Over 50 Car Insurance – AARP Review

When you start looking for over 50 car insurance, you will hear two things on a regular basis: Rates go down when you are over 50. Older people are generally safer and more cautious drivers, as long as no other health problems impede their driving skills. The second thing you will commonly hear is: AARP offers insurance to people over 50 – you should check it out.

AARP is a huge group that works politically for the interest of the senior citizens in America (although you can get their car insurance at any age). Therefore, you would think that any car insurance for people over 50 that they offered, would be fantastic…. right? I actually found that feelings were very mixed, and leaned toward the negative for over 50s auto insurance from AARP.

We will start with the positives:

1.) You get a 15% discount if you are a member of AARP

2.) They offer numerous advantages that are difficult to find in other insurance companies, such as:

First time accident forgiveness – As long as all the drivers on the policy are “free of accidents and major violations for the previous five years”

A 12 month rate lock instead of the standard 6 month

Lifetime Renewability – as long as you pay the premiums on time

Disappearing Deductible – If you have a clean driving record, they will reduce your deductible by $150 and continue to reduce it by $50 each year until you reach $0.

Recover Care – They will help you meet other home care expenses if you are injured in an accident

A lot of these benefits are unusual in an auto policy, especially for auto insurance for over 50. Some of them such as first accident forgiveness and disappearing deductible do not come with every standard over 50 car insurance policy, you have to upgrade to an Advantage Plus package. You would need to talk to an agent to decide if those options are worth the extra money to you.

There are many people who love Hartford Insurance (this is the company that works through AARP to offer insurance). For some they have proven to be a great option for car insurance for over 50

The Negatives

There were many complaints listed online for car insurance for over 50s from AARP. Many of them centered around poor customer service and lack of communication. For example, one customer claimed that he never received his good driving discount, another claims they were told there was not cancellation fee and was still charged one, some say that as you get older your rates increase by a ridiculous amount etc. You can find many negative reviews of this company by doing a simple google search for “AARP car insurance reviews”. However, it is good to keep in mind that if people are pleased or indifferent about the company they rarely say anything. If a person has a bad experience it will be written everywhere…

That said, it should be noted that AARP does have a slightly higher rate of customer complaints than other car insurance companies in several states. However, in general, they were right online with the national average.

My advice is to pay attention to the agent when you call. If the agent is helpful, there is a higher possibility that they will continue to be so. If the agent is always hurried and trying to feed you rhetoric, keep calling. Also, be sure to get quotes from several places. Don’t got with AARP just because you believe in their values. One man was quoted as saying that he saved over $500 by switching to another company after having been with AARP for several years – so as always shop around.