Update 9/12/24: Rakuten is now offering $20 and there is a Chase offer for $8 back. Rakuten offer is actually for five years so no good.
Update 5/6/24: TCB is at $12.12 for AARP membership. If you have the Chase Offer for $8 back, this can be an $8 moneymaker since the total cost is $12. Just be sure to cancel before the renewal.
Update 7/18/23: Capital One offers (in the credit card login) is offering some people $26 with an AARP membership signup. Membership cost is $12. You can also get $8 if find and enroll in the Chase Offer. That makes this a potential $22 moneymaker. (ht Jason)
Update 12/19/22: The Capital One Shopping app or Capital One offers (in the credit card login) are offering some people $30 with an AARP membership signup. Membership cost is $12. You can also get $8 if you enroll in the Chase Offer which would make it possible to turn this into a $26 moneymaker. (ht David)
Update 8/29/22: Topcashback is up slightly at $12.60. There’s also a Chase Offer for for $8 back. Should be a $8.60 moneymaker on the $12 cost of first year, just remember to cancel. (ht joremero)
Update 7/21/22: MyPoints is now 2,000 (around $13), Swagbucks is 1,000 ($10). Topcashback is now at $12.
Update 2/3/22: Deal is back on Swagbucks for 1,500. Slightly lower now on MyPoints at 2,000. I’m not sure if the AA or Citi offers are still around. There is a Chase Offer for $8 off.
The Offer
Swagbucks | MyPoints or MyPoints
- Get 1,500 Swagbucks ($15) or 2,500 MyPoints (worth around $15.75) when signing up for AARP.
- Simplymiles offers 1,000 AAdvantage miles with the purchase of a membership (this is a card-linked offer which is valid for any Mastercard linked to the simplymiles website).
- Some people have a Citi Merchant offers to get 20% back on AARP purchase of $12+ which will get you an additional discount.
The Fine Print
- SB will appear as Pending for 32 days.
- SB are determined by Swagbucks, not AARP.
- This offer is only available to new AARP Members. (reader Troy tells us that it worked for him despite having had AARP membership in the past which had since expired)
- Must submit valid name, address, credit card and other subscription information to earn SB.
- SB may be revoked if you cancel within 32 days.
- Offer may only be redeemed once (1) per user.
- If you are not credited within 32 days of offer completion, you have 14 days to contact the Swagbucks Help Center for further investigation. Help Center tickets submitted after the 14 day grace period are not eligible for further investigation and SB.
Our Verdict
AARP costs $16 per year, or $12 per year when you enable auto-renew. Either option is fine for the purposes of earning the Swagbucks/MyPoints, just set yourself a reminder to cancel the auto-renew if you don’t want to get hit with the charge.
Assuming you do auto-renew, you’ll end up with: free AARP membership + $3 moneymaker after Swagbucks + 1,000 AA miles + $2.40 from Citi Offers.
Anyone can get AARP membership, regardless of age, and it can be useful for various discounts and the like. (The Swagbucks/MP page mentions being age 50+, but these offers should track fine regardless of age, I’d assume).
Big thanks to reader Troy for letting us know about the deal and stack.
If you’re new to Swagbucks then please read our review. You can get a bonus of up to $13 by using a referral link.
I always look at the AARP Rewards Daily Deal the night before. Last night, I saw that today was going to be a $25 Best Buy GC for $20. Although I don’t shop at Best Buy that much, 20% off is a great deal.
Since I still have my 5 purchases for the month left (due to missing out on the Albertsons deal on 6.1.25 that you both snagged), I set up a reminder to purchase it at 12 PM. I just noticed that it’s almost 1 PM and I didn’t receive the email reminder.
I checked and it turns out that I accidentally selected yesterday’s date instead of today’s. This is 1 of many blunders that I’ve made lately. 🙁
Anyway, I somehow remembered on my own a few minutes ago and was surprised to see that the deal was still around. It showed that there were “3 left” and I was able to snag 1!
