5 SENIOR DISCOUNTS TO AVOID
Most money-savvy adults know that they can take advantage of discounts once they reach a certain age — starting at 50 but usually 60 and older. Some of these senior discounts represent outstanding bargains. Take, for example, the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Senior Pass, which costs just $10 and gives adults 62 and older lifetime access to 2,000 national parks and recreation areas. There’s an additional $10 processing fee if you order through the mail, buy you can avoid the fee by purchasing your Senior Pass at one of these locations.
But there are plenty of so-called special senior rates that aren’t that special because there are deeper discounts for the same goods and services available to the general public. Here are five senior discounts that older adults shouldn’t always say yes to because they could be missing out on better rates.
Attractions:
Many museums, theme parks and other tourist attractions offer discounted rates for seniors. However, older adults should check for other non-senior discounts before flashing their photo ID or retirement group membership card at the ticket counter. For example, in Boston the New England Aquarium, Museum of Science, Skywalk Observatory, Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard Museum of Natural History all offer special rates for seniors. It would cost a total of $89.95 to buy discounted senior tickets to visit all five attractions. But seniors can visit the same five attractions for just $54 by purchasing a regular adult Boston CityPASS. CityPASS, which offers discounted admission to popular attractions, is available for 11 major North American destinations.
Checking accounts:
Before you sign up for a senior checking account, compare it with the bank’s basic checking option. A Pew Charitable Trusts study of checking accounts offered at the 12 largest U.S. banks and 12 largest credit unions found that some senior accounts actually cost more than basic accounts unless the customer maintained a high balance.
Hotels:
Some hotel chains including Holiday Inn offer discounted rates to travelers 62 and older. And AARP members who are 50 and older (membership is $16 a year) get discounts of 5 percent to 20 percent at several hotel chains ranging from Best Western to Wyndham. The discounts apply to the best available rates offered by the hotels and can’t be combined with other discounts.
If seniors always default to these discounts, though, they’ll at times miss out on better rates offered by discount travel Web sites and apps. For example, the senior discount rate for a one-night stay on February 28 at the Holiday Inn Nashville is $252 — the same as the advanced-purchase rate for anyone. But we found a room at that same hotel on February 28 for just $177 on discount hotel-booking site Hotels.com.
Phone plans:
Some wireless service providers offer plans available exclusively to adults of a certain age, touting that the price is lower. However, adults who meet the age criteria might be better off with plans that are available to anyone. For example, Verizon’s Nationwide 65 Plus Plan, available to customers 65 and older, charges $29.99 a month for just 200 “talk” minutes. You’ll have to pay extra, though, for text messaging and a data plan. For example, it costs another $20 for unlimited messaging and $30 for 2 gigabytes of data — for a total of $79.99 a month. However, a standard single line plan with unlimited talk and text and 2GB of data costs $75 a month (or $60 if you purchase a smartphone through the Verizon Edge plan).
Rental cars:
AARP members can get discounts of up to 25 percent on Avis and Budget car rentals when using a code provided by AARP and booking through the rental companies. But book through a deal aggregator such as Hotwire.com, and you can save even more. For instance, when we compared prices for a one-day rental from Miami International Airport, we found that the rate listed on Hotwire for an economy car was 22 percent to 31 percent lower than the discounted rates offered through Avis and Budget.