USAA

[viper154]

I had someone get my card info while I was at Randolph and tried making several $200 purchases at Walmart. They locked the card, called me, and I got a full reimbursement a few days later with a new card. USAA may not be as good as it use to and may not always have to best rates/deals, but they are still a good bank to do your basic banking and insurance needs. I've had them since 2010 and never had any issues. Knock on wood. 

[sqwatch]

I had a similar experience.  Someone got my debit card info while I was in CA, probably from a card skimmer at a gas station.  In the 2 days it took me to drive back to SD, they spent $3000.  I called USAA, went line by line through the transactions and had the money back within 48 hours.

Similar story too. The gist of it is usaa had the money back in my account in 48 hrs. Hearing all the fraud stories makes me wonder if these Guys ever get caught

[M2]

Dealing with them after the hail storm we had in San Antonio last week damaged two of our cars and possibly the roof of our house.  So far they've been relatively responsive on the property claim, but given that they were swamped with 15,000+ auto claims within 24 hours after the storm, I'll willing to cut them a little slack on the cars...

[guineapigfury]

My guess is probably not on catching them.  Identity theft is hard to prosecute unless you catch someone redhanded.  I'd like to see the punishment raised from a short stay in prison to hanging, preferably publicly.

[RTB]

 

2 hours ago, guineapigfury said:

My guess is probably not on catching them.  Identity theft is hard to prosecute unless you catch someone redhanded.  I'd like to see the punishment raised from a short stay in prison to hanging, preferably publicly.

I had about $3000 in fraud on an AMEX in Florida while I was TDY in Germany.  Long story short, they caught the dudes who had tried to buy a bunch of TVs at Walmart.  I was sent regular updates on the status of their case from the prosecutor's office, ultimately ending in multi-year prison sentences for all 3 of the dudes in the crime ring.  It was pretty sweet justice.  Of course a year later I also got the notice that they'd been let out on parole but at least they spent some time for it.

[Gunnerlit]

Quite a trend going on. Wife's USAA debit card info was used as a credit card for a purchase at a Walmart in Las Vegas, $695. We live in AL. Got the fraud call and turned the card off. Had the money back in 72 hours. 

[Guest]

I spent ~4 months on a deployment using my USAA credit card throughout Qatar, Europe and the Stans, only to have it frozen for suspicious activity when I stopped at a Starbucks while driving from Charleston to visit a buddy in NC.

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[11F...]

On 30 March 2016 at 7:02 PM, brabus said:

Recommend Vanguard - easy for a dude who doesn't know/want to learn a bunch regarding investing, low expense ratios, and good performing funds overall.  Way better than USAA.

+1 on the Vanguard recommendation.  I don't use them anymore as I'm more active in my investments now that I've grown wiser and drink less, but USAA is probably one of the worst places to put investments.  Other than First Command?  Do those guys still even exist anymore?  Anyway, until you figure out how to invest, have the time to actively manage your investments, actually have the interest to manage your own investments, Vanguard is a great place to park your money.  Lots of different options for the average consumer to pick risk tolerance, timeline, etc. (basically have some control over where to park your cash) and then just ride it out for 20 years.  Not guaranteed to make you a ton of money or even any money, but I can guarantee that they will steal less of your money in admin costs/fees than USAA and many other banks/firms.  $200 a year doesn't sounds like a bunch of savings in the scope of a $40000 IRA, but that money reinvested every year and compounded over 20-40 years ends up being a huge pile of cash that's not worth pissing away just because someone "likes USAA's customer service" or is too lazy to make a phone call to Vanguard or somewhere better than USAA.  

 

[Jaded]

You can buy external ETFs in the USAA brokerage. 

[11F...]

2 hours ago, Jaded said:

You can buy external ETFs in the USAA brokerage. 

That's valid, and I know you previously mentioned it in this thread.   Good for guys to know.  That said, the options (from what I remember) are pretty limited and even then, you're still charged a commission of $9 or $6 depending on your assets I guess for each purchase, right?  Vanguard, for example, allows folks to just dollar cost average blindly each month like TSP, and one isn't charged any commissions as long as they are Vanguard ETFS, funds, etc.  Then if your asset base is large enough ($500K) trades are only $2 a pop.    

Since I don't use USAA as a brokerage firm, but some of the folks on this thread may, I'm curious if USAA offers that option (waive commissions if you set up recurring deposits into funds, etfs, etc.)  Also, I noticed that their step up from Gold to Platinum status, when trades drop $3 a pop, is only $50K in assets.  There's a note that alludes to the fact that lower commissions can be negotiable depending on amount of assets.  Anyone have any experience in doing this with USAA, and if so, would you mind giving us a ballpark asset base and how much they charge you for trades?   The note specifically stated that family members' assets were pooled to count as a higher number for this deal.   

[Day Man]

if you trade enough (I think something like 25 in a rolling 90-day period) you are upgraded to "platinum status" for their brokerage...you still have to pay additional for OTC/pink sheets as well.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Day Man

[Jaded]

Aren't there some firms that completely waive trade fees (Schwab?) 

If you're at all active in your money management, I don't think usaa is very competitive. If you're a buy and hold type of person, usaa can be ok. A $10 trade on your yearly $5k Roth IRA trade is way eclipsed by whatever the expense ratio of that mutual fund or ETF is. 

The only reason I bring it up is that I enjoy the convenience of having a single place that keeps and tracks all of my money (though I guess Mint and Personal Capital exist for that purpose.) 

I would still like to see a strategy that beats buying various vanguard index ETFs and not touching them for 30 years, but I think that discussion is going on in a squadron bar thread. 

TL;DR: USAA mutual funds are terrible. Active traders should not use the USAA brokerage. Buy-and-holders can use the USAA brokerage with little downside. 

