USAA premiums

[Carrie Ellis]

USAA-we are federal employees and my husband is active reserves. I switched about 10 years ago from Geico because our HO would be $800 less. They sent a inspector out after we switched to go over our house and we were no longer $800 less but $600 less. Still as savings but it was a little annoying. My son totaled his car 2 years ago and it was seamless replacing it. My daughter hit one of our fence poles leaving at 5am and did expensive damage to her Leaf. We claimed it but it REALLY drove up the premiums. That makes me mad because every kiddo is going to do at least one thing and hers ended up costing us more than the car was worth. We did just have our roof replaced and that was super great. It went really well.
BUT the prices are a lot higher now. I would like to do some comparisons soon.
Each year I have had to go over hour HO policy because it goes up. they will raise the cost to replace and the value of your home with out telling you. You must call and talk to them.
I am not loyal. I just want good service at a fair price.

 

[jsmith]

We are insured with the base company-and have been with them for 37 years. Too reroofs on our house in 18 months due to hail and a car totaled for the same-service seamless and efficient-yes rates are higher but we had two destructive forest fires that hit them hard in 2013 and 2015, a major hail event in 2016 and two in 2018 so none of that is a surprise and some of that is getting passed on to the rest of you-but that's also the case with other companies.

 

[ICan'tWait]

I have two teen drivers and couldn't touch USAA's prices with the other companies I called for quotes.

 

[Best Aunt]

I have heard that Phishing emails are going out which appear to come from USAA. They say there is a problem with your online account. Don't fall for it. Delete the email. If you think there might be a real problem, call USAA directly at the number on your bill.

 

[ClapYourHands]

We have our car insurance through USAA, but State Farm has better rates for home insurance when we bought our house (14 years ago).

We recently had a mistake with car insurance that could have been really costly. I was rear-ended while driving DH’s car. During the claims process, we discovered that DH’s car was actually not insured!

DH bought the same color, make, and model of his previous car, but 7 years newer. Somehow, the insurance reverted to his previous car. Not sure how that happened because he financed it, and could not have driven off the lot without insurance. USAA supposedly conducted an audit to see where the problem was, but we only got a form letter saying no, we were not insured.

Fortunately, it was pretty cut and dried the other driver was at fault, so her insurance covered the damage, but it’s scary to think we’d been driving around uninsured for three years, and no one can tell us what happened.

 

[Suzabella]

Our son was hit when an uninsured driver changed lanes into him on acceleration at a stop light 2 years ago. USAA totaled his car out and told us the value of his car. We proceeded through the process of signing the car over and getting his things out of it before starting to search for a car. On a phone call from the adjuster, we realize they'd given us the wrong amount. The adjuster who saw the car wrote down the wrong model year. We know what we paid for the used car less than a year before and it seemed like it was accurate. Well...it wasn't. It was $5K less and by the time we paid the car off, he walked away with $2500....not enough to buy a new used car and keep his payment the same. Other driver lied about coverage to the police and USAA sued but we never even got our deductible back. Fast forward a couple years where I was looking at our bill and realized that a policy we'd cancelled a year before had suddenly appeared back on our statement and had been there for 3 months. When you pay quarterly, you don't make a habit of going in your account to make sure they didn't screw up. After an internal audit, they removed it from out account and we didn't owe. Another time, we had to call three times to get them to send us updated insurance cards for our cars. They kept sending the wrong year.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We have our car insurance through USAA, but State Farm has better rates for home insurance when we bought our house (14 years ago).

We recently had a mistake with car insurance that could have been really costly. I was rear-ended while driving DH’s car. During the claims process, we discovered that DH’s car was actually not insured!

DH bought the same color, make, and model of his previous car, but 7 years newer. Somehow, the insurance reverted to his previous car. Not sure how that happened because he financed it, and could not have driven off the lot without insurance. USAA supposedly conducted an audit to see where the problem was, but we only got a form letter saying no, we were not insured.

Fortunately, it was pretty cut and dried the other driver was at fault, so her insurance covered the damage, but it’s scary to think we’d been driving around uninsured for three years, and no one can tell us what happened.

Had you been paying for a policy on the car? That seems a little fishy if you had insurance cards and had been paying a premium.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Had you been paying for a policy on the car? That seems a little fishy if you had insurance cards and had been paying a premium.

