Done With USAA ...
 

With more than 25+ years under my belt, I am parting ways with USAA. For me this has been a long time coming. Now this, news that USAA was screwing over military members.

https://www.bankingdive.com/news/occ...curity/587070/

What used to be the best Auto/Home Insurance company and Federal Credit Union has slowly gone down the drain. I almost cut ties with them when they bungled the closing of my last home purchase. Now I can no longer support or recommend them.

I’ve been with them since 1987... no issues.

Same, nothing but great experiences.

I had similar issues with USAA attempting to get a mortgage through them. Nothing but headache, went with a different company. Now have changed banks as well. I still keep the USAA accounts open, but there is no money in there.

They grew too big, too fast. And it irks me a bit when I see their commercials touting military service. I’ve been using them in some capacity for 21 years...and the last 5 years have shown me repeatedly that better products exist.

Every time I’ve renewed my coverage I check USAA because they are supposed to give the best rates for military...and every time they are orders of magnitude more expensive than other options. I know they are cheaper for some, but I’ve never found them to be cheap, in fact I’ve usually found them to be among the most expensive.

Same here. Planned on getting a mortgage with them and went through all the steps but it was not fun, horrendous customer service from the loan officer & underwriter. Deal ended up falling through for reasons unrelated to mortgage and the next time around I went with Navy Fed and the experience was much better. USAA has been fine for car insurance but I'll never do a mortgage with them again.

I'm about to dump them too.

Ever since they expended membership eligibility to anyone who can trace their ancestry to a service member (ie essentially the entire US population) prices are up and quality of service is down.

Might still be a good option if you're active duty, file a 1040EZ, and need 24/7 support from anywhere in the world.

been a member for 30 years. No issues. No they are not bargain basement cheapest. They pay claims and answer phones whenever I need them. smartphone app is easy to use. If you want, you can have 10 accounts, one for savings, one for "college" one for "emergency fund" etc all under one master account. I am sure other banks offer that but I would not know.

have not noticed any "downgrades" in performance but I respect everyone's opinion.

I’ve been trying to get my sister an account and they won’t approve it so it’s apparently not “everybody”

but yeah, I’ve been with them for 2 decades and it’s gotten worse lately. Definitely the most expensive out there AND I’ll say the same about Geico. my motorcycle insurance nearly tripled for my two bikes when I moved. Went from $300 a year for both to nearly $900.

I've been a member since 2000 so I'm right there with you about the service going downhill. Weird about your sister because I've got another non-mil pilot friend who just got a mortgage with them because his grandfather served in Korea. Navy Fed also has expanded the membership to "family" of anyone who has served. Under the rules USAA and Navy Fed now use, basically anyone who can trace any remote ancestry to anyone who served, even if it was a distant relative who was drafted and was medically discharged in basic training, they're entitled to membership and it passes down through subsequent generations without any additional service requirements. I guess this is the PC wave of the future. I expect the VFW and and legion will eventually do this too.

It fits with an overall pattern. The DOD is about to open up full exchange privileges to civilian employees with no military service, and there's talk this will also eventually include commissary privileges. Civilian employees already have access to most active/reserve/retired MWR benefits including Air Force Inns/NGIS/Navy Lodge. I expect eventually at this rate, retired DOD civilian employees will get access to VA healthcare benefits too, because why not, the VA is being privatized and everything else that was previously military-only is being opened up to them. This is the future.

https://www.expressnews.com/business/business_columnists/greg_jefferson/amp/Jefferson-Am-I-in-the-Twilight-Zone-15670225.php

Since we're talking about it...

We just got an email yesterday that all DHS employees now have access to Coast Guard Exchange, tax free. The shopping I’m fine with, but I do think the tax free benefit should be reserved to vets. Theoretically, someone with a dishonorable discharge could now be shopping tax free if they work at DHS.

Usaa has its issues, when I lived in Colorado their auto insurance was one of the most expensive. When I canceled they sent me a refund check, I tried to cash it at the USAA branch and they said they couldn’t cash the check because I didn’t have an account and it’s they only cash account holders checks because checks bounce... (hello it’s your check) but other than than they have been good. Their claims process for both homes and autos is much more user friendly than other companies.

Yeah, agreed about the tax benefits. I understand why they did it. I'm an ex-Coastie myself and I remember the CGX exchanges being completely empty the majority of the time I went to one because Coast Guard exchanges tend to be in random cities/towns without much of a military presence besides the CG, like North Bend, Oregon and Portland, Maine. I always wondered how the CGX's stayed in business. Not sure there are a lot of DHS civilian employees in these places but anything helps I guess.

