<p>I am obviously bucking the agreement on this thread that USAA is great. I disagree. I USED to think they were great. I have flown with several people who have similar stories, so I really think something has changed recently. One guy told me that he thought they used to be completely accommodating because they were very profitable when they only insured military officers. Very few claims in that group. Then they opened it up to enlisted, and the general population, where it is definitely a larger cross section of people.</p>
<p>So we had USAA for about 16 years, and very rarely made a claim. We generally only called them for their windshield service, where they will fill a dent in it for free, and a couple other minor claims. We knew we were probably paying more than to most companies, but because we trusted USAA, we were fine with it. Then we moved to another state, from Tennessee to Washington. Our auto insurance went way up. When I called them and asked why, because trust me, people are better drivers in Washington and I’m sure there are less accidents…they told me that we had eight claims, and so when we move, the rates go up. WHAT? Eight claims?? Turns out they counted as a claim a couple of times where we had called to ask questions to decide whether to file, one time where they didn’t pay out because the deductible was too high, a number of windshield nick incidents, and the one claim where they paid us a bit because a tornado took out my husband’s shed. After all these years of being with them, never getting any money from them…I was upset. So we changed insurance companies. Stayed with the other companies for a year or so, forgot about how annoyed we were, and went back to USAA because they offered a lower rate and we were still attached to them after so many years. I have heard they often offer you a much better deal to come back.</p>
<p>So…the story continues, we moved to another house a few miles away. After four years at this house, USAA sent us a letter saying they were reevaluating what it would cost to rebuild our house, and sending out an appraiser. He came out, and the next thing you know, they decided our house would cost $700K more to rebuild it than when we bought it four years ago. WHAT? This house is a large box, with a basement, non-custom, 23 years old. They had decided to cost to rebuild it was about $380 per square foot, including 1,000 sq ft of basement space at the same $380sf rate. As if it was the most custom, ornate house you’d seen. NOTHING has been remodeled in this house. The land value far exceeds the value of the home, but you can’t charge rebuilding costs for an expensive lot!</p>
<p>So I called them, and they assigned me to talk to this one annoying, perky young woman in Texas, who just insisted that building rates in my area had gone way, way up in the last four years (they haven’t, I talked to contractors that I know, labor costs are down, materials up slightly). And I could not get satisfaction from anyone I talked to. They sent out another appraiser, who had a similar appraisal. This raised our homeowners insurance to about $3800/yr. I cancelled them and got it insured through Armed Forces Insurance, for $1344/yr, no over insuring, but plenty to cover the rebuilding. They are straight forward, no BS, no garbage. I’ve talked to a number of people who said that USAA has “re-evaluated the costs of rebuilding” and jacked up their insurance rates inappropriately.</p>
<p>Another thing, we were so disgusted, we started looking into auto insurance. Found GEICO quoted us about $1800/yr lower insurance rates. No BSing like the other companies, no bait and switch, no scam. We’ve already filed two times with them, which is more than we did with USAA in decades. They do a great job and I actually don’t think they raised our rates for that. When I called USAA and asked if they could match GEICO, I got an honest agent that said they could not match GEICO, and they were their main competition. The reason was, GEICO does not give you higher rates for young drivers! I have an 18 and 21 year old, and USAA raised our rates a lot for them (boys). He said they thought rates should be higher for young drivers because they are in more accidents, but GEICO does not penalize for that.</p>
<p>So what I’m trying to say is, before you commit to USAA, please check out GEICO and Armed Forces (if you’re eligible). People may not be having problems with USAA if they aren’t ever moving, or filing claims, or haven’t had any changes recently. Or maybe they ought to be checking their current USAA rates and comparing them to the others…you get really comfortable, and it took a lot to get us loyalists to move on. But now we’re saving a ton of money, and it was great getting that $3800 USAA had to send to us from our subscriber’s savings account.</p>
<p>I don’t know if these things USAA has been doing to anger people have only hit certain groups, or if there is something that triggers it. There are obviously many happy people here. But I know I’m paying so much less that I did with USAA. Though I love the 1.9%/0 fee credit card offers they keep sending me.</p>