Yes, we'd been paying the premium for his car and mine, but didn't notice the year was wrong on the insurance card for his car. It is the exact same everything else, and the license plate was transferred over, too, so we didn't catch it. Now DH knows there was insurance on this car when he left the dealership because the dealers were not going to let him drive away without confirming new insurance with the company. At some point it seems the policy reverted to his prior car, but we don't know when or how. I'm just glad we found out when another driver was clearly at fault rather than when we would have been on the hook for damages (or worse, injuries).

 

[DisneyHardin]

Yes, we'd been paying the premium for his car and mine, but didn't notice the year was wrong on the insurance card for his car. It is the exact same everything else, and the license plate was transferred over, too, so we didn't catch it. Now DH knows there was insurance on this car when he left the dealership because the dealers were not going to let him drive away without confirming new insurance with the company. At some point it seems the policy reverted to his prior car, but we don't know when or how. I'm just glad we found out when another driver was clearly at fault rather than when we would have been on the hook for damages (or worse, injuries).

Did USAA refund you all the premiums you had been paying?

 

[ClapYourHands]

Did USAA refund you all the premiums you had been paying?

Nope. I mean, they had been insuring a car. It just happened to be a car we no longer own.

 

[Artygal90]

I'm a second-generation member and have always gotten great service when we've filed claims (and sadly we have filed 7 in the past three years). Now that we are about to buy our first home I wanted to get a quote on homeowner's insurance through them, but when I start a quote the website tells me that they are not writing policies in my area at all due to "increased exposure to coastal storm-related damages." Weirdly, I didn't get this message when we were under contract on a house in June in the same neighborhood.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it just because of TS Barry or hurricane season in general? I'm pretty bummed as I don't want to switch auto insurance and I would have liked the bundling discount. I'm in central Houston by the way. No tropical storms over here!

 

[DisneyHardin]

Nope. I mean, they had been insuring a car. It just happened to be a car we no longer own.

It was their mistake, right? They made a mistake and you had to pay hundreds of dollars in premiums because of it? I would not have just let that go.

 

[LuvOrlando]

USAA-we are federal employees and my husband is active reserves. I switched about 10 years ago from Geico because our HO would be $800 less. They sent a inspector out after we switched to go over our house and we were no longer $800 less but $600 less. Still as savings but it was a little annoying. My son totaled his car 2 years ago and it was seamless replacing it. My daughter hit one of our fence poles leaving at 5am and did expensive damage to her Leaf. We claimed it but it REALLY drove up the premiums. That makes me mad because every kiddo is going to do at least one thing and hers ended up costing us more than the car was worth. We did just have our roof replaced and that was super great. It went really well.
BUT the prices are a lot higher now. I would like to do some comparisons soon.
Each year I have had to go over hour HO policy because it goes up. they will raise the cost to replace and the value of your home with out telling you. You must call and talk to them.
I am not loyal. I just want good service at a fair price.

Thanks for responding, smart of you to switch things up - I feel like I could use a reset too

 

[LuvOrlando]

I'm a second-generation member and have always gotten great service when we've filed claims (and sadly we have filed 7 in the past three years). Now that we are about to buy our first home I wanted to get a quote on homeowner's insurance through them, but when I start a quote the website tells me that they are not writing policies in my area at all due to "increased exposure to coastal storm-related damages." Weirdly, I didn't get this message when we were under contract on a house in June in the same neighborhood.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it just because of TS Barry or hurricane season in general? I'm pretty bummed as I don't want to switch auto insurance and I would have liked the bundling discount. I'm in central Houston by the way. No tropical storms over here!

Never would have thought they would skip areas. Always thought they were all about military families, this doesn’t really fit- feeling disappointed.

 

[LuvOrlando]

So I just got a bill for my college sons rental
that was renewed for this year even though I am 100% sure I canceled last year. So I paid a year when no one was at the place. I had to go get paperwork that backed me up to get the hundreds back but I shouldn’t have to, things really feel upside down with this company right now.

