If you’re an AARP member, you are eligible to receive a 30% discount on your subscription at Ancestry.com.
My subscription was going to expire. It couldn’t auto-renew because my credit card had expired which turned out to be a happy accident. I waited until about 10 days before expiration to call and renew. I wanted to see if any discounts were available.
You can see when your subscription expires by clicking on the down arrow by your name, then Account Settings.
The AARP Discount
Here’s how the AARP discount works:
- You need to call Ancestry at 800-401-1789 in the US and talk to a customer service representative. The person I spoke with was very helpful but neglected to mention that my current subscription was not allowed to run its course BEFORE the new subscription took effect. I lost the remaining days.
- If you’re calling from outside the US, you’ll probably need to connect via chat with a Virtual Assistance to obtain a phone number that will work for you.
- You need to provide your AARP membership number – and they do verify the number.
- If you don’t have your card handy, you can find your account number above your name on the AARP correspondence and/or their membership newspaper/flyer.
- If you pay for your AARP membership for either three or five years at a time instead of one year, you’ll need to contact AARP to get a new number yearly. Yea, I know this doesn’t make sense, but that’s how AARP works, apparently. I was fortunate because I joined last fall.
- I don’t know if this discount applies to partial-year memberships or if you select monthly payments. You can discuss that with the Ancestry representative.
- If you select auto-renew, at this same time next year your membership WILL RENEW AT THE THEN-CURRENT RATE. This means Ancestry does NOT renew your membership at the AARP discount rate. You’ll need to call Ancestry before your membership auto-renews to obtain that discount every year.
Is what you’ll save worth it? It was for me. I subscribe to the World Explorer Membership and saved a little more than $100. I also took advantage of this opportunity to make sure my other account information was up to date.
Don’t Cheat Yourself
After I paid, I made an unpleasant discovery.
My subscription expired the following week, during the first week of June, and what I didn’t realize was that the new membership took effect on the day I called and made the payment – May 27th. So, I essentially got cheated out of about ten days of the subscription I had already paid for. That’s not right, and I was not informed of that “detail.”
Apparently, I should have let the subscription expire or at least waited until the last day to call. Don’t make my mistake.
My subscription renews on May 27 of next year. I’m putting a note in my calendar to check on this a month in advance to ensure this will NOT auto-renew. I attempted to simply remove my credit card information to prevent auto-renewal from occurring, but the system would not allow me to remove my current credit card information without replacing it with a different card.
I can probably have them remove it if I call again.
I suspect I’ll need to cancel my subscription next year when I call, then resubscribe using my AARP number. If you’re thinking to yourself, “This is a pain,” it surely is.
It’s too bad this is so challenging, but regardless, with a little perseverance, if you have an AARP number, you can obtain a significant discount. Don’t let this benefit go unclaimed.
You’ll save enough to buy another DNA test at Ancestry or maybe elsewhere.
If you aren’t an AARP member but are a member of other organizations, genealogy, or heritage societies, you may qualify for a discount via that membership. Some of those might even result in a larger percentage discount than AARP. You’ll need to contact Ancestry to see. They won’t give you the membership list. You have to provide them with a list of your memberships.
I’ve also been told, but can’t verify, that when Ancestry has a 50% off special for gift subscriptions only, you can call, cancel your subscription, purchase a gift subscription, and gift it to yourself.
If you know of other Ancestry discounts for specific organizations or other ways to obtain discounts, please post them in the blog comments.
Good luck!
_____________________________________________________________
Follow DNAexplain on Facebook, here.
Share the Love!
You’re always welcome to forward articles or links to friends and share on social media.
If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an email whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.
You Can Help Keep This Blog Free
I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.
Thank you so much.
DNA Purchases and Free Uploads
- FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
- MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
- MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
- AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
- 23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
- 23andMe Ancestry Plus Health
Genealogy Products and Services
- MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder – Genealogy software for your computer
- MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
- Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
- Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
- Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
- NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors
My Book
- DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
- DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
Genealogy Books
- Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
Genealogy Research
- Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research
