USAA Credit Limits - Full Member vs. Non Full Member

[LTomBerry]

Full member here. Approved in Nov. 2009. Applied for World MC, got a Platinum MC $3000 CL. Score was ~690. Called in for a CLI 6 months later, got bumped up to $11,000CL, upgraded to World MC, ~710 score. Called in a year later, got another CLI to $14,000 with 750, this time a hard pull. Haven't used it a great deal lately since I have better cards now and the USAA card has craptastic cashback tiers.

One good thing though is the deal for deployed military - they adjust the APR to 4% for purchases AND cash advances. I almost always PIF but I was in a jam a few months ago when the Air Force screwed up my paycheck and I was able to transfer $800 into my USAA checking from the website and paid it off in a few weeks, the 4% APR resulted in only about 2 bucks of interest.

[Anonymous]

My husband was in the Air Force so, he used all the information USAA required from his military records to become a FULL member back in September of last year.  Even though we have insurance with them -- when we were brand new customers with them they were NOT very nice to us.  I could NOT understand why everyone sang their praises because they held every deposit we put in our checking account with them for 10 full days before the money became available in our account.  They did that for the first 6 months.  We applied for a secured American Express card through them also back in September and their processing of that took forever. Also, when we made payments on that account, they took forever to post  Our insurance payments were treated the very same way.

Everyone kept talking about how wonderful they were to their FULL members, etc., and my husband and I were NOT impressed. 

Finally, around March or April, after we'd been customers with them for 6 months, they started posting our deposits right away as well as our payments to the American Express card and our insurance too.  We noticed a distinct difference after that 6-month mark. 

On June 1st, my husband applied for an unsecured Mastercard with them and, they instantly approved him for their World Cash Rewards Mastercard with a $5,000 limit.  We recently had a problem with a product my husband bought using the Mastercard that was dead on arrival, so, he called USAA and they handled the return and took care of everything.  The product was returned and a credit was issued the very next day. 

My husband's credit reports with Equifax, Experian and Transunion are spotlessly clean with excellent history -- all except for a REPO which was completely paid off at auction 3-1/2 years ago. We were so worried that the REPO would hold us back but, it hasn't.  It MAY have been what made USAA leary of us for the first 6 months but, now, thank God -- everything is GREAT! 

[CS800]

I dont think it makes a difference on the CL is you're a full member or not.

Limited member dont have access to certain products that's all it is

Full member: USAA AMEX Cash Rewards $10K

[FicoTron]

Yeah, I mean, they obviously extend some of the highest limits I have seen anywhere. The only other that grows that fast is maybe Amex itself with 6 month cli requests.

[Anonymous]

I went car shopping after I cleaned up my credit thanks to these helpful forums. I was approved at the dealership with about 6 HP. Already had about 5 equifax inquiries. So decided to test my credit immediately... Ivan Smith furniture-3000cl...Wells fargo-declined..citi diamond-declined...after about 3 more decline because of inquiries I decided to try USSA-10000 cl. Great!!! I only have a 500cl cap1.and sears MasterCard for 1250, and 400cl hsbc. So then j kept pushing for more cards...more declines because of IQ and high balance crap and too many recent accounts. So then I decided to go back too ussa and tried the American express on and boom 4000 cl. I do have insurance,checking, and savings. 1st score was 701 and the 2nd was 671.

[p-]

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@FicoTron wrote:
Yeah, I mean, they obviously extend some of the highest limits I have seen anywhere. The only other that grows that fast is maybe Amex itself with 6 month cli requests.

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USAA has been my highest CL card since I got it, and remains 20% higher than my next lowest.  Very happy with it.

[Jake0215]

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@p- wrote:

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@FicoTron wrote:
Yeah, I mean, they obviously extend some of the highest limits I have seen anywhere. The only other that grows that fast is maybe Amex itself with 6 month cli requests.

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USAA has been my highest CL card since I got it, and remains 20% higher than my next lowest.  Very happy with it.

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So, even as a limited member i can apply for one of their credit products? they are an EQ puller and give some of the highest starting CL around?

[CS800]

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@Jake0215 wrote:

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@p- wrote:

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@FicoTron wrote:
Yeah, I mean, they obviously extend some of the highest limits I have seen anywhere. The only other that grows that fast is maybe Amex itself with 6 month cli requests.

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USAA has been my highest CL card since I got it, and remains 20% higher than my next lowest.  Very happy with it.

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So, even as a limited member i can apply for one of their credit products? they are an EQ puller and give some of the highest starting CL around?

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I did read on here and someone else can correct me that for example their AMEX is not available to limited members. So i think some of their Credit products might now be availabel also. I would call them and ask

[jsickz32]

so whats the easiest way to become a full member? is it possible to become one even if i already signed up as a non-full member?

[Revelate]

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@jsickz32 wrote:

so whats the easiest way to become a full member? is it possible to become one even if i already signed up as a non-full member?

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I think the traditional way is typically for a parent to put a kid on their auto insurance; however, as a adult, I suspect you may have to go through some different elgibility criteria / hoops to join.

Yes AFAIK, secured cards and some of their top-end rewards cards are not available to partial memberse.  I don't know about CL's, that's such a YMMV situation anyway to really pull out relevant statistics.