is politically active and watches out for seniors in Washington. And the more that join, the better a job they can do.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,819,070 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nor'Eastah
Your mother will find health and travel discounts galore with AARP - along with some other things she may not be so crazy about.
If your mother believes in or donates to any type of conservative causes, she will be canceling out her beliefs/support by joining AARP. They are an extremely liberal organization, and push the liberal agenda. You may wish to look into this first, by googling AARP and what their agenda is.
Secondly - and by far the worst - is that in exchange for their piddling discounts and semi-glossy newsletters, they take your name and put it on a list that is shared with entities which you have no clue about. Your mom will be identified in a gazillion databases as "retirement age", "liberal", "requiring financial services/assistance", "requiring health services/assistance", "requiring elderly services/assistance", and who-knows-what-else. She will lose considerable privacy, and will be hit up for everything from investment solicitation to insurance schemes of dubious merit. Her name, address, age, and some other personal information will be shared with some outfits that she'd rather not have that info.
Your mom can get health and travel discounts in so many other ways just by asking or looking around. She need not divulge all her personal info to get it, either. AARP is not the worst organization in the world. I just don't care for the way they operate behind the scenes, while projecting an image of squeaky-clean helpfulness to older deserving citizens.
IMHO, your mom can do better elsewhere, privately.
The AARP does not take positions on issues that are not of concern to seniors. They do not have a position on gun control or even the war in Iraq. They take positions on benefits such as Medicare and Social Security as well they should. If not for them, Part D never would have passed.
I'm not sure if I posted this thread on the "correct" forum or not so please excuse me if it belongs elsewhere
Anyways, I am looking for opinions on AARP. I am wondering about my mother. She is 55 and primarily looking for health and travel discounts.
Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!!
She may be eligible for better discounts elsewhere. As a Realtor, a Farm Bureau Member, and a member of a credit union, I can get better discounts through these organizations than through AARP. You might have her check with any organization of which she is a member to see what is offered there. Despite the fact that I am a little left of center, I nevertheless do not care for AARP's attitude that the only thing that people over 50 are interested in reading about is getting sick and dying - oh, and what to do with their money.
I get tired of reading the message (in their magazine) that I might as well "resign" myself to the fact that my life is essentially over and all I have left to look forward to is getting old and feeble and dying. I tend to think that I have a lot of life ahead of me, and look forward to a very exciting future.
I am a member.
However, I AM a liberal and consider the organization way too Republican/establishment.
I will not call them Conservative because I consider conservatives honorable people with a set of values that they truly believe in for the betterment of the country, and not only the almighty buck and talking points.
They supported the dreaded Bush Prescription Drug/Medicare plan, which I was very against.
I have not found myself to be on any 'hit' lists because I have joined.
If you shop around, even without being a member of any other organization, I believe you will find better deals in insurance, etc, elsewhere. I did.
Businesses used to offer the org. large discounts, feeling they would make it up through reaching all those AARP subscribers.
Those discounts were passed on to their membership, but now the organization pockets the discounts themselves, and passes on to us a price that we can get anywhere if we shop around.
It is so cheap that I don't regret joining. The magazine has a few interesting articles in it. I would not join expecting to have discounted services, though. In my opinion, for some you will be paying a premium which will go into their pockets.
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