 

[seasheller]

So about 2 months I go I got a water leak where water was literally dripping on my husband. Terrible storm and I called USAA be a little nervous and I sent some guy from completely different state to do the appraisal he seemed like he was wasted and said he didn’t see anything, really weird about the whole thing they sent me $1000 and punched out. Very weird but it didn’t exactly get my attention because I figured maybe it was just a fluke and if there’s really nothing wrong with the house who cares ... I still didn’t cash the check because I don’t really trust her but wasn’t going to make a thing.

So my kid is at college, we got her a renter policy. She slipped and broke her laptop and iPhone. Usaa made us jump through hoops to get appointments and appraisals then rejected the phone part of the claim saying they don’t do phones- news to me.

I called asking for ALL my policies to review for coverages I may misunderstand and the woman kept me on the phone for over 2 and a half hours to print, would t answer questions until she said she was done- I got the impression she was stalling or hoping I’d back off. I got it all today, it looked intimidating and realized she sent me 5 copies of most of the documents... not exaggerating. Patiently looking I realize my umbrella is now over 4 times more than it was in the beginning. Thinking I may switch because this is just too weird I starting reading all coverages and it seems like they did excessive changes.

Has anyone else switched cars, house, rental and umbrella and been happy? I’ve been a member my whole life and it never occurred to me to change until now, I feel my trust was misplaced- not the company it used to be

We switched our vehicles, house, and umbrella insurance to USAA two years ago. We have now switched back to State Farm.

 

[starry_solo]

It was their mistake, right? They made a mistake and you had to pay hundreds of dollars in premiums because of it? I would not have just let that go.

I agree. They were insuring someone else's car on your dime. So they either need to pay up on the claim or they need to refund you the premiums. They can't keep your premiums and deny your claim on the grounds that they were insuring another vehicle that wasn't yours.

 

[SFlaDisneyfans]

We have been with USAA for a long time (decades). In the times we have needed something (accident, claim, insurance swap etc) I have never experienced what I would consider bad customer service. Your mileage may vary. I moved all my banking over to them 5 or 6 years ago.

I guess the thing I would be wary of if anyone is considering switching is that do you really think some other insurance company is going to give you better customer service (on average). Lets face it, insurance companies arent known for good customer service and its one of the things that makes USAA stand out. I might pay a little more for my auto policies, but the service I get outweighs the small savings I might get and then have to argue/fight over a claim going to someone else.

 

[tink1970]

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it just because of TS Barry or hurricane season in general? I'm pretty bummed as I don't want to switch auto insurance and I would have liked the bundling discount. I'm in central Houston by the way. No tropical storms over here!

When I got out of the military in 2005 and bought a new house in 2007 (same area) USAA refused to insure my home since they only issued "new homeowners policies to USAA members on new orders." I was quite upset (at the time had been a USAA member for 21 years). They absolutely didn't care and so I haven't had homeowner's insurance through them for 12 years. We do sadly live in a tropical storm region but I think with expanding their services they've ironically restricted what they will insure--I suppose they have to make money to please their stockholders. If their auto insurance wasn't competitive, I would have dropped them years ago.

 

[LuvOrlando]

We have been with USAA for a long time (decades). In the times we have needed something (accident, claim, insurance swap etc) I have never experienced what I would consider bad customer service. Your mileage may vary. I moved all my banking over to them 5 or 6 years ago.

I guess the thing I would be wary of if anyone is considering switching is that do you really think some other insurance company is going to give you better customer service (on average). Lets face it, insurance companies arent known for good customer service and its one of the things that makes USAA stand out. I might pay a little more for my auto policies, but the service I get outweighs the small savings I might get and then have to argue/fight over a claim going to someone else.

That was always how I felt and why I stuck with USAA even though pretty much everyone I ever talk to said the rates are so much higher. But, the past three experiences have been fishy. One was have a handled my home, the second is how they handled my daughters renters claim and the third is how they let my sons policy linger and didn’t cancel it when we told them to do so.

I never had another insurance policy it’s what my parents put me on when I was a kid and I just rolled into my own when I grew-up and I just kind of passed my kids into the same environment. I always felt a sense of security with the company but I kind of feel like maybe it’s USAA in name only now. They do still have some of the same people answering the phone but sometimes it’s not. I don’t think it’s USAA people handling my daughters renter policy because I get on the phone with them in a three-way conversation and the behavior is completely different. It’s like they are franchising out the brand & it’s noticible