I figure any day now DOD/DHS civilians will be eligible for Tricare Prime (or some new version, like "Tricare Civilian Select") and VA benefits are not long after that for civilians injured in the workplace.

Meh, every big bank gets flagged for regulatory items. With $100B in assests, stuff like this doesn't surprise me. I hardly think it's intentional...

It's been a few years, but I was working a contract at a State Farm agency and the owner/agent tried to sell me on State Farm. I thought, "what the heck, let's see what he can do...". I brought in my USAA coverages (both home and multi-auto) and he couldn't beat USAA.

In your search, who was able to beat USAA using identical coverages and by how much?

USAA has 2FA on their web log in. Did the fool opt out of 2FA? There's no way someone would have been able to beat the USAA 2FA (it uses an authenticator app).

Next time you try to log into your USAA account misspell your challenge question. You'll find missing 1 or 2 characters will still allow you in. I've been reporting this "error" for years. I fat fingered an answer and hit the enter button too quick one day and it accepted my answer. Everyone I have spoken to has said its by design. As a former programmer myself I can't imagine ANY reason for this to be acceptable or intentional. Yet here we are.

when I log on, I get this

Enter Online ID and Password

logged in, then....

Enter PIN

successfully entered, then if from a strange IP or "on the road" hotel connection.....

Security Question

slight misspelling = still logs in. however, we have gotten past the gates of password, and PIN, to get to this question.

probably designed due to the smartphone keyboards and folks fat fingering the keys.

I think that Marine’s story is fishy. I’m not shocked USAA denied him.

I’m still active duty but have never had any problems with USAA. The one claim I had to make was smoothly and easily handled.

only gripe I have is I used their "recommended USAA approved realtors" on one of my numerous PCS's. she turned out to be a dud.

since then I always go with recommendations from the guys who PCS'ed before me, who know the local area and neighborhoods I am looking at.

Totally agree with you on that.

But log in would even be more secure if you were using 2FA with their authenticator app...

Yes, fishy IMO as well.

And for those of you who say USAA is more expensive than other options, are you factoring in the SSA refund that you get every year?

Don't forget that some of us don't like USAA's customer service (rather than price). I personally was with USAA for 20 years, joined in 2000 and just recently left. I left because my last two mortgage experiences with them sucked, and my most recent experience was so bad that I jumped ship for Navy Fed. Happy to say that the latter had much more customer-friendly and competent loan officers and underwriters.

Guess you failed to read my entering argument? :

"Don't forget that some of us don't like USAA's customer service (rather than price)."

My wife called to cancel a policy on a rental property that we sold. While on the phone, they asked if she'd answer some questions about our primary residence to see if we could lower the homeowner's rate. 20 minutes later, our policy went up $50. I'm done with USAA.

My issue of late with USAA is the clear trend of them embracing identity politics (woketardness).

USAA, stick to selling insurance and round-file your politics.

I'm not knocking your politics, but welcome to the 21st century.

If you refuse to do business with companies that are socially involved, you will quickly run out of options.

(unless you live in Alabama and shop at Bubba's Hardware and Truck Stop)

I have BCBS. Have not heard of them doing these things.

Holy cow, I forgot all about this thread.

Yeah, No. I spent 20 years in IT (still do some side work). There is zero reason to do this. Fat Fingering never comes into play in secure sign on design. Any software designer that did that intentionally should have his head examined for dents, especially at a bank.

If you fat finger something you should be denied access till you get it right regardless of the number of steps it took to get where you fat fingered and entry.

When USAA decided to up the identity politics ante by CXL-ing their advertisement on the Hannity show, the backlash was severe and swift. They backed down. So, that "21 century thing" goes both ways. What's at stake here is that whole 1st Amendment thing. People need to WTFU.

I’m more irritated that now I have to log in to USAA, Schwab, and Victory to see my accounts. And a while back they transferred a car loan to a different company, so I had to get that login. It sucks.

* Car Insurance: AAA saved me $600 every 6 months (Florida, it's high there).

* Mortgage: Navy Federal offered 4.5% (negotiated down to 4) vs 5.3% for USAA in late 2018. Have since re-fi'd with Navy Fed and that experience was not as great, but the rate was still pretty competitive.

* Life Insurance: AAA gave me double the coverage on a 20 year term for the same price.

* Home Owner's Insurance: USAA wouldn't even offer me a policy

This mostly seems to be related to the geographic area I'm in - Florida, in a City, but it really shattered the myth of "USAA is great for Service Members" for me.

