USAA Banking and Insurance Review

I first got a USAA checking and savings account because my husband was active-duty military. They are pretty much a totally online company (unless you live in San Antonio, TX). But that meant I wouldn't always have to close accounts at one duty station and move around my money everytime we PCS'd (move from one duty station to another). You must always use another bank's ATM's which for the most part charge you a fee. USAA reimburses you for all ATM fees incurred. You get a rebate for using your check card for non PIN based transactions.

It's good if you get direct deposit. They give you free postage paid envelopes to send in paper checks should you need to deposit them. They say the funds are posted to your account the day they receive the check, not when it clears. I have only sent them 2 paper checks. They both took almost two weeks to show up in my account. Even though USAA is strong and hasn't had any organizational problems, I don't put all my eggs in one financial basket. So I use my local bank for paper checks. USAA has a service called Deposit @ Home, where you can scan your checks and have them immediately deposited into your account. You do need to have some kind of banking account with them, insurance through them AND a credit card with them to qualify for the Deposit @ Home service. You also need a document scanner of some quality. The website also says you need electricity (really). So, make sure your house has electricity before you purchase the scanner. Outlets in the wall are the giveaway. =)

They also offer free basic checks. There is no limit so if you need to have your new address on your checks right away you always get them free no matter how many times a year it is.

Their online banking site is excellent and has two levels of password protection. Paying bills is easy with free BillPay. Transactions show up immediately in the summary. If I need to get funds from my brick-and-mortar bank into my USAA account, it's way easy. I can request a debit card cash advance into my account. Since it's a PIN based transaction it shows up as a purchase, not a cash advance. I have never incurred fees from my local banks for making such a transaction.

If your bank puts a limit on the amount of money you can transact for a PIN-based purchase (my bank is $300, then you have to use the credit option), then you can add your other bank account to USAA. What you do is fill out the online form stating ownership of the account and the account and routing numbers, etc. USAA makes two very small deposits into that account. Come back to the USAA website and enter the amounts that were deposited to your other account. This will verify to USAA that you are, in fact, owner of that account. Now you can transfer any amount of money between accounts because the transaction shows as an electronic check, and not a PIN-based purchase. Be careful! Since it is an electronic check, you will be charged insufficient fund fees should you not have enough money in your other account to cover the electronic check.

I had a transaction with my debit card where the company used the old-fashioned swipe the card onto the carbon form method. The charge was for $36. I was actually charged $136. It caused two items to incur NSF fees. These items would have cleared if I had been charged the correct amount. I tried in vain to get the restaurant to fix the charge. I disputed it with USAA and two days later I was refunded not only the $100, but the NSF fees too.

USAA also has my auto and renter insurance. I have never had problems with customer service and you hardly wait on the phone. Everyone's friendly and helpful and the rates are extremely good. When we went from smaller car to SUV, I had a little problem judging and as such backed into 3 parked cars within a month. My premiums were raised, but it was a minimal amount and after 6 months of no claims my premium automatically was reduced. Their products are restricted to certain people though. We were in the Armed Forces, so we qualify. There are other ways to qualify, but you'd have to check the site to see the requirements. UPDATE - USAA has now opened its banking and insurance services to all veterans who have served honorably!