USAA Cards

[Anonymous]

Do some of the USAA credit cards have specific requirements to apply? When I go online to my usaa account, I only see the option to apply for the USAA student or regular mastercard, but I've heard of people here who have USAA Amex and visa. Does anyone know why this is?

[rubaty]

I have the USAA MC & AMEX but couldn't find anything on the website about the other cards.  Maybe it goes off of the rank of the member or how long you have had the account.

[stpn2me]

There is no USAA Visa, as I thought there was one. I have the AMEX and the MC and I think the offer's go on a soft pull of your credit score. The higher your score, the more you are offered, although there is a lower threshold as opposed to other Credit Card companies on the economy. I would call and ask about it, they are pretty forthcoming.

Stpn2me

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, akhan, I had the MC for several years, and then they offered my the AmEx. I never even thought to look online back then --things just fell out of the sky, lol.

On the USAA site, click Products and Services, then Banking on the little bar that appears under the main bar. You'll get a drop-down menu --click credit cards. That should give you info about the MC and AmEx. I tried this just now even when I wasn't logged on, so I think it's available to all on the site. As to when they offer it to you, maybe you just need more history. They offered it to me when I still had a 30-30-60-90 that was about 9 months old, which will tell you that USAA puts a lot more weight on your history with them than it does on your scores and overall reports. (I've been a member for 28 years.) hth

[marty56]

Stupid question:  are branded CC like USAA AmEx the same as an AmEx card in terms of who is giving you credit.  would USAA know if you a an American Express green card.  I am interested in knowing since it has been said that American Express blacklists people and I lost my Green card when I went into DMP even though I had the card for 10 years and never late on it.

Sams has a Discover card as well and I think Discover also blacklists.

[haulingthescoreup]

My USAA AmEx works exactly like the "real thing," with the consumer protection and all but with USAA rewards. It's accepted where AmEx is accepted, and it's rejected where AmEx is rejected, lol.

It is not linked into American Express at all, so there should not be any reason to worry about a blacklist. If the previous bad history still displays and is completely atrocious, it might give them pause, but it would be the same for them looking at any kind of card. My guess would be that it's the same with other co-branded cards.

You're going with the criteria of the issuing company (USAA), not with the criteria of the product name (AmEx.) (Hope that makes sense.)

[marty56]

I see.

I am not going to apply for anything else till the summer since I got the National City Visa and the Bill Me Latter account.  I want my scores to stablize and finish paying my 5k debt first.  Like someone said in these forums, I apply for credit that I have a practicle use for.

The 5k debt is at 0% though.

[Anonymous]

Thanks!

Once I log in to my account only the mastercard shows up, but if I type in american express in the search box, I can see the application for that too... weird.

Is there any advantage or difference in one card over the other? They both seem to have identical terms and the same rewards programs available. I already have 2 AMEX cards... so maybe a MC would balance out my wallet? I guess otherwise I'll have to resort to picking based on which card has a better design

Also, what kind of APRs do they [actually] give accounts? The terms page says prime+0 to prime+12.9. Does anyone really get a 7.25% APR? My scores are: TU=749 EQ=786 EX=794
Do you think these could get me the P+0 APR?

[rubaty]

I got mine in Nov 07 and my scores were not as high as yours and I got Prime + 1.75.  According to my account info, my APR is now 9%.

They also like to give out pretty generous limits, I got $20K!:

Message Edited by rubaty on 01-05-2008 04:14 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks!

Once I log in to my account only the mastercard shows up, but if I type in american express in the search box, I can see the application for that too... weird.

Is there any advantage or difference in one card over the other? They both seem to have identical terms and the same rewards programs available. I already have 2 AMEX cards... so maybe a MC would balance out my wallet? I guess otherwise I'll have to resort to picking based on which card has a better design

---

There's really no need to "balance out the wallet" --all four bank cards (Visa, MC, AmEx, and Disc) are weighted equally. And I find that my AmEx and Discover are taken just about everywhere. But there's something to be said for having a non-AmEx card on hand for doctor co-pays, mom-and-pops, etc.

I'm pretty sure that with the USAA MC, you can choose cash back or points, and the USAA AmEx is points only. The cash back is normally credited once a year. You might want to got with whichever has the best first year deal. If you start with the MC cashback, you can switch it to points at any time. They'll just credit over your cash, and you start accumulating points. In fact, if they both have initial good deals, you might want to get the MC now and add the AmEx in a year to start all over again, although it's points only, of course.

And if you use a debit card, the USAA MC debit card gives you half points --spend $2 and get one point.