I have been a member of USAA forever, but have never qualified for ANY of their products.... until now! 
Last week, I applied at a few places to refinance my auto loan (currently with Logix). I was approved at a few places, so, just for giggles, I applied with USAA-- and they approved me!
My question is: now that I'm in with them (finally) with a loan (and once I let that age a bit)-- will they be more likely to approve me for one of their credit cards? Thus far, anytime I've applied for one, I get "Heck no! But you can have a secured card!"
USAA has been very good to me recently! I've been a member since 2011 (or 2010, can't remember) and initially I was only able to get a $1,000 cc from them. At the time my scores were pretty low and I had a few collection accounts on my reports. My reports are finally clean so I thought I would try for some other products with them. First I app'd for a $10,000 personal loan and was instantly approved. I used part of the loan money and paid down my cc's to less than 10% utility. Once those payments posted I applied for the USAA Rate Advantage MC and was instantly approved for $16,000 at 7.9%. 
A few mins later I tried for the USAA AMEX and was instantly approved for another $16,000 at 12.9%. All of this has taken place since 8/13/14! I know their rewards are not as good as some other companies but they have given me by far the best limits I have ever received. My next highest is a AMEX BCE at $8,000. If your scores have improved and your reports are clean I say go for it!
@rdubb wrote:USAA has been very good to me recently! I've been a member since 2011 (or 2010, can't remember) and initially I was only able to get a $1,000 cc from them. At the time my scores were pretty low and I had a few collection accounts on my reports. My reports are finally clean so I thought I would try for some other products with them. First I app'd for a $10,000 personal loan and was instantly approved. I used part of the loan money and paid down my cc's to less than 10% utility. Once those payments posted I applied for the USAA Rate Advantage MC and was instantly approved for $16,000 at 7.9%.
That’s so odd, my relationship with USAA seems to be somewhat unique. They are by far my lowest CL with my average more than 15k and highest limits at 25k, I have great credit, no baddies, and even after a year of perfect PIF usage, they refused me for a CLI (3 times) 2 car loans, and a PLC which they sent me a letter telling me I was pre-approved for. 
Meanwhile, PenFed hasn’t batted an eye for extending me all those same things, all off the same HP, which each request with USAA having generated a new HP.
The only thing I can think of is my monthly usage ratio on the card was too high (typically 50%+) even tho I PIF and have never paid a dime of interest. USAA is just odd! 
@Anonymous wrote:
@rdubb wrote:USAA has been very good to me recently! I've been a member since 2011 (or 2010, can't remember) and initially I was only able to get a $1,000 cc from them. At the time my scores were pretty low and I had a few collection accounts on my reports. My reports are finally clean so I thought I would try for some other products with them. First I app'd for a $10,000 personal loan and was instantly approved. I used part of the loan money and paid down my cc's to less than 10% utility. Once those payments posted I applied for the USAA Rate Advantage MC and was instantly approved for $16,000 at 7.9%.
That’s so odd, my relationship with USAA seems to be somewhat unique. They are by far my lowest CL with my average more than 15k and highest limits at 25k, I have great credit, no baddies, and even after a year of perfect PIF usage, they refused me for a CLI (3 times) 2 car loans, and a PLC which they sent me a letter telling me I was pre-approved for.
The only thing I can think of is my monthly usage ratio on the card was too high (typically 50%+) even tho I PIF and have never paid a dime of interest. USAA is just odd!
That is odd. Do you bank with them as well? I have my auto and renters insurance with them and I just recently started using them as my main bank (couldn't deal with Wells Fargo anymore). Maybe that has something to do with their recent generousity?
@rdubb wrote:That is odd. Do you bank with them as well? I have my auto and renters insurance with them and I just recently started using them as my main bank (couldn't deal with Wells Fargo anymore). Maybe that has something to do with their recent generousity?
I don’t bank with them, that’s a good point, all I have is the one CC.
I simply haven't found that they are competitive at anything. I had planned to move my checking over to them after having the CC for a while and getting a higher CL, but the increase never happened and now I have moved on and do all my banking with PenFed.
I looked into their auto insurance a while ago which came highly recommended, but it simply wasn’t competitive. When I called to ask for a quote about 2 years ago, I had to tell the CSR that Geico, All State and even State Farm all were offering rates $100 lower per 6 months or more then they were for the same coverage. The CSR seemed embarrassed.
I rent, but again, Liberty Mutual offered far better rates, by quite a large amount.