topic Re: USAA is raising the standards. in Credit Cards

USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:48:52 GMT

My GF just applied for the USAA Amex. She has been w/ USAA the past 5 years, has the MC w/ a 16K CL, and has a EQ FICO of 725...she was declined. I was shocked for her. A few months ago her brother got the same card with scores in the mid 600s...times are changing...or at least temporarily.

That discussion topic that the 720 is new 680 is definitely seeming to be true...

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:19:28 GMT

How exactly do you get the amex? When I click on banking>credit cards, all I can see are the 3 MCs. I can get to the application if I search for it, but I have never applied because I figure I might be denied since it's not being shown to me.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

GST2008 — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:21:26 GMT

I don't know what her credit history is with her USAA credit card, but I'm just wondering if maybe they didn't approve b/c the card wasn't aged enough, the balance on it was too high, or they've decided that 16k is the maximum amount of credit they are willing to extend based on her income and other financial resources. Great credit score or not, they may feel that at the moment, they've given her all the credit they feel is safe. Her brother may have gotten the AMEX b/c they feel he didn't already have a card with them or they hadn't extended him as much credit as they felt he could handle.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:25:26 GMT

Great points GST. Thanks.

I also want to that the CSR did tell her that credit has been getting harder to get from USAA...in fact, they took off the LUV button on the website due to a new more stricter CL directive.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:26:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
How exactly do you get the amex? When I click on banking>credit cards, all I can see are the 3 MCs. I can get to the application if I search for it, but I have never applied because I figure I might be denied since it's not being shown to me.

You can just call and apply. I e-mailed CR last week and they said their doing some system mods re: credit cards and such, but if I was interested I was eligible and could go apply via phone...

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

haulingthescoreup — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:34:49 GMT

@pjriverap wrote:

My GF just applied for the USAA Amex. She has been w/ USAA the past 5 years, has the MC w/ a 16K CL, and has a EQ FICO of 725...she was declined. I was shocked for her. A few months ago her brother got the same card with scores in the mid 600s...times are changing...or at least temporarily.

That discussion topic that the 720 is new 680 is definitely seeming to be true...

I guess USAA sends a decline letter like everyone else? (I suppose they're required to.) Please post back when she gets it --I'd be very curious. I was thinking that they would just offer DD#2 the AmEx when her MC went over 1 year, as they did for her sister, but obviously times have changed.

@Anonymous wrote:

How exactly do you get the amex? When I click on banking>credit cards, all I can see are the 3 MCs. I can get to the application if I search for it, but I have never applied because I figure I might be denied since it's not being shown to me.

I used to see it on the home page every time I logged in, one of the three things they rotate through at the top. It went away a week or so ago. I wonder if they got overwhelmed with apps for it, or something? And it was appearing before I logged in, so it wasn't targeted or anything. (I already have one.) Interesting!

note: what's really strange is that I just clicked on banking > cards, and all it shows is the USAA AmEx and USAA Plat MC, both of which I have. I get the same screen whether I'm logged in or not. But you see three MC's? I'm all confused!

edit to add: OK, just saw pj's response about the site updates. But three MC's, still baffled!

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 03-29-2008 08:34 PM

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:37:42 GMT

When I go to the credit card page, I see applications for the
USAA Cash RewardsSM Platinum MasterCard® for College Students (in BIG text)

and in normal font below it:
USAA Cash RewardsSM Platinum MasterCard
USAA Total RewardsSM Platinum MasterCard (which I already have)

huh.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

haulingthescoreup — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:41:29 GMT

Oh, gotcha, so they tweak it by age or something. That's interesting that it's so tailored! That makes sense; DD#2 and I were trying to figure out why her MC was cash back only; no option for points. Whereas on mine, I can go with either.

(For others reading, this is not an offers page like you see on American Express. It's just a here's-what-we've-got page. As I said, I saw the same two cards when I logged out and just looked them up.)