[Herkasaurus]

Anyone know much/have any experience with USAA's managed portfolios?

[i.o.w.a]

My wife has had a usaa managed fund and we have since moved it to vanguard.  In the good years 2013-2014 it was worse than the index funds and in the overall bad year 2015 it was even with the index funds. 

The experience basically proved to me that manages funds are never a good investment, that everything you read is true. Low expense index funds are the way to go, and you don't get those at USAA.

[11F...]

7 hours ago, Jaded said:

Aren't there some firms that completely waive trade fees (Schwab?) 

If you're at all active in your money management, I don't think usaa is very competitive. If you're a buy and hold type of person, usaa can be ok. A $10 trade on your yearly $5k Roth IRA trade is way eclipsed by whatever the expense ratio of that mutual fund or ETF is. 

The only reason I bring it up is that I enjoy the convenience of having a single place that keeps and tracks all of my money (though I guess Mint and Personal Capital exist for that purpose.) 

I would still like to see a strategy that beats buying various vanguard index ETFs and not touching them for 30 years, but I think that discussion is going on in a squadron bar thread. 

TL;DR: USAA mutual funds are terrible. Active traders should not use the USAA brokerage. Buy-and-holders can use the USAA brokerage with little downside. 

Agree that this probably isn't the thread for other investment strategies, but to your point on USAA only charging $10 for your Roth deposit, that was part of my original point/question.  That's assuming you save up $5500 during the course of the year and dump it once into the ETF, right?  Can you make $200 deposits weekly with USAA like you can with Vanguard with no fees?  I'm guessing you can, but only if it's within a small group of funds/etfs?   So if that's the case, I think USAA would be a terrible place to invest.  

You are way right for active investors USAA is terrible.  Tons of firms waive fees or discount them.  I've bounced around and use Scottrade currently.  It takes one phone call every year or so to get free trades.  I like their FRIP (flexible dividend reinvestment program) and buy a lot of stocks via options, and their fee structure works well for me.  Vanguard I still vote is far and away the best place for folks to put investments in if they're into passively investing.  

No one has their TSP money with USAA, so the "all my money in one place" is total BS.  Vanguard takes 10 seconds longer to pull up your account than doing it on USAA's website.  And it's quicker than seeing your current portfolio in TSP, IMO.    

[Ping Hymas]

For you real estate geeks out there,I just confirmed that USAA will now insure 10 properties!  This is a huge deal for those going into Long term RE investment. Used to be 5. Also, don't forget to look into their umbrella policy. It's a good deal if you have a lot of liability and assets you want to protect. Like 20 bucks a month for a few million....depends on what you have. Good luck!

 

[11F...]

33 minutes ago, Ping Hymas said:

For you real estate geeks out there,I just confirmed that USAA will now insure 10 properties!  This is a huge deal for those going into Long term RE investment. Used to be 5. Also, don't forget to look into their umbrella policy. It's a good deal if you have a lot of liability and assets you want to protect. Like 20 bucks a month for a few million....depends on what you have. Good luck!

 

Good stuff.  Thanks Ping.  

[BashiChuni]

anyone have the supplemental USAA life insurance? good deal or bad deal?

i bought it a few years ago and now i have the weird feeling im getting scammed for $48/month

[11F]

anyone have the supplemental USAA life insurance? good deal or bad deal?

i bought it a few years ago and now i have the weird feeling im getting scammed for $48/month

AAFMAA cannot be beat for supplemental term life insurance, especially for pilots.

[xaarman]

USAAs really dropped the ball on my GFs stolen CCs (wallet.) We’ve had to baby them to make sure the basics were done...  we’ve had to call them multiple times to make sure the two charges, one for $919 and one for $900 at the same location, at the same time, were both marked as fraud. It was only when one of the charges posted that we had to call them back and go WTF. Then, they said they will temporarily refund the cost until the Fraud department validates our claims. Really? 

Also, having only one of the two cards expedited and when we call back to ask where our other card is, they go “oh we didn’t know you wanted both cards expedited.” WTF.

Coupled with some auto insurance complaints, is anyone else having any issues? How’s Navy Fed? I’ve had USAA for 15 years, but the above has really left us mad/frustrated/extremely disappointed. 

[ThreeHoler]

USAA has gone significantly downhill. They got too big for their britches.


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[Sua Sponte]

Just created an account with Navy Fed. Haven’t had any issues so far. I’m looking at moving away from USAA as well.

[MooseAg03]

I dropped their car insurance 6 years ago when their rates got ridiculous. I still use them for banking right now, but after I separate and get settled I will find a local credit union for that.

In my opinion, the company is run by a bunch of retired generals who have gotten too greedy. Instead of being an exclusive provider for military and their families, they have loosened up membership requirements to expand their customer base along with a corresponding drop in the quality of customer service. It’s kind of sad really.


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[Riddles]

30 minutes ago, MooseAg03 said:

I dropped their car insurance 6 years ago when their rates got ridiculous. I still use them for banking right now, but after I separate and get settled I will find a local credit union for that.

In my opinion, the company is run by a bunch of retired generals who have gotten too greedy. Instead of being an exclusive provider for military and their families, they have loosened up membership requirements to expand their customer base along with a corresponding drop in the quality of customer service. It’s kind of sad really.


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Purchased a new car last year and called around for different quotes. USAA wanted to charge me more than double what EVERY OTHER company quoted me. It's actually crazy how bad it has gotten in the past few years. 

[MooseAg03]

I will say the only product I see from USAA that I prefer is their renter’s insurance. When I compared their coverage with GEICO, USAA had unlimited loss of use coverage due to mold or other reasons. GEICO’s was limited to (I think) 30 days.

I pay $28/mo for 100k property coverage and for extra computer coverage so our MacBooks are covered if we ever accidentally trash them.


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