Preview Review

Next Review

USAA Consumer Reviews - Page 4

Most Popular | Newest | More Options >
More filter options:
Why I Will Never Switch From USAA to Progressive
By -

Top reasons why I will never switch from USAA to Progressive:

  1. Clientele: while driving down the highway I was struck from the rear by an inebriated unemployed Progressive driver, who was already on probation for DUI. It feels good to ensure others who would be court-martialed if they behaved like this individual.

  2. Clarity: when I call USAA I don'€™t have to be transferred from a National Office to a local office, and since I don'€™t need to be transferred I don'€™t get two different stories about the service they provide. When I call Progressive the national office tells me that they will go wherever I need, service and inspect the car wherever I like and generally accommodate me, but when I call the local office I am told I must go to their body shop during working hours have my car checked out. When I call the national office and ask to speak to someone higher up, they route me to another claims adjuster in the same department who also cannot help. No bureaucracy, that'€™s why I love USAA.

  3. Availability: when I call USAA I am told we will be here all night to help you. My Progressive claims adjuster works only four days per week.

  4. Attitude: when I speak to USAA about my accident they can'€™t wait to genuinely show concern and look out for my welfare. When I can get a hold of anyone at Progressive I get terse responses and feigned concern. When I come to the Progressive office, the claims adjuster tells the secretary to take my paperwork and lets the secretary try to determine what is happening with my case because she is too busy to see me (though she saw doing a deliberate about face upon seeing me and calls the secretary twice to see if I have gone away yet). When she does come to see me she tells me "€œYou just don'€™t know how the insurance business works."€ Clearly, I don't know how Progressive works, but I know how USAA does, I am treated with respect, concern, and prompt service.

  5. Responsibility: When I take the day off work to personally fetch police reports, contact sheriff's departments, rental car companies and bring needed documentation to the office, but am still told that Progressive does not have the documentation to repair my car and that I should contact my insurance company because they can work faster. USAA bends over backward to cover everything, pay out the claim and get my car into the shop though it was no fault of theirs; it consumes their time and resources and involves them unnecessarily.

  6. Understanding and Timeliness: USAA understands when I tell them I am leaving at 5 AM for predeployment certification training for two weeks and that I will not be able to contact them for two weeks. USAA apologizes for the service that Progressive has provided and stresses that they understand that it is not acceptable to leave my wife without transportation. The Progressive claims adjuster tells me after an exterior examination of my car that it is not their fault that I am leaving, that the brake light on my dash must have been on before the accident and that my car should be drivable for my wife. Progressive also suggests that I should use my predeployment leave to fix the car.

In a word USAA understands service.

Replies
Very Poor
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- I am very disappointed in USAA. I made a mistake and my account went past due. They dropped my policy. When I reactivated my account they told me it would be retroactive. Yet when I got my policy statement, it wasn't. I called, spoke with a senior advisor who said, "sorry, that's not true, let's just move forward." I will be canceling my policy. Don't trust them with anything. This company will lie to you just to get money. Poor integrity, poor customer service.

Replies
Beware Money Goes Missing Without Reason
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- I have been with USAA since I was 17 and had signed up to be in the USAF. At first, before actually going to BMT, the bank was very good. I never had any problems until I hit check school. The first time money went missing from my account was in February 2011 for $100. I had just gotten paid that day and transferred $100 from checkings to savings. That money mysteriously was withdrawn the next day.

When I called the lady I talked to at first said it was a computer error but after talking with her manager, claimed that the money was never there and went as far as to call me a liar over the phone. She flat out refused to let me talk to her boss and ended the call by saying "Ma'am, the monies is not there. You never had the monies." and hung up. The second time, $40 went missing. USAA claimed it was for an overdraft payment. Since none of my accounts were in the negative or never had they been, the money was returned after much arguing and deliberating.

The third time, they took $50 out for a "bad check" on an account that no checks were ever deposited to. After looking through all the transaction history and seeing that there were no check deposits, he claimed my husband, who doesn't know the account number or even have a card for said account, took out a credit and he could not give me further information.

When my husband called, they said the same thing, that a credit had been taken out but that I had done it. When he gave the phone to me to talk to the rep, he said that he couldn't help us and hung up the phone. USAA used to be really great but have seemed sketchy ever since 2011, for me personally.

