Happy Friday: Always Ask About Discounts…
Sent from reader, Anwesha:
I’m sure a lot of members like me out there have a AAA membership. What many don’t realize is aside from the roadside assistance, they also offer a lot of additional discounted perks to shopping, attractions, dining, etc.!
My family and I were going to go to the aquarium today where tickets per person are pretty expensive making a trip for a family of 4 well over $100! So naturally I looked up coupons online and had almost given up since all of them had expired when I called the place and asked if they had any discounts. The rep said if I buy them from my local AAA branch I can get them for cheaper! We made a quick stop and bought our tickets there and saved $36.70! It was so quick and easy! They also offer so many other discounts for other attractions I am really excited to try out later.
Sent from reader, Jeannie:
Hi Collin! I wanted to submit my picture of my UPS store receipt and remind everyone to remember to ask for any available discounts. I have AAA and I generally do not remember to ask various retailers if they have discounts for AAA members. I usually only remember to ask at hotels or on a vacation.
Recently, I was mailing a package at my local UPS store, as I have done many times before, especially during and after the holidays. I suddenly remembered to ask if they offered any shipping discounts – AAA, AARP, etc. – or any available coupons. To my surprise, they did! This UPS store offers 5% off the cost of UPS shipping when you are a AAA member.
This was a great reminder to me that “If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.” I need to always ask if I want to know if there are discounts available. Every little bit counts!
HAPPY FRIDAY!
Do you have a funny, “Hip”, or unique photo to share?! Email us at happyfriday@hip2save.com. Every Friday, we post one photo, submitted by a Hip2Save reader, that gives us a glimpse into their frugal lifestyle or simply makes us smile. If your photo is published on Hip2Save, we’ll email you a $10 Amazon e-card!
Thanks, I will pass this on. My in-laws just got AAA.
AAA also gets you discounts at different gas stations! I know my local AM/PM and Maverik both accept it and you get a few cents off per gallon!
Also Payless shoe stores offer AAA discounts, and newyork and company does too.
A good reminder to ask for military discount as well for those in the military – my husband is Air Force and we always forget!
Same!! We have a couple places we know do it & often forget to ask at new places we go.
I just found out that I have to get $1,000 of work done on my out of warranty Madza. I tried searching for coupons but didn’t really see anything. If anyone has any ideas, they would be greatly appreciated.
If you have a Costco membership they have repair shop discounts.
No Costco membership/one near me. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Sometimes high schools or community colleges have auto classes.
Maybe they can help u out.
Hubby won’t go for that. He took it to a Madza dealership. (driver side window won’t go down and ac broke:( I was thinking about calling them myself and just asking can he give me some kind of discount. That’s for replying.
Fix the window yourself, watch a couple of YouTube videos, it’s really easy. Same with the AC- might be a super easy fix! We just fixed ours today, had to switch out a refuse. Cost $10. Look up forums and such- won’t hurt to try.
I showed him a Youtube video the other day, he doesn’t want to take the door panel off. Ugh, men. He does our oil and brakes jobs but he says he doesn’t have time now..
I had a problem with a car where driver window wouldn’t go down but all other Windows would. The switch gone bad and my hubby replaced it easily. We never take our cars to a dealership they always charge triple what it costs. Whenever one of our cars has a problem that hubby can’t fix or don’t have time to fix we go to a local mechanic and we get a discount for paying cash.
I can’t make him understand that we should go to local mechanic. He is assisting that we go to the dealership. Oh well, I tried.
It depends on what is wrong with the window & age of the car, i.e. availability of parts. Hubby’s car is getting his window fixed right now, 16 years old, hard to find part, gonna run a few hundred $$. So not always super easy fix. Not knowing what’s wrong with AC, could be as simple as needing freon. I also wouldn’t recommend high schools/tech schools, they royally messed up my parents car. Dealerships are waaay overpriced though as others said, if you can convince hubby to take it elsewhere you will save a ton. Look up reviews for auto places on Angie’s List or ask people you know for recommendations. Even worst case scenario, $1K sounds way too high.
Hi Rebecca, here’s a suggestion you may want to pass on to your hubby. Check out car junkyards. My hubby fixes most of the vehicles himself, (unless it’s something major) and he’s always going to the junkyard to find parts. Lots of times, the parts are still in good condition.
Thanks Kerry! While we usually go that route if possible, haven’t had much luck this time. Hubby’s dad actually is a mechanic & owns a junk yard…. but he’s 800 miles away lol.
Have you ever heard of the NextDoor app? It connects you to people that live near you, we have met an awesome mechanic that charges the neighborhood like a quarter of what it would cost going into the shop. Worth a shot. Someone might know how to fix your problems much cheaper.
