My husband is so sold on AAA paying for itself when you need it that he has continued to pay for our kids to all have it and the cost is on us. And you can bet they have all used it more than once - they understand the value!
MOD NOTE: Split from another thread.
We had AAA for eons. When they discovered our kids (and their wives) were all on our account but did not live in our home, they cancelled their memberships! So we cancelled ours. After like 47 years. We put towing on our USAA insurance. Super cheap. Then AAA offered some super cheap couples membership that was so cheap (like maybe $30 for the 2 of us for a year, maybe less) I bought it—- and bought discount tickets to the Atlanta Aquarium for all of us when our s and his family were visiting. That saved us $$$. But I doubt when it expires that I will renew.
Wow, I have had my daughter on our account since she got her license. She hasn’t lived in our household for many years, and AAA has not asked.
Here too and I’m not going to ask them. But if they cancel their membership off mine, I assume they’d happily sign them up for their own? I would still pay for that for my kids. Recurring bday or Xmas gift so to speak.
This is what H does. The new “cards” always come around the holidays so he makes sure to let the kids know they have another year in their pocket! 
Whether you got your money’s worth depends on the best alternative to AAA for that situation. If it’s like CA AAA in my area, the battery cost is well above what you’d pay for a comparable battery in an auto store. If you charged up the battery, then drove to an auto store or Walmart Auto, many will install a replacement battery purchased at the store for free, without as high a price markup and with a larger selection of batteries to choose from.
Another alternative is to get AAA-like roadside assistance via your auto insurance. My auto insurance lets me add/cancel on a day-to-day basis, rather than annual like CA AAA. So I can choose to have roadside assistance during weeks when I am on a roadtrip, but not have roadside assistance during more typical weeks when I working from home and not driving outside of my small town. My auto insurance once towed my car 500 miles, with no additional fee beyond basic roadside assistance, unlike AAA.
AAA is like insurance.
We pay $140 (I think) or so a year for four of us. Essentially, we throw $140 away - we don’t use it.
Even if we do one time, we probably over spent. But it’s just sort of peace of mind I guess.
Check your auto insurance. Most cover very similar services as AAA, like charging your battery, providing emergency gas, or a tow. It costs us about $20 a year in additional premium.
You were lucky your premium did not go up! Auto insurance will get their money back one way or another.
We do - and it doesn’t. We don’t pay for it. I’ve got experience working for an OEM….what insurers and OEMs pay….you’re better off with AAA.
It’s more a comfort for the family…..i know it’s overpaying.
Not to mention car insurance tows won’t help when your house key breaks in your doorknob and your H can’t come home for hours. AAA free locksmith to the rescue.
AAA also got last minute euros for S much faster than the bank would have
With my insurance, roadside service claims are kept separate from general auto insurance claims. As such number or cost of roadside service calls has no influence general auto insurance premiums.
However, my auto insurer did contact me about losing money on roadside service after the ~3rd 500 mile tow. Their roadside service policy was to tow to nearest service center for the make at no additional cost. This particular car was a unique make with closest service center 500 miles away, and for more complex issues I preferred experts to work on car rather than a local mechanic. It’s been >10 years, so I don’t recall the details, but they changed something about my roadside service costs or coverage, such that I no longer wanted to have roadside service from my insurer for that car. My general auto premiums were unaffected.
Car insurance roadside service often does provide lockout service for cars, but generally not for your home. AAA does provide a reimbursement for home lockout service. Whether it is “free” or not depends on your plan and region. It’s my understanding home lockout service is only available on the most expensive tier AAA plan, and only covers a maximum credit of $100 (in CA), which is often exceeded.
This touches on the reason why someone gets roadside assistance or more generally insurance. I get insurance beyond legal minimums for one of two reasons. The 1st reason is to protect against outcomes that would be a major problem for me. This could be a major financial issue, such as cost of replacement if home burns down. Or it could be knowledge and connections in an emergency situation, such as having a number to call if car breaks down when I am in another state, without me having to review anything in an area where I familiar during an emergency situation.