Replies
Went out of their way to be difficult
By -

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- My husband and I are both Active Duty and have been USAA members for 14 years. We have bought several vehicles using USAA for our financing, bought our house, have a credit card, all of our insurance, etc. In the last 5 years or so we have noticed a severe decline in quality of service that we receive from USAA. The final straw was this week when we were "pre-approved" for a car loan up to 50K (yikes) at 4.25%. I had been thinking about trading in my vehicle for something a little smaller with better mileage.

Needless to say, I did NOT need 50K, and was dumbfounded when we accepted the offer and were given terms that not only did not reflect our good credit rating but were completely ridiculous. The interest rate was 12.99%! My husband negotiated with them for over 2 hours and finally were given an offer of 4.99%. We figured that was a fairly decent rate, and off to the dealership we went. After spending a couple of hours negotiating trade in and purchase price, we were finalizing the paperwork.

Mr. Finance Guy called USAA to verify the approval on the electronic loan check, and here's where it gets really good. Apparently, USAA never intended to do this car loan because the final approval amount on the electronic check was a full 5000.00 UNDER MSRP for the vehicle! In simple terms, there was no way we were going to buy this car with USAA because they never intended to give us the amount we would need to finance it! There is a happy ending though. We applied for financing through Toyota, and were given not only an instant approval, BUT!!! Get this!!! We were given a final interest rate of 4.19%.

Moral of the story: USAA has contracted out so many of their services and on any given day you can get a nice heaping helping of crappy attitude when you call to talk to a customer service representative. Needless to say, we have started shopping for new insurance, looking into a credit union for banking services, and are working to pay off the credit card we hold with USAA. We certainly won't be recommending them to anyone anymore either.

Replies
Advertisement
Poor to No Service after USAA Insured struck my vehicle
By -

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- I was 400 miles from home, when an inattentive drive slammed into the rear of my vehicle. This occurred about 4 pm on a Friday. Why waiting for police to arrive, we exchanged insurance information. I took photographs of the vehicles before being moved and afterward, photographs of damaged. The other driver was insured with USAA. I called USAA to verify the coverage was in effect. USAA refused to verify, but took my information.

The following Monday, I called USAA to verify and again was refused. USAA asked me to take my vehicle to their service center (vehicle was drivable but heavily damaged). They told me I could take it to their service center I week from Thursday. I explained that I was 400 miles from home and was going back home on Wednesday and asked if there was a service center in my hometown. No there was not. I was then told that if I wanted my vehicle repair, I would find a way to get it to their service center. I told them that was not feasible, and the reply was "That's your problem."

I arrive back home and took my vehicle to my body shop. I called USAA (and recorded our conversation) and advised them where the vehicle was, they said they would send someone out, but never did. Three weeks later my vehicle was repaired and I picked it up. USAA denied the claim because I did not take it to the center they wanted me to and did not take it to the body shop they use and did not get approval for the repairs.

I paid for the repairs $5500 and the rental car ($1000). I then, had my attorney sue both the driver and USAA. The driver was upset at being sued and even more upset and USAA for not protecting him. The driver then contacted his attorney, who sued USAA. The depositions were fun. USAA hired local counsel, who showed up for depositions. What USAA told him and what my documentation, unanswered letters and recorded phone calls reflected were two different stories. USAA's attorney was pissed that USAA withheld evidence from him.

The final result, USAA was assessed by the court and amount equal to my repairs and rental, plus interest (took almost two years to get to court) all my legal fees, and was assessed an additional $20000 in punitive damages, which under the deceptive trade practice law was automatically trebled. Result $6500 in actual losses, $60,000 to me and $26000 to my attorney.

The other driver won his suit against USAA for failing to defend him and breach of contract. I sure that was settled quite handsomely as well, for both the driver and his attorney. I fail to see the reasoning why USAA preferred to put out in the neighborhood of $100,000 just to deny responsibility for a $6500 claim.

