I've been a USAA member for 50 years and before me, my father -- a military officer who served in…read moreWWII, Korea and Vietnam -- was among its first customers. It's clearly apparent, from recent experience, as well as these reviews, that the company has not only gone corporate, but has also jumped the shark.
My one and only homeowner's claim was after Hurricane Milton in 2024 and I wound up paying $30,000 out of pocket, after USAA depreciated my damaged carport, then applied the $10,000 hurricane deductible.
They rushed my claim through to avoid any additional damages I might have discovered. In fact, they wanted a total damage estimate in a week, including bids from potential contractors. I got that extended to a few weeks, but later found that I had missed some of the damages to my home. Filing a new claim on those would have triggered another deductible, so why bother?
To add insult to injury, I pleaded with them for years to lower the liability-only coverage on my 20-year-old truck, to which they said it just couldn't be done. Imagine my surprise when a rival insurance company got me the same policy for $200 A MONTH LESS than I was paying! My yearly premium with USAA for a 20-year-old truck was only $1,000 less, annually, than my HOMEOWNERS COVERAGE. (No tickets, no accidents, minimum coverage.)
To make matters worse, you no longer can get a human on the phone in less than 30 minutes of voice mail hell. I guess the company is spending all our hard-earned money on those folksy ads that stand on their former sterling reputation.
My most recent encounter, to make a long story short, involved a neighbor with a huge, dangerous tree that should have been taken down four years ago, when it shed giant limbs on my fence and property. I was told then to document the incident with Code Enforcement, USAA and on paper, so if the tree created future havoc the neighbors would be responsible for the damages. It came down and took out my entire fence and USAA now tells me, I will have to pay out-of-pocket to replace it. If I'm lucky, but probably not, they say they might be able to get the money returned via subrogation. As a senior citizen, I'm not wasting my energy on that project.
I'm also not sure the competitors are all that great either, but they aren't as money-grubbing as USAA has become. Sadly, I will be departing the company ASAP.