Owning a car can be really expensive. Beside the cost of the vehicle or the monthly amortization and insurance, encountering road hassles can also add to your long list of burdens. Luckily, there is the AAA to save that part of vehicle management. But the question is, how much does AAA membership cost? Is there even a free AAA membership?
Average AAA.com Price
Keep in mind that the AAA membership cost greatly depends on the type of membership you want to have. What are the different AAA memberships? There are at least three memberships available in this club, namely:
1. Basic or Classic Membership Plan: From the name itself, this is the cheapest AAA membership that you can get. Obviously, this is also the plan with the least benefits. For the AAA classic membership plan, you get:
- Four complimentary 24/7 roadside assistance per year which include:
- Four free towing of up to 5 miles
- Emergency start
- Battery service
- Flat tire service
- Fuel delivery (however, you will pay for the fuel)
- Vehicle locksmith service for up to $50 only
- Disconnection or winching (one service vehicle and one driver)
- Car travel interruption of up to $600
- Emergency check cashing
- Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Membership with free 675 points
- Access to TripTiks, Maps, and TourBook
- Passport photos (nominal fee)
- Legal service fee reimbursement. $500 for manslaughter, $250 for reckless driving, and $100 for minor traffic violations
- Travel accident insurance for AAA travels worth $100,000
AAA.com’s price for their basic membership also varies per state. But on average, the cost of this plan runs around $58 per year.
If you are interested to know the starting cost of AAA membership by state, please check the following:
- Alabama – $50
- Alaska – $62
- Arizona – $57
- Arkansas – $58
- California – $56
- Colorado – $77
- Connecticut – $70
- Delaware – $70
- Florida – $59
- Georgia – $59
- Hawaii – $58
- Idaho – $69
- Illinois – $49
- Indiana – $49
- Iowa – $49
- Kansas – $58
- Kentucky – $50
- Louisiana – $58
- Maine – $49
- Maryland – $74
- Massachusetts – $52
- Michigan – $52
- Minnesota – $49
- Mississippi – $58
- Missouri – $58
- Montana – $51
- Nebraska – $49
- Nevada – $56
- New Hampshire – $49
- New Jersey – $74
- New Mexico – $53
- New York – $52
- North Carolina – $59
- North Dakota – $49
- Ohio – $70
- Oklahoma – $55
- Oregon – $69
- Pennsylvania – $50
- Rhode Island – $52
- South Carolina – $59
- South Dakota – $55
- Tennessee – $59
- Texas – $53
- Utah – $56
- Vermont – $49
- Virginia – $74
- Washington – $56
- West Virginia – $68
- Wisconsin – $49
- Wyoming – $51
2. Plus Membership Plan – The benefits you can get with AAA membership plus plan are almost the same as the basic plan. However, there are few upgrades and additional features such as:
- Four complimentary 24/7 roadside assistance per year upgrades
- Four free towing of up to 100 miles
- Don’t have to pay for the fuel anymore for fuel delivery service
- Vehicle locksmith service for up to $100
- Disconnection or winching (two service vehicles and 2 drivers)
- Car travel interruption of up to $1,000
- Passport photos (two free sets for each member per year)
- Legal service fee reimbursement. $1,500 for manslaughter, $500 for reckless driving, and $200 for minor traffic violations
- Travel accident insurance for AAA travels worth $300,000
That is all the benefits you can get when you avail plus membership plan and it will cost you around $91 per year on average.
3. Premier Membership Plan –This is the most expensive one. This plan gives you all the benefits an AAA Plus member can get, plus more upgrades such as:
- Four complimentary 24/7 roadside assistance per year upgrades
- One free towing of up to 200 miles and three free towing of up to 100 miles
- Free fuel for each fuel delivery service
- Vehicle locksmith service for up to $150
- Car travel interruption of up to $1,500
- Free Hertz Gold Plus Rewards membership plus free 1,100 points and additional two free weekend days
- Unlimited free sets of passport photos every year
- Travel accident insurance for AAA travels worth $500,000
- Vehicle return of up to $500
- Home Lockout Service of up to $100
- Have access to their 24-hour concierge service
- Have access to their 24-hour emergency and medical service
- One-day free rental of a car plus qualifying tow
The AAA premier membership cost runs around $119 per year.
AAA Membership Worth
The American Automobile Association, Inc. is a non-profit, tax-paying corporation that is a federation of united automobile clubs. As of now, this association has around 1,100 offices in the United States and Canada.
This club offers car services with its network of around 40,000 employees. It is the largest motor club in the world with around 59 million members from the US and Canada.
Now that you know the prices of AAA membership plans, the next thing you should know is if it is really worth to avail of it. Here are a few perks once you decide to sign up:
- Coverage – All the plans and benefits of AAA membership covers you and not your car. This means that you can avail of all its services even for cars that you just borrowed, or even if you’re just in the passenger seat. However, this is only applicable to the types of vehicles that are covered.
- Exclusive Discounts – You will be surprised by how many exclusive AAA membership discounts you can get with your plan that’s not even car-related, depending on the type. You can even get discounts from amusement parks, department stores, hotels, clothing stores, restaurants, and even medicines.
- Travel Benefits – With AAA, you can also get a lot of travel benefits like airfare discounts and even free passport photos. This means that you can travel a lot anytime you want. What’s more, that you can also acquire your international driver’s license through AAA, so it is literally your one-stop-shop.
- Roadside Assistance – AAA’s roadside assistance can save you a lot of money. Some providers’ services cost a lot more with their single roadside assistance than paying AAA’s annual membership fee that covers a whole lot more.
- Security – more than anything, you can always have peace of mind if you are an AAA member. Knowing that everywhere you go, there will be some form of help coming if and when you encounter some road hassles.
How To Know If You Really Need To Sign Up
As discussed, there are a lot of benefits to signing up with AAA. But the question is, do you really need it? After all, the fees are still significant that you may either need or otherwise, depending on your circumstances.
So, how do you know if you need to sign up or have your AAA membership renewal? Below are some of the things you need to consider before deciding:
- Age of your vehicle – brand new car owners need not have to worry about having some little road incidents like motors suddenly stopped running in the middle of the road, flat tires, etc. because first, it isn’t likely to happen; except for accidents. Second, these cars are still covered by the brand’s warranty and most likely still covered by the company’s emergency roadside service.
- Do you travel or do long road trips a lot? – if you only go out once in a blue moon, you won’t likely be needing AAA at all, or you won’t likely be able to get your money’s worth if you do. It would be up to your judgment whether to join or not as you can gauge whether this situation will change within the year.
- How much do you know your vehicle? – if you are the type of person who doesn’t only touch the steering wheel but knows exactly the ins and outs of the vehicle, you will be able to tell whether your car is roadworthy or not. This helps you predict whether AAA membership would be necessary or ditch the idea altogether.
- Can you do some troubleshooting yourself? – being able to tinker on your vehicle gives you the upper-hand against having to rely on other people’s services.
- How much you can’t be bothered – whether you know it all when it comes to vehicles, it can all boil down to your choice to be hands-off when it comes to vehicle health during road emergencies. Some people just don’t want to get their hands dirty, especially if they’re in their immaculate suit and tie.
- If you have other forms of insurance – you also have to consider whether you have active insurance policies or credit card perks, etc. that provide the same services as that of AAA. While it is always good to have a safety net all the time, having similar services from different providers is not always ideal cost-wise. After all, why bother to pay a similar service that you can also get from a current service provider at a cheaper or even at no extra cost?
- If money is out of the question – if this is the case, then, by all means, sign up!