Replies
Poor Service Originating a Mortgage-Missed Closing Date
By -

SAN ANGONIO, TEXAS -- We have had two experiences with USAA Mortgage and it is the most recent that is prompting this review. Despite fulfilling every request USAA made of us in a timely fashion AND modifying our contract with our seller several times to conform to their requests (needless and redundant requests, accordingly to our real estate attorney), USAA caused us to miss two closing dates and we no longer have a contract. At one point they asked us why certain monies had not transferred--monies that only transfer at closing - a closing they caused us to miss! It is clear that they do not know what happens at closing.

They do not know what they are doing, take days to answer phone calls, and at least in the mortgage services branch of the bank, DO NOT value customer service. Several years ago I financed a condo through them and was told by my real estate agent that the title agent found them hard to work with. I blew this observation off, because I was so impressed by the customer service in other areas of the company.

However, the nightmare experience we had the last month confirms to me that the phrase "time is of the essence" has no meaning to them and that they could benefit from a trained person to explain their documents to them. I cannot comment on what percentage of loans they complete without difficulty and what percentage they do a few stupid things with and what percentage they totally flub. However, the fact that they seemed to view their errors as standard operating procedure did not inspire confidence in their quality control.

I suppose whether one chooses them as a mortgage company depends upon how much of a risk-taker one is. As for us, next time we will be a choosing a company where we have a higher certainty of closing on time after weeks of straightforward (as opposed to inexplicable) business dealings.

Replies
Does Not Like To Pay Claims
By -

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- USAA makes a great talk but sometimes fails to make the walk. I will not be renewed on my USAA Home/Fire Insurance. I will not be renewed on my USAA Renters Insurance. I will not be renewed on my USAA Auto Insurance. Why? I never filed a claim on my renters insurance. I never filed an accident claim on my auto insurance. I pay my credit cards.

What is the issue? A criminal conviction for a family member from 7 years ago. USAA "claims" it has a policy to "weed out undesirables" when it "comes to their attention". Funny how that didn't seem to make a difference way back when they "discovered it" but only after they got my home insurance claims. How much were all my claims? About $35,000 combined. I filed a claim on my home for a broken window. I also had my home broken into and a fire resulted from the break-in.

I begged USAA to do something before the Alaskan winter set in. Nope. The fire happened in July 2008. Winter set in in Alaska and outside repairs were delayed so my home freezes up. How did they run the above claims? As FOUR(4) SEPARATE claims. I suspected they were stacking the deck by running these separately but I trusted them to take care of me. Boy, did they take care of me! My house was vacant from July last year until July this year. Just rented it out this month (PCS'd to my current location July 2007).

USAA is paying for the damages slowly, but I have already paid most of the costs myself. I do not like owing people who work for me. USAA obviously resents having to pay for ANY damages. Granted, it is the USAA underwriting department making the call. Basically they told me to go pound sand. I admit to looking at this from my point of view only. I am shocked at this happening after all the years I spent with USAA and all the good things I passed on to other service members about the how they were inexpensive and a fair company. Many of their employees are.

Replies
Stay Away From USAA... All Your Funds Will Be Frozen At Some Point
By -

I have been a loyal customer to USAA, depositing money consistently from my BOA accounts as well as having car insurance through them for my 2 vehicles. In my 30 years I've never had an issue with banking. I've been sent overseas for 3 years and continued online banking: paying bills, making deposits and having insurance. I've been an incredible asset, as well as have incredible credit.

I now have a fiancee who I live with who also has USAA--a complete separate account. For some reason a deposit of his was red flagged (I don't know why, and honestly I don't care, it's not my account) and his account was frozen. By the next day my personal account was frozen as well. WHY? Because we have the same address.

So my hard earned money, my untarnished years of being a customer have gone to the crapper because of another account?? Are you kidding me? How in god's name do they have the right or the legal ability to keep all my money from me for someone else's account?? This is highly illegal practices, the staff that I've talked to are a joke. After hours of calls to their office I finally find that my account is being shut down?! A supposed check will be issued to me with my money, and there is ZERO reason to back this kind of move on their behalf.

Many of you may have USAA, as I have for years... IT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU. They freeze funds, leave you with nothing. You're left to fend for yourself against this growing evil entity. I'm a full-time student and a mom to two little boys and I can't feed them, pay my bills, go to school, for god sakes can't even put gas in my car. This is what I get after years of the highest and best clientele service to them.