Hi Beth, my rear window is a power window and it wouldn’t go back up when I clicked the switch. I took it to a window tint and repair shop. They said it was either the motor or regulator and both quotes were really expensive. The motor with them providing the part was almost $300 and the regulator with them providing part was over $300. We found out it was the regulator and I was able to get it from Advance Auto online using an awesome promo code and cash back from one of the sites I use. My son actually looked it up on YouTube as someone mentioned above and he was able to fix it. It goes up and down with no issues and I saved the cost of labor from a repair shop. Where I live we have several “you pull it junk yard places” where you tell them the year of the vehicle you need parts for and if they have any in stock you go out to them and as long as you remove the part yourself you get it for a really great deal. I wouldn’t recommend getting certain parts from them; such as alternators because you don’t get a warranty and you have no way of knowing if it will last 2 days or 1 year (Advance Auto offers lifetime warranties on their alternators). Good luck with your repairs.
Such a smart family, Princess! My husband is pretty handy so we normally go through that whole routine whenever something on the car needs attention. On the plus side, the junk yard is far from our house but close to an amazing Mexican restaurant. It’s a treat to pull parts! 🙂
Try heading to a local auto shop (versus dealership). Also, ask if they offer a cash/check discount. Good luck!
Ditto! You’re dealership is going to be the MOST expensive for car repairs and they’re not always the best. The Nissan dealership though I was crazy when I told them they made a mistake and got my oil dipstick stuck while replacing a seal. $1200 repair and I had to go back because they were clueless. I’d definitely get a second or third quote – And thats after not being able to do one or the other repair your or his self. My SO is pretty handy with cars, always going to Junk Yards or buying on ebay and fixing it without a car shop. I think I could find ‘time’ if it was going to cost me $1k +. =)
I take my car to pep boys and they have coupons on their website. Usually saves me 15% but they also have a rewards program.
When I get repair work done at a dealer I always ask for a discount. I’ve been pretty successful getting 10% off at VW and Mini dealers. You can at least try it for Mazda. I had a $1051 bill after the 10% discount and said I’d feel a lot better if it was $999 and they went for it!
I am just going to call them and ask for a discount also. They already ordered the parts, just waiting for them to come in now. Thanks for replying.
Whats AAa
AAA is Triple A insurance
I been a AAA for many years, I didn’t know about UPS discount, Thanks for the Info.
Also Military discount is always good to ask for it 🙂
Check with your work’s hr department for places you get a discounts. I went to Tire Discounters to get new tires and my husband followed me over in his work uniform. We got a 10% discount just because of the factory he works at.
USAA offers great discounts at a lot of places. Also our credit union. We went through our credit union and saved a bunch on life insurance.
My local subway offers 50% discount to military, as well as police and firefighters. Just have to have some sort of ID/Uniform. Didn’t know about it for the longest time, just had to ask.
Ashely, where is your subways, lol,
mine doesnt have that great discount.
I know Carls jr has 10% discount for military and Jack in the box
Indiana but it’s pretty few locations that do it :/
Sprint may offer “employee” discount if you work at certain places. My husband was getting almost 20% discount when he worked for Costco,. I googled “employee discount sprint” and found out that they will offer about 13-15% discount for me since I work for a local university. There is a form that i had to fill out and verification did not take too long. It may not be much off the monthly bill but it adds up over the years.
I was able to save $50/mo on our AT&T account because of working for our local public school district.
Yay!!!! I was SO excited to see my tip posted!!! Thanks Collin and team!
We got a discount on Verizon because of my husband being a teacher
Enterprise Rent-A-Car offers a AAA discount as well. Happy travels!
Be careful when using AAA at rental agencies…..my husband worked at Hertz for many years and he says when you ask for the AAA rate, that rate is higher than what you get when you use online coupons, special, coupons from school fundraiser coupon books, etc. My mother has AAA and always wanted to use it when renting, but after my husband called several rental places & used various coupons & discounts & AAA to show her the price variances, she is now a believer.
It depends because some places already have their own type of rewards so they give them the better rate first vs AAA. For example Marriott Rewards usually has better rates then AAA. So definitely double check
Husband’s truck died. Turned out he needed a new battery. He was on his way to work and happened to be wearing his work hat for Power Plus Electric. He didn’t ask for a discount, but the clerk saw his hat and gave him 20% off!
I’ve used AAA for a discount at LensCrafters. Was a GREAT help for me.
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions about my Madza. He already took it to the dealership so I was just trying to find out if there was anyway to lower the quote that they gave him. The car is 10 yrs old, just trying to get another few years out of it and up until now, no repairs. Hubby does the oil changes, brake jobs, tires etc.on all of our cars. Since he was set on going to dealership to get it done, I was just hoping to get the price lowered. Fingers crossed:)
I discovered a not-so-fun fact about The UPS Stores this summer — apparently, they can mark-up the cost of UPS shipping however they want.(Versus going to an actual UPS customer counter at a UPS shipping center, using UPS through Staples, or printing your UPS labels online.) I shipped an item to a friend using Staples, for $32. She shipped it back using the exact same methods, packaging, etc. at The UPS store, and it came out to over $70!!!
After some googling, i found out that The UPS Store can inflate prices as much as they’d like…