I guess that I wrote all of this to let you both know that it shows how many are left when the stock is low. I found that kind of interesting. 😀
That is interesting. I don’t usually do the Daily Deals unless Albertson’s, but good info to know as those sell out really quick. Thanks.
I definitely look forward to the Albertsons Daily Deals but there hasn’t been 1 in a while. BTW, I have checked the “Extra Credit” offers every day this month. They haven’t added any GCs for sale as far as I’ve seen.
I did that same deal. I just checked my email. It was actually over 6 months ago!
BTW, I still have that GC also but I’m confident that at some point that I’ll need to use it. 😉
Agreed. I got a $50 BB card during one of those Citi Easy Deals that sat for years. I decided to no longer buy GCs at places that I don’t regularly visit.
Since
RM told me that AARP reloads the “Extra Credit” offers sometimes in the 1st 2 days of the month, I have checked twice and no luck. 🙁
You seem pretty knowledgeable about that site. Do you think that it’s a waste of time for me to continue to check today since it is a Sunday? Is it more likely that they will add more GCs tomorrow (Monday), if at all?
You wrote “I mainly use AARP to run videos for the (up to) 3 free gift cards”. This is the 1st that I am hearing of this. By “run videos” do you mean “watch videos”? Either way, can you clarify where on the site that you do this activity and how much that you need to run/watch to receive those 3 free GCs?
Have you seen the “Extra Credit” offers get restocked on the weekend? Is the reason that you mentioned also checking tomorrow because today is a Sunday?
I understand what you mean now. You “watch” videos to earn points and then you earn enough to redeem for 3 GCs each month. I mainly just login daily to earn those free points. I then use the points on sweepstakes (which I never win) when AARP emails me about having points expiring.
Does it take a lot of effort to earn that many points each month?
Not at all. I work at home, on my computer most of the day, just running the videos without sound on a separate one, a click here or there to open a new one. They max out at I think 7500 points per day though I rarely max out. If I’m bored or waiting for an email, I’ll do some quizzes for the higher points.
I only have one data point. This is what I remember: a few months ago, there was another Extra Credit Albertsons deal that I wanted to get on the first day, but it was sold out by the time I completed the requirements. Then I checked randomly one or two days later and it was back in stock, and I was able to buy. I don’t remember the days of the week or whether the interval was one or two days.
Sorry.
I tried a few more times yesterday and it stayed OOS. This morning, I went to the “Extra Credit” page and the Albertsons (and TJ Maxx) listings were completely gone.
I decided to chat with a rep to try to find out more info about the process. The rep was either unable or unwilling to give me more info (eg when new offers are added). She told me to keep looking but I’m not confident at all. She did reveal that they are at the mercy of the merchant to provide them with more GCs to sell.
Sorry 🙁
As I am sure you know, the starred 20% off offers get sold out within a day or two, so get ’em if you want ’em!
Thanks
RM I grabbed 5. Was able to use the Discover virtual card. Had been holding off on that deal to find out the new categories were. Appreciate the heads up.
Isn’t the “Discover virtual card” just a more secure version of your Discover credit card? I think that
RM was lamenting not being able to use prepaid Visa/MC GCs like I mentioned in my unsuccessful DP.
After doing the 2nd of 3 required activities, I received the message: “We’re working to get more inventory This item is currently out of stock” . I must have barely missed out on the offer. ☹
Does AARP add deals to this “Extra Credit” section all of the time or only on the 1st of the month? I don’t want to get caught flat-footed again!
That’s too bad that they no longer accept prepaid GCs. I do remember using up some of my OnPath RL GCs last year for them as it was an easy way to spend $92 out of $100.
