If USAA is hiding fees in your bill, you may have legal options.
USAA is a long-standing bank that has offered financial services, including insurance, checking accounts, credit cards, and more, for active-duty and retired military members. They have an incredible range of products that make life much easier for military members who are constantly PCSing. Many of their services are available overseas without overseas or foreign transaction charges, and you can always get a hold of someone no matter where you are stationed. So what can you do when you see hidden fees in your USAA statement that don’t make sense? We explain.
ATM fees at non-USAA ATMs are not assessed by USAA for the first ten withdrawals each month. After that, you get a $2 charge for each withdrawal beyond 10 in a given 30-day window. If you use a third-party ATM, be advised that unexpected charges might come from the owner of the ATM. However, with many checking accounts, USAA refunds these as well.
USAA has their Classic Checking account and their Youth Spending account for children under 18. With the Classic Checking account, you have no monthly maintenance fees, and they refund you up to $15 each month for ATM fees from other banks. There are, however, non-sufficient funds fees of $29 for each transaction that goes through. There is a maximum of three fees per day for declined or returned unpaid items. If you have overdraft protection, you can avoid this fee without an additional charge.
USAA has three savings accounts: USAA Savings, USAA Performance First, and USAA Youth Savings. You should not find hidden fees on any of these because they do not have monthly maintenance fees or extra fees for sending debit cards linked to the account. There are also no fees if you choose to use your savings account for overdraft protection linked to your checking account.
Your monthly mortgage rate does not include things like property taxes, HOA fees, homeowners insurance, escrow, or other insurance. So you might be under the impression that your monthly mortgage bill is a specific amount as quoted in your estimate, but then you find extra fees which have to do with the aforementioned. A standard APR formula is used for a USAA Mortgage, so you don’t have to worry about the rate changing from one year to the next because of your credit score.
USAA has many different credit cards which do not have annual fees or penalty APR. Many of their American Express credit cards give you 0% APR for the first 15 months, with a variable APR between 10% and 25% thereafter. Aside from this, you might see a late fee if you don’t make your payment on time or a fee of 3% of the total amount if you make a balance transfer.
With any of the financing services that USAA offers, your rates can change without notice, but they won’t exceed a specific APR agreed upon based on your credit score and the terms of the loan when you take it out. If you enroll in automatic payments, you get a discount for some financing services, but you might not see that applied until you enroll, so, for the first few months, if you don’t enroll in auto-pay minutes, your bill might be higher than expected. Other unexpected fees might include late fees. However, there are no application fees for penalties if you pay off any type of loan prematurely.
There are next to no hidden costs or unexpected fees with a USAA account of any kind. However, if you find something on your statement that doesn’t make sense or shouldn’t be there, such as a fraudulent account opened in your name or charges for a product that never made it to you, you can contact USAA customer service no matter where you are.
If that doesn’t solve your problem, you have two other options:
The first is to use small claims court. Small claims court is something you can usually do if you have the time and money to go to court and file the right paperwork regularly. Be advised, however, that if you are currently TDY or deployed or your family has PSCed overseas, this will not likely be an option for you.
However, a great alternative is consumer arbitration. With consumer arbitration, you can typically get a faster response with fewer restrictions.
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