I received a notice in the mail the other day reminding me to renew my roadside assistance service from AAA. For the last several years, I have been a member of AAA “Plus,” which offers the standard service and extra distance for free towing. I’ve decided to downgrade to the standard AAA plan. Before owning my current car, I could make a case for being a member at the higher level.
Despite the Plus membership’s higher price of somewhere in the neighborhood of $90 a year, every year until owning my current car, the service has paid for itself in car service alone. That’s no longer an issue, so I’ll be renewing my membership at the basic level. I’ll still receive useful roadside assistance and be eligible for the same discounts from a number of companies.
I could cover the basic membership yearly fee of about $50 in discounts alone. Here are some of the deals I can take advantage of:
- 10% off at Circuit City with a number of restictions.
- 6% off at Dell.
- 10% off at Target.com (online only).
- 20% off on movie tickets.
- 15% (up to $50) off of Magellan GPS units when shopping online and 5% off at BarnesAndNoble.com.
A full list of savings is available at AAA’s savings website.
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6:57 pm (reply)
I have been a AAA member for years, but I always seem to forget about the discounts. I took a look over at the AAA site after reading your post this morning and saved 5% off my bill at UPS just one hour later.
Thanks.
8:30 pm (reply)
1FG: You may be the first Consumerism Commentary reader who has been helped by an article here. Congratulations! (And I’m glad I could help.)
9:03 am (reply)
The greatest thing are the free guidebooks you can get with membership. I drove cross country once and before I left, I got guidebooks for my trip. I walked out of the local office with about $30-50 worth of books in hand. Plus, we blew a tire and used my membership to get a tow. Those two things made the membership completely worthwhile.
A lot of the tourist sites and some of the restaurants featured will also get you discounts with AAA.
For cheap, local getaways, the guidebooks are probably excellent as well since we would read a little blurb about some obscure place and pull over and have fun taking goofy pictures and eating lunch. I will never forget a huge piece of chocolate cake in SD for a buck as well as the Mitchell Corn Palace. I also had one of my best sushi dinners in Canada because of a place we found in a guidebook. (Yes! AAA has Canada guides too!)