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:41:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
When I go to the credit card page, I see applications for the
USAA Cash RewardsSM Platinum MasterCard® for College Students (in BIG text)

and in normal font below it:
USAA Cash RewardsSM Platinum MasterCard
USAA Total RewardsSM Platinum MasterCard (which I already have)

huh.

I see the same thing.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:46:23 GMT

The strange thing is that if I go into the search box and type "american express" I see the american express page with the options for either the cash back or rewards card... but I would never be able to get to it unless I explicitly searched for it.

I guess the student card comes up just based on my age in my account profile. I didn't apply for it because it's only a cash back, which doesn't seem as good as the points. However, I did get the same APR (student card is advertised at 9.9, where the others say "as low as 7.75" )

Edit: I also gave them "student" as my occupation when opening my brokerage account, so maybe they pulled it from there.

Message Edited by akhan on 03-29-2008 08:46 PM

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:48:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The strange thing is that if I go into the search box and type "american express" I see the american express page with the options for either the cash back or rewards card... but I would never be able to get to it unless I explicitly searched for it.

I guess the student card comes up just based on my age in my account profile. I didn't apply for it because it's only a cash back, which doesn't seem as good as the points. However, I did get the same APR (student card is advertised at 9.9, where the others say "as low as 7.75" )

Edit: I also gave them "student" as my occupation when opening my brokerage account, so maybe they pulled it from there.

Message Edited by akhan on 03-29-2008 08:46 PM

My occupation is student still too...

I'm a full time professional and executive mba student. i don't want to lose the student status due to insurance discounts...but i wonder if does hurt re: credit card offers?

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:00:46 GMT

I just looked in my profile and it's listed as "None on file" so I'm guessing it's probably age (since I had the student card offer before I opened my brokerage account)

I would assume that as long as you are getting good terms and credit lines, they are basing credit offers on your app, credit score, and history with them, so you should be ok.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:26:56 GMT

I'm glad to hear USAA is tightening their standards. In general, things got out of hand in the recent era of loose money and I'm glad to see some sense returning to the system.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

rubaty — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:58:08 GMT

Sorry for the TJ, but I just logged into USAA and saw that the APR on both of my CCs are now 7.75%!.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:00:16 GMT

@rubaty wrote:
Sorry for the TJ, but I just logged into USAA and saw that the APR on both of my CCs are now 7.75%!.

that is awesome...congrats!! ::slight jealous smile::

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:01:38 GMT

Rubaty - if you don't mind me asking: How long have you been w/ USAA? How long have you had the cards? What's your score range? And what are your CLs and typical utilization on each card? Thanks and again, congrats!

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

rubaty — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:09:27 GMT

pjriverap wrote:
Rubaty - if you don't mind me asking: How long have you been w/ USAA? How long have you had the cards? What's your score range? And what are your CLs and typical utilization on each card? Thanks and again, congrats!

I have had insurance with them since 2001 but I just got my cards in Dec 07. I think all of my scores at the time were around 730 - 750. My CL on each CC is $20K. Yesterday was the first time I used the AMEX and that was to buy some furniture ($1.7K) and I don't have anything on the MC. This purchase put's my total UTL on all my CCs @ 12%. I think that I got such high CLs because I live overseas and I counted my COLA and OHA.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:14:59 GMT

I was just at the USAA website the other day and the only cc offers I saw from them was the MC and Amex. This is the card I'm going to apply for next year after my inquiries from this year have fallen off and all my rotating debt is paid off (which should be by August).

My mom loves USAA. She has the her auto insurance and cc with them. She swears by them, and it's the only cc she uses nowadays.

Message Edited by Lyyssa on 03-30-2008 12:14 PM

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:24:50 GMT

pjriverap - What APR did you get on the card? I was a little disappointed with the 9.9%.

Re: USAA is raising the standards.

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:29:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
pjriverap - What APR did you get on the card? I was a little disappointed with the 9.9%.

I also got 9.9 % APR. I wonder if the lack of use and strong scores helped Rubaty get the APR reductions so shortly after getting the cards...hmmm...thanks for sharing Rubaty!