Hi Clay,
ACI may automatically bill for the premier membership, but you are under no obligation to pay for it unless you want it. They do have other options (I think that I saw a per incident tech support for about $75/incident - but check on the price). I have had mixed success with Premier service and sometimes think that they should rename it. The per incedent may be a better deal because I think that the charge may only apply if they actually fix the tech issue in question. Regarding updates, this could be an area contributing to the benifit of a Premier contract, though I think that minor product revisions may be included in your software purchase anyway. Check on all of these details, most of this is from memory (which is fading).