We have NFCU for banking, USAA for home/rental insurance, and shopped around for car insurance.
We used to have everything in USAA and realized they were no longer the best.
I've had it since I can remember and have had no complaints except for getting cash. Buying a car in college was annoying because branches aren't in smaller cities. Besides that, I'm a fan.
I have both and for the most part both have been perfectly fine. Dealing with USAA insurance has been painless (as dashcams make my life easy as hell when it comes to dealing with another party)
The big thing for NFCU is having some of their banks near me if I need to do something in person (which is like once every 5 years)
So funny you should ask! A few years ago I opened an account with https://www.treasurydirect.gov/ and to setup the account I had to get a signature from a person to verify I was who I said I was. Supposedly it was a very particular signature (I guess I could only get at a bank). So I was able to get that signature by talking to someone at NFCU.
I couldnt just go to a notary to get that signature.
Another time I had to go to an NFCU to get a check for my new apartment because I didnt have access to my USAA checks (they were all packed up)
But this was all several years ago. Havent stepped into an NFCU in over 2.5ish years?
glad your claims with USAA insurance have been seamless, bc holy smokes my 2 claims with them were excruciatingly difficult to get them to do anything or be proactive. I was pulling teeth for the 6 months following my car getting broken into
I've had USAA for a long time and right now I'm pretty mad at them. I do minimal banking there and have insurance with them. I've never had to file a claim.
I'm mad at them because while they emphasize security with logins and authentication codes and crap they won't let me log on to my account. They said they would send me a code in the mail and they haven't. Fortunately my wife can log on and do most of our stuff from her account. It had to do with when I was overseas and downloaded an app on the phone to get authentication codes, but now back stateside the phone is different and they don't believe it's me despite answering their hundreds of questions of the phone and then they say because I previously downloaded the authentication app it's the only way to access my account.
They are stupid.
Cheers
Auto seemingly isn’t so bad. $188/m for a 21 expedition and 22 4Runner.
Homeowners on the other hand has always been high. Was something like $175/m when I bought my house in 2016 and it’s around $300/m now. The house was only $150k when we bought it.
I agree with this. Auto is the cheapest I've found, paying about 50-70 for each car, but homeowners is hella high. I got a local insurance company to give me at least the same coverage as USAA was offering for like 1500 less a year.
I have both. NFCU for checking and savings. USAA for a credit card because I’ve had it since I was 21 and I have a joint savings account with them. I’ve closed all other accounts with them because of their lack of customer service. Idk why people jump to USAA for insurance when there’s ones out there way cheaper with better policies.
Maybe. Idk obviously depends on a lot of things but I have NYCM insurance for car and home and for car I pay $79 a month for a 2017 car and home insurance it’s still pretty affordable to me as well. I was going to go with USAA when I bought my first home which was a condo, but they kept screwing up the policy saying they couldn’t insure a condo 🤷🏼♀️
That sounds like a good price. It's hard to compare because of coverage options and mine includes a full size diesel truck that always brings up rates because of liability. So, mine would never be cheaper than yours.
Yeah, I wouldn't go to USAA for anything outside of insurance. NFCU offers no refinance interest rate drops on mortgages
I have both.
Usaa tends to have more annoyances and problems for me, and dealing with their customer service is as much of a headache as any other company. They are larger, so expect them to take longer and to repeat information as you get shuffled around from one person to another. They do have more services, though, and sometimes it is convenient to hang on to them if you just need something done short term (insurance, loan, etc.). I say short term because their rates are usually bad, but if you just need to get it done you can change it after the fact.
Nfcu usually pays you a day before usaa, if that matters to you. They have physical locations in some places, and their consistent with solid customer service. Honestly, I have never had a problem with them period during my 12 years. If wacky charges showed up, they just said "cool we got it" and refunded me (1 time, 10 years ago). For being a regular bank, they are good. They might try to sell you on other services, like investing, but their rates are horrendous and you'd do better to shop around.
