Two houses, three cars, then rates went up with USAA two years ago. Went with the lizard and saved $1000 a year, apples to apples. Had a recent auto claim and was well taken care of. Not looking back to USAA.

 

Retired military and an airline pilot here as well. I stopped using my USAA credit card because they actually wanted me to call them before each trip to let them know where I'd be for card 'preauthorization.' GMAFB

I'm down to auto insurance only with them. That's next on the list. USAA used to be a great company. 24 years and, unfortunatley, it's time to go.

Stetson20

 

With a flawless driving record I am still getting reamed on their auto insurance. Did however take the car and got a refi on the note for 1.49 with Penfed, lowest USAA would go was 2.49. They really have lost their edge, regardless of what the ads have to say...

 

We have had no bad experiences. They did raise some rates that got us shopping around to many different providers. They were still the cheapest. Something to consider is customer service. I have had nothing but friendly helpful people on the phone. But customer service goes way beyond this. In 2007 my wife got in a car accident, her fault, totalled our car and was injured. From the first phone call to the continued medical care over a year later they were always helpful. Of course our rates went up but not by much which really surprised me.

My experience has always been good. Like any company, if it starts go down they will be notified and will hopefully fix the problelm, if not, we will go elsewhere.

Something to think about with mortgages is they are actually checking up on people after the big crisis. We did a mortgage in 2006 and then again in 2011, huge difference. We basically went through hell with Wells Fargo the second time around compared to the first. So, maybe it wasn't USAA but a change of the times.

 

Long story short, bought a home in San Diego, lost my ass. Had to make some hard choices and settled on my USAA credit card. I was in Korea and they sent a letter dumping my auto insurance, over a year later, so I called and asked why. The guy on the phone said they didn't feel like doing business with me anymore because I defaulted on my card. I said yes, that was bad but your company settled over a year ago and my auto insurance has nothing to do with that. He could have cared less, as did I so I went with Geico. They offer the same coverage for less.

 

similar story here, no auto insurance because of credit card default.

family members are still happy with them, though.

 

I had an oil tank leak that turned into a 3rd party claim---ground water was infected. They had to remediate soil from a hole almost 100 feet in diameter and 40 feet deep---that was under my garage---the garage was completely replaced. This claim was MASSIVE----USAA never dragged their feet---never asked me for a dime. The "whole" clean-up and garage re-construction was done in eight months. 20 lifetimes of premiums would never pay for the cost of that cleanup. I am a customer for LIFE.

 

What year was that? Not saying they wouldn't do it today, but like I said, they wouldn't even give me insurance for the home they were going to give me the loan for...the company is changing for the worse.

 

A USAA member of almost 20 years and i have never had a problem with them, claims, homes, PCS /moves, etc. I definitely agree their customer service is outstanding, best of any company i've dealt with, it would take alot more than one home mortgage attempt and a couple premium changes for me to completely leave them, but each to their own right? Thankfully we have plenty of choices in America!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by AF2Navy

...it would take alot more than one home mortgage attempt and a couple premium changes for me to completely leave them, but each to their own right?

It was TWO mortgage attempts: one in 2007 and one in 2012. Both were rejected after I was led to believe I had the pre-approval and had already found a house. It wasn't just the rejections, but the total lack of competency I experienced especially during this last attempt. But I agree with you, each person will have a different experience. If you shop around and find USAA is cheaper, then by all means stay with them. If they consistently aren't, then I don't know why you would.

Final update: I got a call from Cindy from USAA's "Voice of the Member" section and she apologized profusely for my experience and promised to educate the loan department on IMA Reservists and send a report of the incident to an executive board. She refunded my application fee and the money I paid to have the home inspected which was the right thing to do. However, she admitted that USAA no longer has the ability to provide "relationship" loans due to legislation passed after the mortgage crisis. This means that no matter how long you have been with USAA and even if they think it makes sense to give you the loan, they can't. This information (and the fact that I've obtained better auto and home insurance rates from other companies) confirms my decision to leave USAA as they no longer can provide a better/more cost-effective product.