USAA has sent out a letter to credit card holders letting them know that changes to card benefits will be made on August 31st, 2019. These changes are as follows:
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver – There will no longer be a limit on the value of the car you rent; however, be aware that certain restrictions apply
- Extended Warranty – The claim maximum has been raised to $15,000 from $10,000
- Price protection – This benefit is being discontinued due to low usage by cardholders
I’m not sure that I buy price protection being removed due to low usage, especially with so many other card issuers removing the benefit lately.
USAA needs better credit cards rewards
would be great to have an updated post on what cards still have price protection after the citi, mastercard, and usaa now ending the benefit
It would be an incredibly short post IIRC.
They still offer the best car insurance rates in my area, at least for now
I believe this to be the case for me too… not so sure the distress some people have over USAA insurance rates is by area though. I kind of assume it’s certain age groups or risk groups that could get better rates elsewhere. Older people with clean records get awesome rates w/ USAA.
Price protection claims were limited to 4 per year anyway.
As long as they don’t mess with my Limitless Visa 2.5% rewards I’m sticking with them.
my grandpa won’t be happy to hear about the price protection. oh well
USAA’s entire banking department is a joke. All I have found them good for is renter’s insurance since that is cheap to begin with.
CC offers, trash. Interest rates on loans, trash. Interest on their bank accounts, trash. Insurance rates, nearly double the competition.
Yet I still see military people using them for everything and it baffles me.
USAA used to be great for military until about ten years ago when they decided to expand membership to include anyone who ever was in the military. That increased the risk pool and also diluted customer service quality as they hired more people. I am in the Army, and we all just use USAA because everyone we know does. In the last 1-2 years people have been waking up. I myself switched to State Farm for insurance ($2000 cheaper on a homeowners quote!), Merrill Edge for investing (USAA commissions are $8.95 FFS!). They’re pretty good for banking still so I’ve kept that.
Had Home & Auto with SF 25 years (still have Home ( and keep a auto policy that I suspend most of year for Multi-line disc) that said Home w/USAA 2X higher but Auto save about $2K on 5 vehicles (with far better coverages .5M/1M/.5M liability and inexpensive GAP +20% on our finaced vehicle’s till we are ahead of depreciation curve on loans, no tickets, teenagers, and one at fault claim about 3 yrs ago). Switched last year, will give it a year to see if rate increase was due to a teaser rate or just general insurance hike.
Though about opening savings for extra 6% multi-line with USAA
What’s this savings multi line? What’s the minimum?
Merrill Edge? Noo, there’s so many good options…Schwab, Robinhood, M1 Finance…Merrill Edge is super limited and clunky.
I personally feel their basic checking account is pretty good. Easy to use compared to a lot of other banks (looking at you, HSBC), always free, and reimbursement for ATM fees, free checks, etc. Plus it seems they are always faster on getting payroll DD in – I’ve set up payroll with other banks and none of them beat USAA in speed. I also have two auto loans with USAA as they gave me the best rates (after their autopay discount of course). For credit cards and high interest savings, we all have better options elsewhere. I do miss the 2.5% cash back card..
A bit of hyperbole here Al. Obviously one should shop around, but the checking is good and my auto loan rate was lowest with them. Some people want all of their stuff with one company for ease of use; not everyone is scouring internet blogs to save money.
For our area they were the cheapest insurance by about 30%. Saving a ton now on Home + Auto + Umbrella.
Same for us. We get more coverage for less premiums.
I shop around.
They let me use USAA initiated inbound transfers and deposited checks immediately, no waiting until next business day (or 3)
Makes an excellent hub account.
Yeah, their 2.5% CB credit card is such trash. 🙄
Low useage = a disproportionate small number people used the crap out of the benefit
I thought card issuers were stopping Price Protection benefit due to high claim numbers with all those automated services doing a claim for us.
Yeah, they are just lying about the real reason. It’s the norm.
Maybe they meant to say “a low number of cardholders are making an extremely high number of claims due to automated services.”
Ha ha. That’s highly likely 😀 I was one of them when Discover and Chase lasted. Golden days.
“This is why we can’t have nice things”
I don’t think any of them admitted that. I think they’re being purposely misleading with the “low usage” line, referring to “a low percentage of cardholders” rather than “low amounts.”
There’s also the chance that they pay someone else for the service (like an insurance company), and that other party is asking for more than the issuer thinks is fair (maybe overreacting to higher usage or overestimating the risk from automated systems). That’d be “low usage in relation to our rate.”