How can I gain membership into USAA?

[MountainHiker]

Last night was able to help my brother Inlaw and sister get membership with USAA. He is Ex Navy and qualified for full membership. Now I'm trying to gain membership for myself but running into road blocks.I never served in the military and I don't think USAA will allow siblings to piggyback into membership via brother -sister blood line. Is there any other way for me to fain entry?

[distantarray]

nope but you can have Navy

[Nocturnal]

Are you trying to get into USAA for the health insurance and all that?  I signed up for a USAA account a while back and still have it but I am not military.  I always thought that it was free to sign up as for certain things.

[solxp]

You should call USAA or have your brother call. When I first joined USAA it was not open to former/current enlisted members however I was able to join through my father. When my children turned 18 the first thing I did was kick them off my car insurance and make them open thier own accounts with USAA. The oldest used my membership number to join and I actually got a call  from USAA asking me to verify that she was indeed my daughter. The weird thing was the person I spoke to said they already had a record of her from being on my account since she turned 16. When my youngest daughter turned 18 last year she also got kicked to the curb( in the most loving way possible i assure you) but I was away on a trip when she went to sign up and wife was with me so she ended up using her sisters membership number as the current member for eligibility and was accepted and we never got ask to confirm but her sister got a email from USAA asking for confirmation. This may be due to the fact that they did indeed already have records that they were both my children in the system. I do know that there is a section in your profile where you can add family members to your profile by there USAA membership number and siblings is an option to select but that may have nothing to do with eligibility.

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@Nocturnal wrote:

Are you trying to get into USAA for the health insurance and all that?  I signed up for a USAA account a while back and still have it but I am not military.  I always thought that it was free to sign up as for certain things.

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Full membership ( auto/home insurance ) requires a link to someone in your family tree or yourself who served in the Armed Forces at some point. While you can get  most banking products from USAA as a limited  member in the case of insurance you have to be a full member however some states require that Insurance Underwriters if they offer/provide insurance to anyone in the state they must then offer it to everyone, so you might be able to get insurance from them also depending on the state you live in. Its my understanding that they use a secondary insurarance provider for those policies and the rates are not as good.

[MountainHiker]

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@solxp wrote:

You should call USAA or have your brother call. When I first joined USAA it was not open to former/current enlisted members however I was able to join through my father. When my children turned 18 the first thing I did was kick them off my car insurance and make them open thier own accounts with USAA. The oldest used my membership number to join and I actually got a call  from USAA asking me to verify that she was indeed my daughter. The weird thing was the person I spoke to said they already had a record of her from being on my account since she turned 16. When my youngest daughter turned 18 last year she also got kicked to the curb( in the most loving way possible i assure you) but I was away on a trip when she went to sign up and wife was with me so she ended up using her sisters membership number as the current member for eligibility and was accepted and we never got ask to confirm but her sister got a email from USAA asking for confirmation. This may be due to the fact that they did indeed already have records that they were both my children in the system. I do know that there is a section in your profile where you can add family members to your profile by there USAA membership number and siblings is an option to select but that may have nothing to do with eligibility.

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@Nocturnal wrote:

Are you trying to get into USAA for the health insurance and all that?  I signed up for a USAA account a while back and still have it but I am not military.  I always thought that it was free to sign up as for certain things.

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Full membership ( auto/home insurance ) requires a link to someone in your family tree or yourself who served in the Armed Forces at some point. While you can get  most banking products from USAA as a limited  member in the case of insurance you have to be a full member however some states require that Insurance Underwriters if they offer/provide insurance to anyone in the state they must then offer it to everyone, so you might be able to get insurance from them also depending on the state you live in. Its my understanding that they use a secondary insurarance provider for those policies and the rates are not as good.

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It would be wonderful if I could piggy-back and gain membership through my sister. Know for a fact I can get into Penfed because their membership requirements aren't as tough.However, the opposite is true of their credit products. With Penfed all I had to do is tell them the name of my brother inlaw and that gets me in. Will call USAA on monday and try to speak to a different rep and see if family connection will do the trick. I'm interested in USAA's insurance and credit products. One of the upsides about residing in a military city is having access to all the various branches to military affiliated CU's/Banks. Penfed,USAA and NFCU are all located here. Thank you for your information.

[solxp]

Credit products are open to anyone with USAA along with banking however some features like @deposithome are not available unless you qulaify for insurance products and have both a credit card and bank account or insurance and a bank account and qualify for a credit card. But even if you can not get in as a full member you can qualify for a credit card. They are a somewhat conservative lender and thier reward cards are not the best but they do offer very nice rates and no annual fees and the card will grow as your relationship with them matures. Thier car buying service can score you some very good deals if are patient and they offer car loans all the time as low as 1.59%. Just dont expect the same initial credit limits that NFCU gives its members however with enough time the card limits will catch up based on your history with them. 

I have been with USAA for over 28 years if you include when I was a kid on my parents policy. I also use to be a member of NFCU back when I was in the service there was a time when I regretted closing my accounts with NFCU however at this point in time I do alot of business with USAA (car/home/banking/investment) and the only reason I regret not still being in NFCU is because it would have allowed my children to get in and enable them to get a head start on managing larger credit limits. They both have like 2k visas/amex cards  from USAA with NFCU that probably would have been around 6-8k each if they were from NFCU. Of course its a double edge sword, giving young people that much credit could have be a recipe for disaster but they both have been told many times about the rewards of maintaining good credit and the benefits it brings.

Good luck and hopefully you will be able to join the USAA family.

[SquareObsidian]

Piggy backing through the use of a sibling at this time cannot gain you access to what USAA would deem P&C (Property and Casuality) Eligible. Meaning being eligible for insurance products and as others have stated deposit@home/mobile. Inorder you to gain this type of eligibility through family you would either need to be the child of or spouse of an eligible member. 

All banking products with the exption of a few Credit options are open to Non P&C Eligble members. Example of a CC excluded from this would be USAA's Secure cards, which requires you to open a CD.

Even without P&C eligibility, becoming a regular member offers many discounts and rewards. And their online banking service is one of the highest rated out there. 

Good luck. C:

[MountainHiker]

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@SquareObsidian wrote:

Piggy backing through the use of a sibling at this time cannot gain you access to what USAA would deem P&C (Property and Casuality) Eligible. Meaning being eligible for insurance products and as others have stated deposit@home/mobile. Inorder you to gain this type of eligibility through family you would either need to be the child of or spouse of an eligible member. 

All banking products with the exption of a few Credit options are open to Non P&C Eligble members. Example of a CC excluded from this would be USAA's Secure cards, which requires you to open a CD.

Even without P&C eligibility, becoming a regular member offers many discounts and rewards. And their online banking service is one of the highest rated out there. 

Good luck. C:

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Thank you guys for all the great advice. When i phoned into USAA last night the credit service rep told me that membership was not possible without being a military personel, spouse of or child of said military person.Maybe he was new to the job or confused about my inquiry.In any case, nice to hear that I should be able to join and app for auto insurance and credit products.USAA has several locations in my area and there would be a built-in convience joining them.Will report back next week on the results.

[MountainHiker]

The BMW dealership in my area is giving discounts to USAA members for lease and purchases.Interesting!

[LS2982]

All I can say is be prepared to show proof of SSN, DL, utility bills and 3 paystubs if your not a full member. They locked my account for that info and I was not going to give them paystubs for a bank account.