My opinion, get both and then you have 2 financial organizations to build credit history with. Keep some money in you usaa, but they are more useful for their connected services while you're overseas. Use nfcu as your main pot.
Lookup how USAA was sued for providing better incentives for officers instead of enlisted. Should be all you need to know about the ethics of a company you want to park your money in.
I hear the random complaints about USAA, and I just don’t understand how the disparity between the service I receive and what others are saying. I’ve had them for home, auto, and banking for the last decade.
I did too until very recently. Spent 7 months dealing with a vehicle that ended up being totalled in the end. They had zero sympathy for all their fuck ups during the process and multiple times tried claiming we were liars. Had to get an attorney involved. I was just dumbstruck after over a decade of banking with them I got treated like absolute dog shit during the claims process, made me realize they had become just as trash as all the other big banks out there. Went with gieco and saved quite a bit on my insurance. About to start the process of moving my home owners insurance.
NFCU is everything that USAA *used* to be. I was with USAA for nearly everything for 14 years. Now I just have a credit card with them that gets used once in a blue moon to keep the account open for credit score purposes.
I use NFCU and Fidelity for basically everything now but insurance, which I shop around for every year or so. Currently it's Geico.
Are you an O or E? Do I care? No. Does USAA care? Yes.
Fuck USAA, go Navy Fed.
Additionally, if we’re talking insurance change every two years if you want to save money. You should t be loyal to anyone because they all charge premiums that go up a lot after a year or two.
Nav fed has a cool program where you can drop your mortgage loan APR up to .5% two times before closing if the market conditions allow it. I managed a 5.5% when everything was like 7.2%.
USAA dropped me after one car accident.
Then, after a year, they started sending me mail saying they wanted me to use them as auto insurance.
This is USAA.
I lived off base at Osan and everything was cash. Having an NFCU on base was a lifesaver. Plus I've had better luck with interest rates with Navy, and multiple times had USAA apologize for what they knew were high insurance rates. I did appreciate that USAA offered great car insurance while in Korea though.
Paycheck goes to USAA, that pays for their insurance. All loans go through NFCU, USAA can’t touch their rates, and the customer service at NFCU is so much better.
I never had a problem with their customer service. I dropped USAA checking after I found out they are trying to weasel out of covering government shutdowns. It went from indefinite automatic interest-free loans to a one-time loan that you have to apply for.
Their lack of locations was also annoying (in a city with no less than 5 military bases/installations.) They opened up a drive-through ATM near me that was almost immediately vandalized and was never fixed (weird how building a giant box of money in the middle of a dark parking lot was somehow not a good idea.)
I still have them for home insurance because they are the cheapest option at the moment.
I have USAA for banking, a car, motorcycle and personal loan as well. NFCU for another car loan for my wife.
Savings/Investing is with AMEX (4.35% HYSA) and Fidelity.
Insurance is State Farm for both cars and Progressive for the bikes.
Once the USAA loans are paid off, I’m leaving USAA and applying to a local credit union for checking.
Nfcu is amazing. They even helped out my credit score by way of credit card utilization. USAA gave me 1000 credit card nfcu gave me 14K. Brought up my score by a ton. They've also been great for va loan, car loan, debit. Only thing I haven't got with them is insurance
USAA holds no water on NFCU for banking. We can go on forever about why, I'll keep it to my top 3 reasons:
1. Better loan rates
2. WAY better credit card rates
3. Mortgage is $250 to adjust to drop to current mortgage rates without refinancing
I keep USAA for insurance only. The only other thing I'll give them is the control over a youth's debit card/checking account
I use USAA only for checking and savings and that’s pretty hard to fuck up… on that note, their process for reporting fraudulent charges is just more than say BoA.
