I live a busy life, and so for a long time I didn’t bother to join any kinds of clubs or organizations. In fact, except for a brief stint in the Society for Creative Anachronism, I hadn’t been part of a club since high school up until a couple of months ago, when I joined AAA. I quickly began to reap the benefits. When I went to visit my brother in San Francisco, I got fifteen percent off of my hotel room price simply for being a member of AAA. I can’t even begin to list the savings I’ve grabbed for joining that organization.

My favorite one, though, would have to be the better rates I now get on my San Jose CA car insurance premium. I get a ten percent discount through AAA, and along with all of the other discounts I get, I’m riding pretty cheap, a lot cheaper than I was, say, a year ago.

And things like AAA aren’t the only ones you can join. You can also join one of the many car clubs out there for your specific type of car. Normally, the people who join these clubs are the ones who make additions to their car, turn them into high performance cars, or own classic cars. However, even people who don’t normally think more about their car than to get the oil changed can join these clubs.

I joined a club for BMWs last month, even though I’m not a big expert on cars. My deal is the insurance, not the car itself. However, there is a special place in my heart for my 1987 BMW 325i, and so I figured, why not? Well, I haven’t seen the returns on car insurance yet, although when my premium renews I will be getting a 15% discount from this club as well. In the meanwhile, all of the information about this car that I previously knew so little about has been both helpful and interesting.