ETA: Sorry you missed out on this one, hopefully more will come back for you. I guess my insomnia paid off this time (and the tag from
RM really came in handy :))
I saw that you barely made the cut-off while I barely missed it. 😉
BTW, even though I just missed out on the offer, I appreciate you letting me know about it. I will try to be more vigilant in the future. 😉
That’s good to know that it shows up at midnight EST sharp. I’ll have to set a reminder for July. 😉
It looks like
RM pulled an “
Eric 🔗”. 😀
Eric started saving, just a little at first,
Watched his interest grow—his wallet nearly burst!
Now DoC’ers admire his financial logic,
Growing wealth the Eric way. That’s Pulling an Eric!
I like your witty responses. 😉
That description certainly does fit
RM. He and I both love good deals. That’s probably why we get along so well. 😀
I was literally about to ask you and
Celia if the “Extra Credit” offers ever return based on the wording “We’re working to get more inventory” before I scrolled down and saw your comment.
That’s great to know that it’s possible that it will come back! I will make sure to do that 3rd required activity and then check the page once in a while.
I’m only about 26K points short. 😉
You might want ask P2 to watch some of those vids until they can get back onto their feet. 😀
There’s an $8 AARP offer on some of my Chase cards. This can be combined with $8 CB from RM for a $1 (plus credit card Rewards) profit on the $15 1 year purchase.
I probably won’t bother doing it due to how AARP nuked their GC offerings. However, it’s possible that it will be useful to some people still.
It expires on 4.16.25.
I had only used 3 of my 5 AARP Rewards GC purchases for Feb so I went to purchase 2 Albertsons GC tonight. I noticed that there were no Albertsons or Kroger GC anywhere on the site.
I chatted with someone and he claimed that they were only available for “Daily Deals” and other special occasions. I countered by telling them that it’s been available for purchase for years.
The rep then showed me this article, which was dated only 2 days ago:
https://help.aarp.org/s/article/rewards-grocery-gift-cards
Below is the important passage. ☹
“We currently do not have grocery gift cards available for purchase as a regular item in our catalog. However, we periodically offer promotions that provide opportunities to obtain grocery-related gift cards through our Daily Deals, Extra Credit activities, Instant Wins, or Sweepstakes. Our catalog is regularly updated, so please check back periodically to discover available items.”
I guess it’s still worth extending the membership for the portal moneymaker deals, but what a major devaluation!
Hopefully, they’ll at least offer a few “Daily Deals” with Kroger and Albertsons each month so we can use our allotments on that. The 1st couple of times I tried for “Daily Deals”, it sold out before I could buy but the last several times I’ve been able to snag it. Have you had a similar experience?
I can usually get one, sometimes even a second one on P2’s account.
Eric 🔗
Last week or the week before had the Kroger and Albertson’s daily deal, got the Albertson’s one but had to be quick. Have gotten a few good $5 gift cards for my points each month, Amazon and Petsmart this month. Hadn’t realized they stopped the grocery offering, haven’t bought one in a while.
Also stopped selling Home Depot gift cards about 2 months ago
I received an email today from AARP that they are increasing the membership fee to $20 per year. The change doesn’t happen for me until 2027 as I paid 3 years ahead.
Hopefully, the deal that Chase runs once in a while goes up from $8 in CB. Otherwise, this deal will be hard to justify for some.
anyone know if tcb, ibotta, capitaloneshopping work when buying a renewal year? ik rakuten does
The only one that I have tried is RM and it has worked every time for me. RM is still $8 while Rakuten is only $6.
ty!
circling back to share that c1 worked for renewal even though ive used before 🙂 yay
Signed up using Ibotta ($15 cash back) via Chase Ink Cash (AARP $8 cash back offer)
No membership length terms for Ibotta so did the 1 year/$12 subscription. Ibotta started pending immediately after sign up. Assuming the CIC offer will post soon as well. Going to wait until the Ibotta cb posts next week then turn auto renew off on the AARP
TCB has $10.10 cashback for the 1 year AARP term
Rakuten gave me $20 for a one year term, when I claimed missing cashback. Not sure if it’ll stick