USAA has an advertised feature on their credit cards for deployed servicemembers. They'll lower your APR to 4%, rebate all finance charges during a military campaign, and waive the foreign transaction fee, all for 12 months. I am in a career field in the Air Force that deploys frequently for a few months at a time.
When I deployed in August 2010, I called them about something else, CLI I think. I mentioned I was deploying and he transferred me to a guy who said he'd adjust my account right then & there. He did so without requiring any documentation.
I deployed again May 2011, and called them to get the deal renewed. They said to email orders to them. I did. I got a message shortly after saying it was adjusted. However I think they were looking at the deal from the previous one because they never updated it so it expired at the end of July.
I deployed again in October, sent in another copy of orders, and got a message that it was being reviewed and to wait 1-2 billing cycles. Nothing. That deployment got cut short (Libya was over) and I came home in Nov.
About 2 weeks later I deployed again to OEF and sent in yet another copy of orders. I got the same message, being reviewed, please wait 1-2 billing cycles.
This is getting really old. I will not be using this card on the road because of the foreign transaction fee. I tried writing a review on their website a week ago to see if that would light a fire under them but the mods apparently won't post it.
If this is how they treat deployed servicemembers I shudder to think how they treat everyone else.
Starting Score: 690
LT,
I would escalate with a supervisor at the department that handles deployment. they are called the Deployment Response Team. I have dealt with them in the past for deployments and they have been great. I can pm you their number if you wish. Generally I would fax my orders to them and they would take care of everything. In your case, there is something that's blocking or being held in the system. Their system tend to bug up if you send them more than 3 orders per year (happened to me).
I would have the admin fax the orders to them. At one point, I had the Wing CO (O-6) send a fax to them to speed up things (it worked). I think they are just caught up in too many things and that's slowing down their response time.
Update: I just called them. Something I did must have got their attention, they said the benefits will kick in on January 8th, in response to the 3rd set of orders I sent in. Good enough. No explanation why the first two were lost. The only FTF I have had so far was for 9 cents so I'll let it slide for now.