The 2nd reason is having some kind of insider knowledge that makes me believe the insurance is a positive expected value expense for me. I am likely to receive more benefits than the cost on average. An example is knowing my nearest service center is 500 miles away, such that towing to nearest service center benefit is more valuable than insurance expects, as discussed above.
An $100 credit towards home lockout or similar doesn’t meet either of these 2 criteria. In the extremely unlikely I had a home lockout, I could probably find a way to get in myself. If not, I could call a locksmith myself, and spending an extra $100 on that locksmith is not a big deal to me. In short this benefit has little influence on how much I’d pay for roadside auto service, certainly not enough benefit to justify upgrading to the most expensive premier plan. I’d make similar comments for other AAA extras I am familiar with, beyond traditional roadside service.
Well my time and sanity are definitely worth money to me. It’s wonderful being able to call one number with a friendly person who takes care of everything and I get updated regularly.
there’s no other way into my house without breaking glass. And calling a locksmith? Good luck in my rinky dink town finding someone, looking up numbers, and then praying they actually answer the phone. I know AAA calls the same people, but I’m sure they get a better response
I’ve never had the slightest problem calling AAA. Getting through to the proper person anywhere else? Good luck. The older I get, the more I get infuriated calling places and sorting through phone trees, begging for live person who can actually help, etc
I’m not going to scrimp a few bucks for sanity.
You do you. I do AAA. 
I could also make mixtapes instead of subscribing to Spotify. But I’d don’t. Not every choice (for me) is about saving $$.
A more apt comparison would be subscribing to Apple One ($20 to $38 per month) for streaming music vs subscribing to Spotify ($6 to $20 per month) for streaming music. Both will do the music streaming well, but Apple One also includes Apple TV+, iCloud+, Apple Arcade, and a few other things not directly related to music.
Roadside service through your auto insurance or AAA are both likely to do automotive roadside service well. Your auto insurance may offer superior emergency roadside service benefits to AAA like my earlier example with superior towing benefit. Or insurance offering unlimited service calls vs a maximum of 4 service calls with AAA. However, AAA is more likely to offer extras that are not as directly related to auto roadside service, such as the earlier examples for lockout of primary home or currency exchange services.
It’s fine if the extra non-music Apple One non-music services are worth paying double/triple to you, but it’s not worth it to me. Similarly it’s fine if the extra AAA non-roadside auto services are worth paying double/triple to you (specific numbers vary by insurer and vehicles), but that’s not the choice I made.
My husband had a conversation with the AAA tow truck driver. He exclusively does AAA towing for the town my husband got the flat in. Had we used insurance or another service, we most likely would not have gotten a tow as quickly, since they would not have been close by. I have chosen not to pay my insurance company for roadside assistance (it is optional on my plan), and pay AAA instead. I can’t imagine any cheaper alternative in the situation we were in, free tow to a Toyota dealer (who was only a few miles away) and then an inexpensive tire repair by the dealer.
I have used AAA a couple of times in the past few years. Once they towed our car to a repair location when we got totaled. Another time they replaced my tire with my spare donut (again for free) so I was able to drive to a place to get my tire replaced with a real one.
I have no complaints with their service and will continue to pay for it.
Our auto insurance covers Roadside Assistance our cars for an extra $1.91 a month/per car - less than my Chick-fil-a sandwich. I have used AAA tours in the past, long, long, past - they were pretty good.
Don’t tell them!
We had AAA come to replace my battery and it was worth the convenience.
My husband once needed AAA at work, but he worked at a facility that was a little complicated to get into. It took multiple attempts to work with AAA, and they never did deal with his car. AAA did pay for the other tow company (or whatever was needed, I really don’t remember) that husband wound up using.
We pay over $200 a year for 2 people, which seems like a lot, but I’ve had it for so long I think I’d worry if I didn’t.