USAA Now Opening Membership to Non-Miltary (w/exclusions)

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@y0rascal wrote:
purple do you have any family in the military? or are you in the military? is this open for regular civilians with no military ties? after you opened your account was it closed a few days later? due to not meeting the requirements?

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Applied as a "civilian."  When you call you are provided your customer number and must fund the account with $25. They ask if you want checking savings or both. You can provide transfer the funds electronically by providing checking account information or use a credit card.  If you dont have either available, you set up the account online and then set up to transfer funds.

Again, they are opening up membership with exclusions.  It is not a full membership. You will only have access to checking savings and credit card products. Insurance and loan products are not available to these conditional accounts at this time, but my thought is get in. You never know how/when things may change. Who would have thought they would open up to non-military?

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However, being added in some way to an existing policy, such as a named "additional" or "occassional" driver may make that person eligible.

For example, my little brother used to live with me for a short while to go to school.  He used one of my vehicles so added him to my insurance policy as an additional insured driver.  He now shows up in their system on his own as a previous insurance customer.  Same thing happened with my father when I had my vehicle located at his location when I was traveling in his area a lot.  I named him an additional driver because he did occassionally drive it.  It now appears he is also in their system as a previous insurance customer.

Just food for thought, no warranties whatsoever, express or implied

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@y0rascal wrote:
purple do you have any family in the military? or are you in the military? is this open for regular civilians with no military ties? after you opened your account was it closed a few days later? due to not meeting the requirements?

---

Applied as a "civilian."  When you call you are provided your customer number and must fund the account with $25. They ask if you want checking savings or both. You can provide transfer the funds electronically by providing checking account information or use a credit card.  If you dont have either available, you set up the account online and then set up to transfer funds.

Again, they are opening up membership with exclusions.  It is not a full membership. You will only have access to checking savings and credit card products. Insurance and loan products are not available to these conditional accounts at this time, but my thought is get in. You never know how/when things may change. Who would have thought they would open up to non-military?

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However, being added in some way to an existing policy, such as a named "additional" or "occassional" driver may make that person eligible.

For example, my little brother used to live with me for a short while to go to school.  He used one of my vehicles so added him to my insurance policy as an additional insured driver.  He now shows up in their system on his own as a previous insurance customer.  Same thing happened with my father when I had my vehicle located at his location when I was traveling in his area a lot.  I named him an additional driver because he did occassionally drive it.  It now appears he is also in their system as a previous insurance customer.

Just food for thought, no warranties whatsoever, express or implied

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Hi Txjohn - I wasnt trying to give any commentary on your prior suggestion. I was just answering the poster direct question to me. No harm ... No foul   Hope your additional angle works

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@y0rascal wrote:
purple do you have any family in the military? or are you in the military? is this open for regular civilians with no military ties? after you opened your account was it closed a few days later? due to not meeting the requirements?

---

Applied as a "civilian."  When you call you are provided your customer number and must fund the account with $25. They ask if you want checking savings or both. You can provide transfer the funds electronically by providing checking account information or use a credit card.  If you dont have either available, you set up the account online and then set up to transfer funds.

Again, they are opening up membership with exclusions.  It is not a full membership. You will only have access to checking savings and credit card products. Insurance and loan products are not available to these conditional accounts at this time, but my thought is get in. You never know how/when things may change. Who would have thought they would open up to non-military?

---

However, being added in some way to an existing policy, such as a named "additional" or "occassional" driver may make that person eligible.

For example, my little brother used to live with me for a short while to go to school.  He used one of my vehicles so added him to my insurance policy as an additional insured driver.  He now shows up in their system on his own as a previous insurance customer.  Same thing happened with my father when I had my vehicle located at his location when I was traveling in his area a lot.  I named him an additional driver because he did occassionally drive it.  It now appears he is also in their system as a previous insurance customer.

Just food for thought, no warranties whatsoever, express or implied

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Hi Txjohn - I wasnt trying to give any commentary on your prior suggestion. I was just answering the poster direct question to me. No harm ... No foul   Hope your additional angle works

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Purple - I understood that, I was giving you and the other poster some ideas on how to get qualified for insurance products or possibly full membership.  Just food for thought and FYI   in addition to what you had posted.

[Anonymous]

Personally I do not see the point of being a second class citizen member of USAA.

Without access to the insurance products, Deposit at Home, the same interests rates Prime members get, and the same banking privledges/considerations, they really become just a common,  somewhat conservative in lending bank.

You would probably be better served by a credit union.

I really do not see USAA expanding insurance products to the unwashed masses as that is what gives them their considerable profit margin.

Now if USAA opened up banking with same terms rates and considerations as the Prime members, that would be a different story.

[haulingthescoreup]

Well, enlisted personnel were formerly not eligible. Now they are.

I have no idea what plans USAA has for future expansion; none of us do. But they have of history of opening up membership and then backing off again.

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Well, enlisted personnel were formerly not eligible. Now they are.

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Correct as at the time of the membership change the US Military was under a huge draw down that lowered the base of officer only eligible members. They knew they could not grow without growing their membership pool. Their lending standards are still "Officer" friendly as most junior enlisted will not qualify for financing from them.

But the Military component gives them a sizable steady income of dependable lower then average risk customers.

I do not see them unfreezing the Insurance portion of membership, especially hopw they are structured. Insurance is big money though. Ownership of GEICO is what helped make Warren Buffet a star.

And right now they know that by pursuing banking business they can increase deposits on hands and revenue generated. They have probably pooled their current profitability to risk fund opening up banking business/profits to the unwashed.

Do not get me wrong, I have savings, checking, credit cards, IRA and three insurance products through them. I just think a 2 tier system for users is just not something I would believe in.

[haulingthescoreup]

Understood, and well-argued!

I have to selfishly admit, if they can get cash on hand via new banking customers, and thus not impose fees on my CC's, I can accept that.

[Anonymous]

I have USAA and love it.  It maybe worth it to perhaps open a small account, in case they do offer to non-military at some point.  I am previous non-retired military.  And just became able to open a account over the last year or so.  Before I had USAA for insurance I was paying AIG $170 a month for 2 cars, now I am paying $112 a month on 2 cars AND I have 20K in Renter's Insurance.  They suckered me into the renter's insurance but it's only like 20 bucks a month and I do live near the Coast in SC and we do get hurricane's, I figured it would be a good thing to have in case a tree falls through the house that I currently rent. I love USAA. They a good bit of money on my insurance

[wmarat]

Insurance aside, comparing USAA with Alliant or Penfed which one is better?

[haulingthescoreup]

Hmmm. I don't have Alliant, so I can't speak to them.

I guess I can't say that either USAA or Penfed is better than the other. They have different products, and I don't see how you can beat the gas card. Penfed gave me a better auto loan rate. But I've been with USAA so long, and I've just never had a problem with them. Their CS has always been great. They did raise my APR's, but they did so across the board with everyone, and they gave us 2 month's notice, and I'm still only at 10.99%.

Unless for argument's sake we had to pick one over the other, I'd say join both, if you can. And I'm still laughing at your description of how oddly your history matches PenFed. Don't know if USAA would credit your particular military experience, though!