@Anonymous wrote:The wife is ex military so we have their car insurance. With car insurance they have been good to deal with although their rates seem to have caught up to the others.
They mail her stuff about cards all the time so we figured we may try to get one.
Curious of others experience with their cards
They seem to be popular around these parts. Look into Navy Federal Credit Union and PenFed as well.
I'm a fan of the CCs. It's always a HP for CLIs request. But they always made the CLIs worth while.
Average increase was $7k/$8k per request.
You can only request an increase 180 days after the last increase.
They don't allow consolidating of CLs unless something has changed recently.
$50k is max exposure, at least for me it is.😂
Never had any issues with the cards.
Even if you have fraud and have cards frozen. They'll update the card numbers in the app and still allow use through your phone.
I'd just get both.
Navy does some great things.
My problem with them is not allowing autopay from an external account.
Navy bests USAA in overall exposure allowed.
USAA has a much more feature rich app.
Also you get a discount on your auto insurance and or home insurance when you have a USAA credit product.
I'd never limit myself to one particular FI. Because none of them do everything with perfection.
My first ever CC was from USAA, they don't even offer it anymore but it is still open and I have my Hulu subscription setup on it. I have used USAA for a lot of stuff over ~20 years and they currently have my checking, an auto loan, and both car and homeowners insurance. They are really solid and have some above average customer service.
The 2.5% credit card they had is no longer available, and was never open to all of the US, they rolled it out a few states at a time and stopped offering it about half way through.
Their current CC lineup doesn't really have anything stellar. Their 1.5% cash back Visa is good, but there are a lot of 2% options there. They have a 5% gas card, but it is an Amex and can be finicky about what they think is gas (like it doesn't code right at grocery stores with pumps).
All of their cards have no Foreign Transaction fees.
@Anonymous wrote:Is USAA a decent card issuer?
Curious of others experience with their cards
They are a good issuer but very conservative and a little rigid.
Reliable (which is what you want in an FI).
Stable technology - website and app.
Good fraud and customer service support.
Good credit limits.
That 2.5% Limitless Cash Back card was awesome and I totally blew the opportunity to have one. Kick myself over that. I already had the prerequisite banking accounts. Also had insurance and a credit card already with them and it was in my geographic footprint. Offered 2.5% uncapped cashback, uncategorized, with no AF. But it's no longer available. They canceled new apps after a few months.
Most of their cards are good, just not great. The AMEX offers 5% cashback on gas and base exchange but only to $3K annually. The cashback card only pays 1.5% on everything, so it's behind the market. Their "Low Rate" Visa is not bad and better than many other rates but Navy FCU Platinum card and a few others offer even better rates.
All that said, they are pleasant to deal with and I would recommend the credit cards if you already do some business with them otherwise. Diversity is good.
Some frustrations I've had over the years that are contrary to my experience with a lot of larger banks:
(-) Made me close my oldest existing card (joint) when I divorced instead of allowing one of us to accept responsibility. I lost a lot of credit age over that.
(-) Won't consolidate credit limits.
(-) Won't product change cards.
(-) Hard pulls for CLIs.
(-) Won't lower APRs (even via a HP). Your APR at approval is what you'll always pay. Very strange, if you ask me.
