I have been a USAA member for about 15 years. USAA's products and service have been on a steady decline for the past five years. I first noticed a problem when my home insurance rates kept increasing 20-25% year after year (no claims) even after the mortgage crisis when home values plummeted. I called to ask them why the rates were soaring even though home values were down and construction companies were flailing for business. They told me the increases were state-wide and there was nothing they could do--so I switched to another company and got the same coverage for less. This got me shopping around for car insurance. As I expected, I was able to obtain the same coverage for less with another reputable company.

The last straw came from their mortgage department. I got pre-approved for a home loan in 2007 and put an offer on a house. I called USAA to get the paperwork rolling and they asked when I would be selling my old house. I told them I couldn't because the market just collapsed and I was upside-down on my loan. So they cancelled my pre-approval even though they never said it was contingent on the sale of my previous home. Fast forward to 2012 when separated from Active Duty and called again to get a mortgage pre-approval. I then spent three hours on the phone explaining my new job as a Reservist (IMA) and how difficult it would be to determine my average annual income. Despite this, I was given the pre-approval. I called again a couple weeks later to inquire about my file and spent another one-and-a-half hours going over the exact same information, and the underwriters still gave us another pre-approval. We found a house, put an offer on it, and were assigned a final loan officer. She kept asking me for documents that would be for Active Duty service and I again informed her of my status as a Reservist (USAA does not seem to know what an IMA is). She apologized and said not all of the loan origination information gets transferred to her (what!?). I faxed them over 150 pages of supporting docs they asked for and paid for a home inspection. They also had an appraisal done on the home. During this period I made another call to them about the loan and they kept coming up with two different amounts I would have to provide at closing and couldn't figure out which one was correct. Finally, I got an e-mail from the loan officer saying my pre-approval was now denied because I did not have two years of income history in my new job as a Reservist. I asked why they didn't tell me this when I originally called to get pre-approved and they still have not been able to provide me with an answer. Unbelievable! Now I'm scrambling to figure out what I'm going to do. Thanks for taking care of our nation's Reservists USAA! You've lost all of my business.