USAA Limitless VS BOA Preferred Rewards

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone.  All good points above.  And yes, part of this is my frustration with my 30+ year relationship with USAA, its just not the entity it used to be.

BoA isn't that quick on the phone for the 800 numbers even though they promise higher service level.  I have found my business rep to be very receptive to anything business or personal since she works in a branch and my ML rep to be very eager to please.

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned is the additional 10% for depositing into a BoA account, if I am correct that brings the Premium Rewards to 2.8875%, but I am not sure if the deposit bonus applies to Preferred Rewards Bonuses.

As for limits with USAA, I don't have to worry about USAA SP CLIs or PCs.  I am at max exposure with USAA and I don't want any other cards from their current offerings.

As for limits with BoA, I don't need any more than I have on the personal side, I am sure if I asked for more I could get it,  I'd be satisfied to SP CLI on occasion just for fun.  I could PC to Premium Rewards, but I'm not worried about inquiries, I'd rather have the $500 signup bonus and I could make the $100 incidentals work and do PreCheck just for the sake of it.

All of that being said, its not a ton of money difference in the scheme of things, but its one of the small things I've been thinking about when thinking about changing the way I bank.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks everyone.  All good points above.  And yes, part of this is my frustration with my 30+ year relationship with USAA, its just not the entity it used to be.

BoA isn't that quick on the phone for the 800 numbers even though they promise higher service level.  I have found my business rep to be very receptive to anything business or personal since she works in a branch and my ML rep to be very eager to please.

 ...

All of that being said, its not a ton of money difference in the scheme of things, but its one of the small things I've been thinking about when thinking about changing the way I bank.

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I mean if you're a Bank of America customer... I don't think I've ever seen a more toxic enviornment than being in a BoA branch and dealing with the tellers... Such miserable people who don't want to help you. They just stare at you, expect you to do all the talking, and don't even have manners or human decency to say "hello, how's your day?" or "have a nice day! "  - maybe I'm just used to walking into my credit union's branch to see friendly faces, but even Chase seems to have much much nicer tellers than BoA does. 

So when re-considering USAA, I would take my small little rant into account... The people on the phone are at USAA friendly, and USAA not only has instant pulls, but they don't charge a $3 for pushing money out through the ACH network either. I guess if you have over $100,000 stashed in an account with BoA, they may waive some of the fees us non-wealthy folks have to pay, though. Merrill Lynch on the other hand, has terrific customer service and is owned by BoA, and I advise anyone (wealthy or non-wealthy) to go with them for credit cards and checking services because you'll actually be treated like an appreciated customer.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

So when re-considering USAA, I would take my small little rant into account... The people on the phone are at USAA friendly, and USAA not only has instant pulls, but they don't charge a $3 for pushing money out through the ACH network either. I guess if you have over $100,000 stashed in an account with BoA, they may waive some of the fees us non-wealthy folks have to pay, though. Merrill Lynch on the other hand, has terrific customer service and is owned by BoA, and I advise anyone (wealthy or non-wealthy) to go with them for credit cards and checking services because you'll actually be treated like an appreciated customer.

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Thanks for your FSR judgment.  I'll take your rant into account and offer some insight and maybe help some others.

If you have a USAA account, you can perform a $250 ACH each month into (and out of) a BoA Core checking account to avoid a monthly service fees.

If you have a BoA checking account and link your ML account that balance applies towards your eligibility for Preferred Rewards.  At my age having a retirement account at ML that makes one eligible for Platinum Honors doesn't make me wealthy.

I'd be happy to discuss USAA skeletons in the appropriate forum should a thread present itself.