What does FICO think of USAA?

[Anonymous]

They did hard pulls on EX and EQ when I opened my saving's with them. Hard on EQ for car insurance too.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

They did hard pulls on EX and EQ when I opened my saving's with them. Hard on EQ for car insurance too.

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To my knowledge, they only do Hards for savings, if you don't have a CC, and want to do Deposit@home....essentially depositing checks you scan and upload from a home computer.

By chance, stef37, did you have an insurance product before or after opening up the savings product...it's weird they pulled hards...sorry to hear. I don't believe thats the norm...but who knows...

Last, year, three of my family members and I all got insurance and banking products and no hards, except for the CCs. But, maybe it's different where you live.

OP, just call up and ask to ensure/confirm no hards are pulled, if important to you. Again, good luck!

Message Edited by Pj1369 on 04-04-2008 01:14 AM

[haulingthescoreup]

See, you guys didn't need me! Some of us toddled off to bed, here in Eastern time.

Whoever posted about the insurance, they're right: if you're still active duty, or maybe recently separated, you need to have one of their insurance products to maintain eligibility in civilian life. USAA was originally an auto insurance company, so maybe that's how they maintain their charter or something. The CSR who explained this to me said that many people do the renter's insurance, because you can get it ridiculously cheap.

Somehow it's different for dependents, or for others who get in through family. I was eligible because my dad was in the Army, and I got my first car insurance with them. But I canceled it early on (that's when it was really expensive), and had nothing with them for a good decade or more, and then started back up with a checking account, and it's grown from there.

ivy, you might want to call and work through all this with a human. Their CSR's are great! --all US-based, on duty 24/7, except for some of the more exotic stuff like investments. 1-800-862-6909 for membership

And I agree with the others about the FICO scoring and all: even though FICO foolishly doesn't give quite as many brownie points for credit unions and USAA (which is a Federal Savings Bank), the much higher CL's that you typically get do wonders for your util, which carries a lot more scoring oomph. I got some cards from national banks just to help this out, but the big CL's are on the CU cards. (Well, and BofA, because of a BT.)


edit to add: and I wouldn't worry about the inqs. Even if you do lose some points, I'll bet that it won't be more than a couple or three. I know you're hanging on to all you've got, but I would consider it an investment in future FICO scores. They have pulled EQ and EX for my family at different times for CC's and a HELOC, but I don't have any info on whether they originally did so for straight banking products.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 04-04-2008 05:07 AM

[Anonymous]

Also, if it helps, I called USAA a few weeks back and spoke to someone in the cc dept. and asked him what scores USAA like to see. He hesitated, and threw in the obligatory "we have many factors" but finally came around to saying that USAA only seriously considers people who are 650 and above. At least, that's what he said for their MC, it may be higher for the Amex.

Message Edited by Lyyssa on 04-04-2008 07:35 AM

[Anonymous]

Ivy, typically you can't beat USAA's prices for auto insurance. In fact when other companies call and ask me if I want to switch as soon as I get USAA out of my mouth they say "Oh sorry we can't beat their price"

IT has been very good to us and you can do everything online. YOu might want to call or have your dh call to open an account with them.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Also, if it helps, I called USAA a few weeks back and spoke to someone in the cc dept. and asked him what scores USAA like to see. He hesitated, and threw in the obligatory "we have many factors" but finally came around to saying that USAA only seriously considers people who are 650 and above. At least, that's what he said for their MC, it may be higher for the Amex.

Message Edited by Lyyssa on 04-04-2008 07:35 AM

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I think it's 720 for the Amex "normally"...unless you are a VERY long standing customer. But, I wonder...