I'm left with the words of some insignificant staff member telling me they're sorry, and only god knows when I'll ever see my money ever again. We're talking thousands. USAA IS A SCAM SCAM SCAM!! If you can't walk into your banking institution DON'T BE A PART OF IT! Lesson learned.

Replies
Advertisement
Mortgage Department Is Incompetent
StarStarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 2/51

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- USAA has been amazing in all other areas with the exception of the mortgage area. I purchased a home in 2008 with USAA and the process was smooth with no issues so I thought I would have the same experience when I looked to buy another home. I was very VERY wrong.

It all started with my mortgage processor "misplacing" my sales contract and delaying an appraisal for a month since they never called me to say they needed another copy. That was just the tip of the iceberg sadly. Every call to my processor was met with the same line "I haven't looked at your file yet since it has been so incredibly busy" and she would say everything is fine and they don't need any more files from me.

Fast forward to a week before closing and the title work is still not done (because it was ordered late), the appraisal from VA was ordered late and still hadn't come back, and they keep telling me I have credit issues surrounding an AMEX card that never had a late payment and with my overall credit score above 790.

Closing day came and went, and now USAA has an issue reading the VA appraisal stating that the crawl space needs to be deeper to allow for termite inspections (a project costing in excess of $10,000 and a termite inspection was already completed) and that some damaged tiles in a bathroom need to be fixed (even though I am gutting the bathroom immediately upon closing). I am still waiting on a manager from the Mortgage processing area to help but they are insisting I call the VA for clarification even after explaining to them that the VA will not speak to anyone but the lender.

I have been a member of USAA for 6 years and have purchased almost every single product they offer. Sadly, when I call to try to get assistance from higher, I get sent into a never ending automated phone system or get sent to an operator that can't help me because the rules don't allow them to.

If you are thinking of financing a home through USAA, save yourself the hassle and go with another lender. The exceptional customer service that USAA is known for has been going downhill for years and now they are no different than any other bank but seem to have more incompetent people than normal. I am closing my accounts with USAA and moving to Navy Federal.

Replies
DO NOT Use USAA VA Loan Service!!
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- My husband and I have used USAA credit card services in the past. They have been remarkably wonderful to deal with. However, we, like others, because we had such a great experience with USAA prior, tried to finance a home via a VA loan.

This has been a nightmare for us. We realized in advance, the process would require a lot of documentation. We jumped through hoops to get our mortgage processor everything she required. But the data requested came in Bits and Pieces. Every day she was requesting something new, never just one whole list of things to fax or mail.

We spent well over $100 faxing and re-faxing information (because things were lost). I finally had had enough and let her know about my frustration. She admitted to my husband and myself via email that she was only in this position for 4 months and is trying to learn as she goes along. OK, we understood that and I did feel some empathy for someone learning the ropes. I've been there myself.

Here is one example of something ridiculous that not only the mtg processor is questioning but the underwriter as well: We had to have a termite inspection. Termites were found. The company we hired who was wonderful (BIOTECH) came out and treated the small area affected. The technician gave us all the data we needed to provide to USAA. The documentation from BIOTECH was page numbered 'page 1 of 5'. We had pages '2 of 5' '3 of 5' and '4 of 5'. Page 5 is just a warranty should the homeowner choose to pay extra for the warranty. There is NO NUMBER on that page!

We have been questioned over and over. I even called BIOTECH and they faxed USAA every piece of documentation regarding our home. They even said they would have the owner of the company hand write a letter to USAA for us stating that all documentation was provided for them. BIOTECH asked what mtg company we were going through because they have NEVER EVER had this much of a problem before and BIOTECH has been in business for many, many years. So the mtg processor finally sent our file to the underwriters. Now as of yesterday, we hear that the underwriter is questioning the BIOTECH termite inspection and the lack of 'page 5'.

To say we are pissed off is an understatement. The above incident is just one of many incidents that we have patiently dealt with regarding the USAA mtg loan. In closing, we still don't know if we are going to be approved for our loan but are seriously thinking about telling them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

Replies
Top of Page | Next Page >

USAA Rating:
Star Half star Empty star Empty star Empty star
1.3 out of 5, based on 41 ratings and
81 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
USAA
9800 Fredericksburg Road
San Antonio, TX 78288
210-531-8722 (ph)
www.usaa.com
Compare Banks