USAA Auto CL Decrease and Product Change??

Anonymous · ‎01-10-2021

Hi all,

I woke up this morning to see a new document on my USAA account - apparently they decided that, for some odd reason, they were "concerned about my financial wellbeing" (the letter literally says this) and decided to take precautions by decreasing my credit limit from $6,500 to $2,500. But that's not all, they also changed my Visa Preferred Cash Rewards card to a basic Platinum! I have been a USAA member for about 6 years now with an active checking and savings accounts, multiple paid off auto loans, insurance for all of my cars as well as homeowner's insurance, rental property insurance, jewelry/firearm and computer insurance. I even had multiple extended warranty contracts (awesome product) back when they were offering those. The cash rewards credit card was one of the first products I ever got from USAA.

What's odd is the letter shows they pulled my FICO score from Experian two days ago and it was a 630!! I quickly checked the MyFICO app and, since the beginning of December 2020, all of my Experian scores have sat in the high 600s to low 700s.

Could this be a mistake? Does USAA have some sort of reconsideration policy like American Express does? I think this was an automated system error, even when my scores hit the mid 500s in late 2019/early 2020 this never happened...

cashorcharge · ‎01-10-2021

Not entirely sure why you received that note...perhaps a call to them on MON is in order.

As an FYI, USAA does not use the traditional FICO 8 or FICO 9 from EX, they use a Mortgage Score...I forget the number...I want to say FICO 2 which tends to be much more restrictive and in my experience, much lower than score 8 or 9

K-in-Boston · ‎01-10-2021

It is very likely they are using a different scoring model than FICO 8, and scores can vary wildly between different models (i.e. it's not uncommon for those here with FICO 8 scores in the 800s to have mortgage scores in the 760s just to use one example).

Usually adverse action is based on a review of the account and often happens when a pattern has shown a customer to be riskier. Have you had escalating revolving balances or been applying for a lot of new credit?

Anonymous · ‎01-10-2021

I'm sorry this is happening to you. Have you been carrying a high balance for a long time on your credit card or been late on any of the other products you mention?

Hex · ‎01-10-2021

When you apply for USAA credit cards they use Experian Bankcard Score 3. That might be what they use for account reviews as well.

Anonymous · ‎01-10-2021

Hi all,

Thanks for the information. I checked my Experian bank card 3 score and it shows a 651 updated as of December 21st on the MyFICO app, so I'm curious as to what might have caused the score to drop 21 points while all of my regular FICO 8s have been skyrocketing?

Just an FYI for everyone, a little over a month ago I paid off over $20k in CC debt, hence why my regular FICO 8s are so high now. The USAA card was never maxed, but very close. I'm guessing they're just now catching up with me - as mentioned I think I'll shoot them a call and have someone manually review things.

To answer the question about inquiries, I've opened two cards this year - My NFCU More Rewards card and my American Express Delta Platinum. Aside from a mortgage inquiry, those are the only two hard pulls I had in 2020...

nccarguy1 · ‎01-10-2021

Really sorry to hear this. USAA has great insurance products, good checking account with no fees, immediate credit on deposits and ridiculously high mobile deposit limits, but they are really conservatives on credit card products. I don't think they do recon and claim the decision is whatever the system tells them. Good luck.

WowCool · ‎01-10-2021

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi all,
Thanks for the information. I checked my Experian bank card 3 score and it shows a 651 updated as of December 21st on the MyFICO app,

FYI You can also check your EX FICO 3 on USAA under your credit card on the right pane

Cory88 · ‎01-11-2021

I have been with USAA for 9 years I have seen their "helping people" go down to the point they are just like any other bank, I also see that use a very old score system and I think it's a way for them to say you score is "lower" your APR on your CC / auto loan needs to be higher so they can charge more interest on your loans. The FICO they said (USAA) is 730 were as my FICO 8 is 796 and FICO 9 is 804 that to me is a big difference.

Anonymous · ‎01-12-2021

@Cory88 wrote:
I have been with USAA for 9 years I have seen their "helping people" go down to the point they are just like any other bank, I also see that use a very old score system and I think it's a way for them to say you score is "lower" your APR on your CC / auto loan needs to be higher so they can charge more interest on your loans. The FICO they said (USAA) is 730 were as my FICO 8 is 796 and FICO 9 is 804 that to me is a big difference.

To add, USAA has always been ridgid with no allocation or re-allocation of credit lines. No product changes for credit products. We read in the Forum where other lenders will do some of these things. Oh, USAA always seems to hard pull for new credit products and for credit limit increases.

I have been with them for many years and thought they might flex up but it never happened. Going on, they did a limited market product intro on the USAA Limitless Visa Cash Back Credit Card and never fully opened the product to all states military personnel (it did say limited test).

Their products have been reduced such as leaving the investment market. Suspect they are adjusting to the market place and if you have seen the veteran numbers from one of the big veteran organizations a couple of months back, the number of living veterans will be dropping at an accelerating pace (due to loss of WWII, Korean and Vietnam Veterans through attrition). End result, less veterans to engage as members.

Suspect the future for USAA will require some sole searching when the available pool of potential members reaches it's new lower level. Sustainable will be the question I come up with. Somehow the other big military CU keeps kickin' so there maybe solutions. Also, found the customer service appears to have transitioned and the CSRs are not given much flex.