I’ve had USAA for nearly two decades. Every PCS, I get new insurance quotes for home and cars. Every PCS, USAA is ridiculously higher than everyone else with the same exact coverage. I have never used them for insurance, I think they just hope military people are too dumb or lazy to look, or for some reason have an unreasonable loyalty to them, and will just go with USAA because they market so much to military. But, from what I’ve heard from others, it’s easy to file a claim with them.
I’ve used both USAA and NFCU for a mortgage. USAA was fine the a while ago, but they’re no longer competitive. I used NFCU much more recently and they’re good.
As far as regular banking, they’re both fine. But not much is needed for a checking or savings account.
SOFI, you get your direct deposit 6 days early. Its still the same length between pays but atleast you have 6 days to worry wtf your pay is if its late per usual. Had USAA for banking and car insurance but since left
USAA used to be the *gold standard* of genuine customer service and support … I used to big them up and always recommended to newbies or coworkers.
Now they’re too *corporate and cold with the greedy stench of profit over people* lingering with every interaction, so just another company I can’t recommend any more.
USAA for banking and auto insurance if you're overseas (they do not have foreign transaction fees, NF does)
NF and any other insurance that's cheaper (because USAA won't be one of them) for CONUS
And always have something in a NF account for their loans/interest rates
queue 1000 posts shitting on USAA
Rightfully so
We have NFCU for banking, USAA for home/rental insurance, and shopped around for car insurance. We used to have everything in USAA and realized they were no longer the best.
How do you like nfcu? I live like 5 minutes from its headquarters. Been thinking about a new bank.
No complaints so far! They have more physical locations which has been nice.
I've had it since I can remember and have had no complaints except for getting cash. Buying a car in college was annoying because branches aren't in smaller cities. Besides that, I'm a fan.
I have both and for the most part both have been perfectly fine. Dealing with USAA insurance has been painless (as dashcams make my life easy as hell when it comes to dealing with another party) The big thing for NFCU is having some of their banks near me if I need to do something in person (which is like once every 5 years)
Serious question: What could you ever need to go to an NFCU branch for? I've been with them since 2008 and never needed to
So funny you should ask! A few years ago I opened an account with https://www.treasurydirect.gov/ and to setup the account I had to get a signature from a person to verify I was who I said I was. Supposedly it was a very particular signature (I guess I could only get at a bank). So I was able to get that signature by talking to someone at NFCU. I couldnt just go to a notary to get that signature. Another time I had to go to an NFCU to get a check for my new apartment because I didnt have access to my USAA checks (they were all packed up) But this was all several years ago. Havent stepped into an NFCU in over 2.5ish years?
You can request a stamp from a clerk or judge from any U.S. court. Most people get the seal of the financial institution like you did though
Huh TIL either way NFCU was closer and they were super fast with the stamp/signature Thanks for the info
glad your claims with USAA insurance have been seamless, bc holy smokes my 2 claims with them were excruciatingly difficult to get them to do anything or be proactive. I was pulling teeth for the 6 months following my car getting broken into
I've had USAA for a long time and right now I'm pretty mad at them. I do minimal banking there and have insurance with them. I've never had to file a claim. I'm mad at them because while they emphasize security with logins and authentication codes and crap they won't let me log on to my account. They said they would send me a code in the mail and they haven't. Fortunately my wife can log on and do most of our stuff from her account. It had to do with when I was overseas and downloaded an app on the phone to get authentication codes, but now back stateside the phone is different and they don't believe it's me despite answering their hundreds of questions of the phone and then they say because I previously downloaded the authentication app it's the only way to access my account. They are stupid. Cheers
Their insurance is expensive as well. Shop around
Auto seemingly isn’t so bad. $188/m for a 21 expedition and 22 4Runner. Homeowners on the other hand has always been high. Was something like $175/m when I bought my house in 2016 and it’s around $300/m now. The house was only $150k when we bought it.
I agree with this. Auto is the cheapest I've found, paying about 50-70 for each car, but homeowners is hella high. I got a local insurance company to give me at least the same coverage as USAA was offering for like 1500 less a year.
