USAA card

[Anonymous]

Ok, so this is more about the debit card, but I just recieved a letter saying they are ending the rewards program for their debit card - but keeping it for the CC.

Will this affect anyone's spending?  I'm thinking of shifting the groceries to my USAA MC, and paying with the checking account, and shifting the gas to my PenFed/my DH's USAA Amex and then paying with the checking account...  that's all we used the card for, but it was a convience, since both cards went to the same place, and now I'd have to juggle around the funds on 3 cards...

Any thoughts towards adding my DH as an authorized user to my USAA MC and/or my PenFed instead?  His score is good but he hates keeping track of cards and I think he'd have to join PenFed to be an AU on that card...which would be an additional hassle...

So anyone else experiencing less than warm fuzzy feelings towards USAA for this change?  Thoughts to my situation?

[laz98]

we don't have this problem with USAA, since we don't bank there, but we did just go through this with chase.

we used to run everything through our chase debit cards because of the rewards, but now that there's nothing, i've had to switch everything to our credit cards.  we have a few different rewards cards, so i guess it's not a big deal, but i liked being able to do everything out of the one account. 

we would switch our checking account to navy federal but there is a new chase bank literally like 3 blocks away, & there is only one navy federal here, & it's about 30-40 minutes away.  if we weren't still getting paper checks we'd probably switch.

[Anonymous]

We got our letter last week - I think I am going to call and see if I can get a higher limit on one of cards with them (plat visa or amex) since they are killing the debit rewards program and then switch to that card for the rewards. If USAA wont help me out in that aspect then I'm going to switch over to my discover card and gain the rewards they have. plan is to just use the card as we normally do and pay in full from my bank account every month. I love the rewards on USAA, we would just rack up for the cash back with debit usage, shame they are ending that program.

[haulingthescoreup]

I'm pretty sure that this will happen everywhere. It was nice that they offered 1/2 point rewards for debit card usage, I guess, but the only time I use my card is to print pull money out of an ATM, and there's no rewards on that.

As is true of most CU's and CU-like institutions, USAA's rewards are pretty eh, but I stay with them for the service. I just run some recurring expenses (that would only get 1% anywhere else as well) through the cards to keep them open.

[Anonymous]

I can't see why anybody would use a USAA debit card for rewards when the rewards are only 1/2 as good as those with a USAA credit card.  I've never had any difficulty using my USAA credit card(s) and just going in and paying them off every week or so online. 

[Anonymous]

nice thing about pulling cash via usaa card is the reimbursement of fees, very nice bonus and glad to see that sticking around at the very least.

O6 - i myself just paid off all my CC debt, so i have been in the habit of getting my points by using my debit card from USAA as a credit card. rewards points vary for purchases on debit card as credit card and was totally different than using an actual CC from usaa as for rewards points. i personally liked the immed. cash back into my account or paid towards a CC if i so desired. goal now is to find the best rewards program so i can get the benefits of rewards via CC (whatever CC that may be - however kind of excited over the offer usaa just shot me 25k amex rewards card). just have to start pulling myself out of the debit card usage mode, since i have been living that way for many years - thats why i liked the program myself.

[Anonymous]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one a little miffed.  I would use the CC with no issues, but since my DH and I have separate Amex ones and I hold the MC alone, it's more a matter of trying to both use a card for an account - but I think I'll just do a little juggling of payments, as suggested.

I know the USAA CC aren't super high rewards, but right now we spend pretty tight and so I like them for service, high limits, and ease of payment - plus, I don't want to support a big bank.  So until we spend more than $1,030 a month (some of that is CC, some cash, some was debit, now CC) I won't worry about rewards too much - but $100 of that does go through the PenFed 5% back ;-)

Thanks y'all, best of luck with your choices too

[haulingthescoreup]

FWIW, a USAA CS rep once suggested to me that I add my youngest as an AU on my USAA MasterCard. She said that as the cardholder, I could request that it either report or not report to her reports. That's too many "reports" for one sentence, but in other words, reporting on their AU cards is optional.

If correct, you might want to consider adding your DH as an AU on the MC. It it would help him, he could let it report, and if not, he could keep it off.

I don't use my cards all that much, but every now and then I check my rewards and I'm surprised to see how much is on there. They just silently tick tick tick away, adding up.

[Anonymous]

Peach - you can transfer points from all cards to one points account, i did that with DH account. I also did as Hauling suggested when DH and i got married I added him as an AU on my CC, so those points all go to the one points account. we each have our own cards to use (debits cards) and i will take his points and transfer them to my points account. we accumulated 100k points in about 8 months between us. Good luck to you as well!

Hauling - very nice to see the points just tick tick tick up indeed. making money (i always get cash back) on spending my money is always wicked nice - high or low points differences - it didnt matter to me really

[Anonymous]

Hauling and mjs, thanks for the idea...it would then be an Amex for his personal stuff and a MC for his joint stuff - that's not so hard, right? ;-)

I think the MC would help him - it's got a perfect history, $24k limit, and it's older than his Amex....but it would mean a hard pull right?  either way?  I'll talk to him about it at least, although he's expressed disinterest in getting another CC before...

Thanks!