AARP vs. ARA

AARP has not been silent on the issue.  Maybe it is because I respond to emails from AARP Foundation that I have received several notifications about this along with a link to complain to my representatives in Congress.  

Joan:  last night I went to the AARP website home page and then checked under the headings for both Advocacy and Medicare, and found nothing on this matter.

Do you have a link to anything AARP had issued on this decision?

I didn't see it on the AARP website. The information was in an email that is send to AARP members who volunteer to be advocates.  Checking my email trash to see if I  still have it.  If I do, I will try to copy the text and display it here.  The legislation is very recent so unlikely to be in the recent AARP bulletin, though that would be another place to look.  I think bulletin copies are only available on their app.  

I have a different beef with AARP. Recently there has been more and more attention to the concern about "subscriptions" and "autorenewals", especially for seniors (but really for everyone.)  IMO there should be some kind of regulation to protect people from the obstacles to account cancellations and I believe that (at least as an option) there should be a required confirmation at least annually in order for the renewals to take place. I.e. that the service or publication (or whatever) would send an email or postal mail to the subscriber and not be allowed to renew it automatically without a positive confirmation response. But this won't happen without some lobbying to obtain stricter regulation of this business model, which is pervasive and expanding in many products and services. AARP should be advocating for seniors in this regard. But, instead, when you log on to their website, there is a pop-up encouraging autorenewal of the AARP account. When I reached out to them via "contact us", I just got a form email that didn't really acknowledge or address the concern and just advised on how to set up autorenewal. At least they aren't requiring autorenewal like many services, so that's something. But I believe they should be more concerned about this issue on behalf of seniors. And, as I think about it, I can't recall a time when I got a specific benefit from AARP (such as a discount or similar) that wasn't also available from AAA and/or other organizations I am in. So I have not decided to renew my account when it expires later this year. (And I'm DEFINITELY not signing up for autorenewal.) 

sac said:

I have a different beef with AARP. Recently there has been more and more attention to the concern about "subscriptions" and "autorenewals", especially for seniors (but really for everyone.)  IMO there should be some kind of regulation to protect people from the obstacles to account cancellations and I believe that (at least as an option) there should be a required confirmation at least annually in order for the renewals to take place. I.e. that the service or publication (or whatever) would send an email or postal mail to the subscriber and not be allowed to renew it automatically without a positive confirmation response. But this won't happen without some lobbying to obtain stricter regulation of this business model, which is pervasive and expanding in many products and services. AARP should be advocating for seniors in this regard. But, instead, when you log on to their website, there is a pop-up encouraging autorenewal of the AARP account. When I reached out to them via "contact us", I just got a form email that didn't really acknowledge or address the concern and just advised on how to set up autorenewal. At least they aren't requiring autorenewal like many services, so that's something. But I believe they should be more concerned about this issue on behalf of seniors. And, as I think about it, I can't recall a time when I got a specific benefit from AARP (such as a discount or similar) that wasn't also available from AAA and/or other organizations I am in. So I have not decided to renew my account when it expires later this year. (And I'm DEFINITELY not signing up for autorenewal.) 

I agree with you that subscriptions, especially those wit auto renewal, pose a problem for older adults.  Not only are they difficult to cancel when you are alive, they can be difficult for your heirs to cancel once you are deceased.  Ironically, I think it was an article in AARP that advised seniors against taking out subscriptions for these reasons.  I can see the attraction that auto renewals can pose to the business or organization offering them. Autorenewals offer a steady stream of revenue and in the case of organizations like AARP a larger constituency than they might otherwise have.  Personally I would rather pay a little more and forego the merchandise bonus often offered by these subscription/auto refill deals.  

Auto-renewals are predatory in my humble opinion.