PilotWife2

Disclaimer, I am a mortgage loan officer with National Bank of Kansas City.
Thanks for the kind words! We are lucky to work with a lot of pilots both commercial and military, and try to keep the hoop jumping to a minimum. Not easy to do with all the regulations that have been added since the mortgage crisis, but at least you don't have to explain to us that working 68-72 hours "ish" per month as a commercial pilot really is full time, and what an LES is!

Am grateful USAA's mortgage division isn't as strong as its members might wish it to be. It's how I met my die hard USAA fan husband!! Even he couldn't use their mortgage services!

RhinoPherret

Glad to see that many folks have seen through the gimmick adds USAA uses to make them seem like the ultra-patriotic flag waving “I am here for ya military folks” institution.

USAA is no different than any other institution that offers various financial services. I have no beef against them but their cornball adds they run about being the one-stop place for all military folks have worn soooo thin with me. They have even displaced GEICO, State Farm, and Progressive for the most annoying BS based ads. Though, they still have not topped “The General” insurance ads for most idiotic. Uh, I think I smell a separate thread post developing here.

Chris99

I'm almost totally done with USAA. As soon as I can find better rates for the two remaining landlord policies I have, I will have completely rid myself of their "services."

Jetjok

It was in March of 1973, while waiting in the gas line at Williams AFB (because of the oil embargo of that year), that I met another student pilot. We got to talking about cars and insurance, as I was driving my Volvo P1800S. He told me about USAA, which I joined the following week, leaving the Allstate Insurance Company. The following year, after I graduated from UPT, we purchased USAA renter's insurance, again leaving Allstate. As the years went by, we've continued our relationship with USAA, paying little to no attention to other insurance companies. USAA was like the air we'd breathe, it was always there, in the background. We rarely needed their help, but when we did, they always came through to our satisfaction.

It seems that every few years or so, this same conversation comes up here. So, for the past every few years I'd go about the process of checking out other companies, with an eye toward saving money, because frankly, we've always been satisfied with how we were treated at USAA, but hey, a dollar is a dollar.

So I just spent some time on State Farm's site, and then having grown tired of the electronic world, I called GEICO and talked to a really nice agent who made sure she "compared apples to apples" in giving me a quote for our two cars. Following then are the results that I got. Now before I continue, I must confess that we insure both our two cars and the house with USAA, and I assume that I get some sort of multi-insurance discount for doing so, and that the following two quotes (from State Farm and GEICO) do not include such discounts. That said, here's what I got for quotes.

I pay USAA $1826 a year for our two cars.
State Farm quoted me $1784 a year for both cars.
GEICO's quote was for $1440 a year for both cars.

So for me, here's the rub: 1) I'm happy with my dealings with USAA; 2) each year I get a distribution from my USAA Subscriber's Account, which came last week. The check was in the amount of $642.64. They send these out once a year, usually in December. I've seen them be as little as $400 and as high as $950, depending how the company did that year, as approved by the BOD; 3) in addition, (and this is something completely new to us) in their letter of last week, they said that because we now have been members for 40 years, another distribution will be forthcoming in February, again if approved by the Board of Directors; and finally, 4) there is the Subscriber Savings Account, an account that USAA opens for each member and puts money in each year. You can't take that money out until you sever your ties with USAA, but it's there for you then. Sounds sort of crazy, but I actually like the idea of having an emergency fund, that if push came to shove, I could leave USAA and a few months later, receive a check with all the monies from the SSA account, which in my case is closing in on 12 or 13 thousand dollars.

There in a not-so-short nutshell is why I'll continue to stay with USAA. They save me a money, over the course of the year, and I've always been treated great. What more could I ask for? We've got a few investments with them and they're doing just ok, and we don't use their credit cards or bank.

Obviously your mileage may vary.

gringo

I gotta say, though, their credit card rates are outstanding, at least in my experience.

I've been having to carry a balance as I'm slogging through my first year pay; having an interest rate of only 9.9% on purchases is really helping me through these last few months...

But I'm looking forward to not paying anything at all in a few months!

Gotta look into Geico. Thanks for the heads up!

ScooterE6

JJ,

I have to agree with your statement regarding Customer service, never had an issue on the phone or while working a claim. I have been with USAA for over 27 years... just retired.... still using their services but in areas my patience is wearing thin ....
1 - Florida Home insurance policies have changed over the years.... imagine that.... now I can't insure my properties with them - only one in FL ....
2 - Several recent letters informing my family and I that this is my last 6 months with them covering us in auto due to driving records (5 drivers over the decades) ..... our family record is pretty clean, I was baffled, their contractor made some errors and included another families records under mine... after 26 years I figured I would get more than a "Your dumped in 3 months" letter. Nope They must be taking care of the OTHER Military members..... I believe they need to take a step back and review. Save some $ in advertisements and hiring the big names to sit on their BOD!
I am still with them will see how the retired life makes any adjustments.

Flyinhigh

I am just about completely severed with USAA. I switched homeowner's and auto (2 homes and 4 cars) and saved over $1200 per year. Moved everything to State Farm. Six months after I left USAA I got my SSA check. It now sits in a tax exempt Vanguard fund earning around 4% per year and is available any time I need it. Also moved our investments to Vanguard. Much lower fees and better returns. The biggest reason we left was over a claim we had on our second home. They sent a contractor out that didn't know anything. He had complaints all over the area but USAA swore by him. When we complained they got defensive and took his side over us. We have built four homes and remodeled three homes. We knew what we were doing. We finally fired him and convinced USAA to write us a check and we would handle things. Anyway, we have moved on. USAA is not the company I joined in 1969.