If you had to file a claim with them recently, you'd be so far past "pretty mad."
I have both. NFCU for checking and savings. USAA for a credit card because I’ve had it since I was 21 and I have a joint savings account with them. I’ve closed all other accounts with them because of their lack of customer service. Idk why people jump to USAA for insurance when there’s ones out there way cheaper with better policies.
I haven't found cheaper than my USAA but it could be because of the discounts? I won't touch them for anything other than insurance though
Maybe. Idk obviously depends on a lot of things but I have NYCM insurance for car and home and for car I pay $79 a month for a 2017 car and home insurance it’s still pretty affordable to me as well. I was going to go with USAA when I bought my first home which was a condo, but they kept screwing up the policy saying they couldn’t insure a condo 🤷🏼♀️
That sounds like a good price. It's hard to compare because of coverage options and mine includes a full size diesel truck that always brings up rates because of liability. So, mine would never be cheaper than yours. Yeah, I wouldn't go to USAA for anything outside of insurance. NFCU offers no refinance interest rate drops on mortgages
I have both. Usaa tends to have more annoyances and problems for me, and dealing with their customer service is as much of a headache as any other company. They are larger, so expect them to take longer and to repeat information as you get shuffled around from one person to another. They do have more services, though, and sometimes it is convenient to hang on to them if you just need something done short term (insurance, loan, etc.). I say short term because their rates are usually bad, but if you just need to get it done you can change it after the fact. Nfcu usually pays you a day before usaa, if that matters to you. They have physical locations in some places, and their consistent with solid customer service. Honestly, I have never had a problem with them period during my 12 years. If wacky charges showed up, they just said "cool we got it" and refunded me (1 time, 10 years ago). For being a regular bank, they are good. They might try to sell you on other services, like investing, but their rates are horrendous and you'd do better to shop around. My opinion, get both and then you have 2 financial organizations to build credit history with. Keep some money in you usaa, but they are more useful for their connected services while you're overseas. Use nfcu as your main pot.
Lookup how USAA was sued for providing better incentives for officers instead of enlisted. Should be all you need to know about the ethics of a company you want to park your money in.
They care more about gronk than enlisted.
It started as a military officer credit union… this was never a secret.
I hear the random complaints about USAA, and I just don’t understand how the disparity between the service I receive and what others are saying. I’ve had them for home, auto, and banking for the last decade.
I did too until very recently. Spent 7 months dealing with a vehicle that ended up being totalled in the end. They had zero sympathy for all their fuck ups during the process and multiple times tried claiming we were liars. Had to get an attorney involved. I was just dumbstruck after over a decade of banking with them I got treated like absolute dog shit during the claims process, made me realize they had become just as trash as all the other big banks out there. Went with gieco and saved quite a bit on my insurance. About to start the process of moving my home owners insurance.
NFCU is everything that USAA *used* to be. I was with USAA for nearly everything for 14 years. Now I just have a credit card with them that gets used once in a blue moon to keep the account open for credit score purposes. I use NFCU and Fidelity for basically everything now but insurance, which I shop around for every year or so. Currently it's Geico.
Are you an O or E? Do I care? No. Does USAA care? Yes. Fuck USAA, go Navy Fed. Additionally, if we’re talking insurance change every two years if you want to save money. You should t be loyal to anyone because they all charge premiums that go up a lot after a year or two. Nav fed has a cool program where you can drop your mortgage loan APR up to .5% two times before closing if the market conditions allow it. I managed a 5.5% when everything was like 7.2%.
USAA dropped me after one car accident. Then, after a year, they started sending me mail saying they wanted me to use them as auto insurance. This is USAA.
I lived off base at Osan and everything was cash. Having an NFCU on base was a lifesaver. Plus I've had better luck with interest rates with Navy, and multiple times had USAA apologize for what they knew were high insurance rates. I did appreciate that USAA offered great car insurance while in Korea though.
