USAA - I Love You
USAA - Best. Bank. Ever.
The other day, I canceled two credit cards. That left me with just one, issued by my all-purpose financial services company, USAA. The problem is, I realized that card didn’t have a rewards program associated with it. No problem - I go to USAA’s site and look up my card. Sure enough, one of the options listed on the right sidebar is ‘choose rewards program.’
Here’s where I screw up.
USAA offers two rewards programs for credit cards, a points-based one and straight cash. So I fill out the little online form and hit ‘Go.’ It was at this point that things went wrong. At the next screen, it was apparent from the message that I’d just opened a new credit card account and closed my old one. The old one that I’ve had since about…forever.
Well, as Suze Orman and just about every other personal finance writer, blogger, or speaker will tell you until they’re blue in the face, it’s a bad idea to close your oldest credit card account. Closing credit card accounts has a negative impact on your FICO score, but I don’t generally care. In this case, however, I did.
Back to the point. I realize I’ve just closed my oldest account and I didn’t intend to. I call USAA and here’s where they re-demonstrate their coolness.
Me: “I was trying to convert my credit card to one of your rewards programs and I completed the process and got a message I’m not sure about. I read this message and I think it means I just closed my old credit card account. Is that correct.”
CSR: “Yes, you’ll be getting a new card in about a week.”
Me: “Ok, I don’t want to do that. Can you undo it?”
CSR: “Let me check on something. Can you hold on a second?”
Me: “Sure.”
…
CSR: “Ok, I’ve gone ahead and just converted your old account to the new rewards program. You’ll keep the same credit card number.”
I didn’t even ask if that was possible or for her to do it. This woman fixed a problem for a customer without the customer even having to ask her.
And that is why I love USAA so much.
banking credit
August 10th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
W00t! Their customer service is AMAZING. If only more businesses took customer service this seriously, our lives would be so much easier.
Did you know that they are having their annual meeting in November in Redondo Beach, CA? (At least I think it’s Redondo, it might be Huntington…) We thought we’d go out of curiosity - it’s open to all members.
August 11th, 2007 at 2:15 am
I love good customer service.
August 11th, 2007 at 10:17 am
[…] from Advanced Personal Finance shared a stroke of genius by a USAA customer service representative. When he called the bank to undo a theoretically costly mistake, the representative offered to fix […]
August 11th, 2007 at 11:05 am
As a long-time USAA member, I can wholeheartedly agree. And their car insurance? Second to none, consistently rated very highly, with equally good customer service.
As a bonus perk, USAA offers financial planning and advice services at no charge to their members, which can come in handy.
August 11th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I absolutely love USAA. My wife and I have had them for several years now and we have almost everything with them.
August 11th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
[…] from Advanced Personal Finance shared a stroke of genius by a USAA customer service representative. When he called the bank to undo a theoretically costly mistake, the representative offered to fix […]
August 11th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
just a little clarification. if you are switching rewards programs, your old rewards program card does in fact get canceled and your new rewards program card is issued with a new credit card number; however, your credit history remains in tact. so if you choose point rewards and decide you want the cash rewards, you will be issued a new card, but you will retain the credit history–that is, your credit report with the new credit card number, but with the original opening date of the old card.
also, another little note: say you have the point rewards, but now want the cash rewards. you will immediately get cash equivalent of the points. the same is true if you move from the cash rewards to point rewards. this is a little way of getting the cash earlier than at the end of the year or getting actually full 1% on point rewards.
August 12th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
I love them for this reason as well. With something as complex as converting a card, I would have probably called them. It would have taken about 2-3 minutes and been done. They truly are the best bank ever.
August 13th, 2007 at 9:21 am
@ Tim - thanks for the information and the great tip.
August 13th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
KMC, funny thing…today I received my new USAA cc, because I changed from total rewards to cash rewards. i was surprised to see it was the same cc number. the first time i went from no rewards to total rewards, i did get a new cc number, but as i wrote earlier, the cc history remained the same just with the new number.
the thing about the cash equivalent of the rewards points or the cash points is true though, since i got 1% cash credited to the cc when i changed from total rewards to cash rewards. normally you only get 1% after you have charged $20k on the total rewards credit card. i then called usaa to have them credit my checking account since i had the credit balance on the cc.
August 18th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
[…] Personal Finance: USAA I Love You. I feel the same way. KMC accidentally canceled his credit card with USAA while attempting to […]
September 12th, 2007 at 7:57 am
[…] mentioning the USAA Total Rewards credit card program I converted my card to a few weeks ago, I got a few comments and inquiries about the program. People seem to be wondering […]
March 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I just wish all companies were like this. Call me cynical, but I’m sure this is quite exceptional…
March 19th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
A real estate short sale is when a bank forgives part of a loan. If a homeowner has a mortgage that is greater than the value of the home, the bank can permit the ‘owners’ to sell the house and forgive the difference. It’s basically an admission by the bank that it made a bad loan.
We want to do a short sale as we’re living overseas and the house market has crashed. Can’t keep up rent and mortgage, renting the property is not an option. USAA refuses to do a short sale so they’re forcing us into forclosure. Trust me…they won’t always work with you. By the way, the agent we have been assigned is very rude and unpleasant. Just type in USAA short sale and plenty of negative will show up. Bottom line, just give them their money. They could care less what your situation is. Hope all that praises them never needs their help when times are down.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
This is really some exceptional customer support. Being from the industry i must say that the USAA customer support model should really be studied and their example should be followed by the contemporary industry.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I just can’t express how much I love them. I finally got rid of BOFA today (because they are the devil) and now have my checking, savings, and auto insurance through USAA. They are always so helpful and polite on the phone.
July 29th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
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