USAA was ripping me off for years. I left a couple of years ago, good riddance

What is the majority customer occupation that uses USAA?

Pulling the ad was a bad move. They lost thousands of loyal customers.

I started with USAA in 1987. I cancelled them after the wokeness appeared. That is 30+ years. I had no problem cutting the cord with USAA and had no problem finding suitable, cheaper and infinitely better alternatives out there. I absolutely disagree with your statement:

"If you refuse to do business with companies that are socially involved, you will quickly run out of options."

Hardly the case. You are pretty ignorant to make such a claim BTW.

I was also growing tired of their customer service and crappy loan service and ridiculous underwriting practices anyway.

We now do autos with Geico (saved like 40%). Boats with Progressive (saved 35%). Homeowners with a local company (saved 38%). Mortgage is with a local bank. <3% after a refi we did a few months ago.

We never used USAA banking or credit cards.

USAA has been my general "go-to" for years...
10-15 years ago we had taken a mortgage out with USAA, they then sold the loan to GMAC, which then declared bankruptcy, amd the servicing of the loan was taken from USAA in the bankruptcy procedure....
A scummy 3,rd party specialized in subprime mobile homes bought the loan...then would take our payments, then NOT apply them to the loan, saying we were late and had to pay penalties...
In discussing it with USAA they agreed to refinance it for zero cost seeing the $$ was paid on time, and EVEN took a principal reduction on the loan due to lower than expected value when apprised....
all we had to do was subjugate our right to sue the serving company to USAA to allow them to take legal action for us, along with other individuals having issues.
USAA policy were changed, and to this day we are thankful they went above and beyond, doing something that they had no legal reasons to do but felt they had a morals obligation too do.
Is the the company the same today?
No...but generally I trust them more than most other...let's face it, no company is perfect 100% of the time.
Do I have ally account locked down (just like with any company) with a physical 2nd factor key like a ubi-key or Google Titan key? You bet....I suggest ANYBODY using online banking should do the same ASAP.
USAA has been ahead of most others in terms of services offered...like mail in deposits, then check scanning then smart phone photos... online bill paying, statements etc, and then atm reimbursement has made them a GREAT company to use as a traveler.
Are they the best in all fields? No...life insurance, online trading, and a few areas they are not the best, amd sometimes it's only a me-to product, with the company selling off some business lines due to lack of critical mass to be cost effective.

Corporate America has had this PC garbage and SJ agenda force-fed down it’s collective throat by the Federal Government for the last decade.
They have no choice in the matter.

P.S. Bubba’s Truckstop there in Mobile has excellent corndogs and actual customer service.
Who cares if they aren’t SJW’s.

Back to the Thread Topic.....

I have been with USAA since 1987. They were beyond fantastic back then. I still think they do good work and offer solid/competitive products. Their customer service, IMO, has slipped over the years, but that is what happens when the Company decides to turn from an exclusive club into trying to be something for everybody.

Like Fat Tire. A great beer until they watered it down for the masses.

Been with them a number of years, perhaps 35 years now. Switched to them when they were much lower priced than the competition, and their service meant they were easily the best value. Not sure they are the best price, but they may still be the best value as insurance services are still good.

They have lost their focus in recent years. They were started because military personnel (I believe military pilots in particular) couldn't get insurance because they were in too high a risk category, so a group of officers banded together to insure themselves and fellow aviators, later officers. However, new management came in with a growth strategy that required them to expand the risk pool which resulted in higher premiums. The genie is out of the bottle now (wall street management), but I think all but Wall Street would be better served if they returned to their original focus.

I was about to shake my fist and yell at clouds about how they were Army officers...but of course in that time there was an Army Air Corps and it looks like when they set up shop they did so at Kelly Field. Also, in half the photos of the founders on the old corporate website, they're rocking wings, so hey, guess I learned something new today.
But it doesn't appear they specifically restricted themselves to aviators at first, just that most of them were. In fact, within two year's they'd expanded to the Navy and Marine Corps in an attempt to offset losses.

History of USAA – FundingUniverse

Switched a few years ago, saved a ton of $$ and never looked back.

have not had any issues. they paid, no questions asked, on a recent hail damaged roof. they did send an inspector out but he was on site for like 10 minutes.

my neighbor next door had to basically swear on the bible to his insurance company that everything was true and valid. and he was back and forth for 2 weeks with his company before he got any repair money.

yes they cost more but not sure if "going cheap" is the answer either