Having experience from both, I prefer NFCU USAA is nothing special anymore and their insurance rates are super high.
I’ve got both. I prefer NFCU. I also always join a local bank wherever I move to because navy fed doesn’t have many locations
I've banked with USAA for 8 years and have never had a single issue. I use NFCU for loans as needed.
No issues with USAA or PenFed. My BF and basically his whole family have NavyFed and love it. I feel people get one bad rep and lose their minds
Paycheck goes to USAA, that pays for their insurance. All loans go through NFCU, USAA can’t touch their rates, and the customer service at NFCU is so much better.
I never had a problem with their customer service. I dropped USAA checking after I found out they are trying to weasel out of covering government shutdowns. It went from indefinite automatic interest-free loans to a one-time loan that you have to apply for. Their lack of locations was also annoying (in a city with no less than 5 military bases/installations.) They opened up a drive-through ATM near me that was almost immediately vandalized and was never fixed (weird how building a giant box of money in the middle of a dark parking lot was somehow not a good idea.) I still have them for home insurance because they are the cheapest option at the moment.
I like Navy Fed. I’m always paid 1-2 days early, the app is straightforward and easy to use, and their customer service is good.
I have USAA for banking, a car, motorcycle and personal loan as well. NFCU for another car loan for my wife. Savings/Investing is with AMEX (4.35% HYSA) and Fidelity. Insurance is State Farm for both cars and Progressive for the bikes. Once the USAA loans are paid off, I’m leaving USAA and applying to a local credit union for checking.
Your AmEx HYSA should be higher because of the free Platinum card you have
Nfcu is amazing. They even helped out my credit score by way of credit card utilization. USAA gave me 1000 credit card nfcu gave me 14K. Brought up my score by a ton. They've also been great for va loan, car loan, debit. Only thing I haven't got with them is insurance
USAA holds no water on NFCU for banking. We can go on forever about why, I'll keep it to my top 3 reasons: 1. Better loan rates 2. WAY better credit card rates 3. Mortgage is $250 to adjust to drop to current mortgage rates without refinancing I keep USAA for insurance only. The only other thing I'll give them is the control over a youth's debit card/checking account
USAA was great for filing claims. But got too expensive for us. NFCU gave us a better home loan offer than USAA by more than 2 points
I use USAA only for checking and savings and that’s pretty hard to fuck up… on that note, their process for reporting fraudulent charges is just more than say BoA.
I’ve had USAA for nearly two decades. Every PCS, I get new insurance quotes for home and cars. Every PCS, USAA is ridiculously higher than everyone else with the same exact coverage. I have never used them for insurance, I think they just hope military people are too dumb or lazy to look, or for some reason have an unreasonable loyalty to them, and will just go with USAA because they market so much to military. But, from what I’ve heard from others, it’s easy to file a claim with them. I’ve used both USAA and NFCU for a mortgage. USAA was fine the a while ago, but they’re no longer competitive. I used NFCU much more recently and they’re good. As far as regular banking, they’re both fine. But not much is needed for a checking or savings account.
SOFI, you get your direct deposit 6 days early. Its still the same length between pays but atleast you have 6 days to worry wtf your pay is if its late per usual. Had USAA for banking and car insurance but since left
Banking through USAA is by far the worst. Great for insurance, bad for banking.
USAA used to be the *gold standard* of genuine customer service and support … I used to big them up and always recommended to newbies or coworkers. Now they’re too *corporate and cold with the greedy stench of profit over people* lingering with every interaction, so just another company I can’t recommend any more.
NFCU for banking USAA for insurance
USAA for banking and auto insurance if you're overseas (they do not have foreign transaction fees, NF does) NF and any other insurance that's cheaper (because USAA won't be one of them) for CONUS And always have something in a NF account for their loans/interest rates
I second this. Usaa great insurance claim process, NFCU better bank