Bait and Switch: USAA Federal Savings Bank
I made a comment in an earlier post about USAA, "A corporate partnership that's useless for consumers," that has turned out to be wrong. Here's the comment:
The benefits of the USAA Federal Savngs Bank account are generally quite good. I have free bill pay, I have not been nickel and dimed with fees (like BOA) and most ATM fees are refunded.I spoke too soon about the nickel-and-dime part. I just opened my monthly statement from the USAA Federal Savings Bank, and inside is a three-page document describing changes to the account agreement. The boring legalese changes are put in the front, which no doubt fools a lot of customers into thinking the paper can be thrown in the trash. However, on the last page are some significant changes to USAA's "Service Fee" structure. Here's the rundown:
ATM Service Fee beyond the first ten free withdrawals:
100% increase (From $1 to $2)
Check Chargeback Fee
No increase ($5)
Official Check Fee
150% increase (from $2 to $5)
Statement Copy
100% increase (from $5 to $10)
Photocopy Fee
400% increase (from $1 to $5)
Federal Express Fee
14% increase (from $7 to $8)
Outgoing Wire Transfer Fee
60% increase (from $12 to $20)
USAA insurance has built a reputation of being great to its customers in terms of service and keeping costs low, as evidenced by the praise-filled comments on the Consumerist. But after seeing the USAA Federal Savings Bank new fee structure, I am convinced it is not much different than any other national bank out there. It's the same classic bait-and-switch tactic I've seen practiced by Bank of America, Citizens Bank, and many other institutions out there: Launch a big marketing campaign stressing low fees on its accounts to build market share, and then two years later, once customers have gotten all of their bills hooked into online bill pay and are dependent upon other banking services, nickel and dime them with new fees and various restrictions.
The fact that USAA Bank is heavily used by military personnel makes this even more discouraging. Lots of folks serving overseas or moving around are more likely to need photocopied documents, Federal Express delivery of statements, etc.
Caveat Emptor!
Update:
There has been a response to my posts about the playground insults and the fee increases from an anonymous USAA employee at the following link:
http://fidelityobserver.blogspot.com/2006/06/usaa-responds-to-fidelity-observer.html#comments
I have also responded at that location.
Related Posts:
What The USAA Ad Didn't Mention
USAA responds to Fidelity Observer with a playground insult
A corporate partnership that's useless for consumers
BOA customers beware: More nickel-and-diming ahead!
Read this post on the Blogger mirror -- Reader comments often appear there that won't show up on this page. You can leave comments on either page, I'll read 'em all!
Well, well, well. Remember Fidelity Observer's post in April, complaining about poor service from Cingular ("Customer disservice: Burned by Cingular")? It seems that this is not an isolated incident. A Federal lawsuit claims that millions of former AT&T Wireless customers (such as myself) were the ... Read
Fidelity Observer just got a fat mailer from USAA Federal Savings Bank, promising great things. Quickly I discovered that its contents were useless. Read
Two Christmases ago, I received a very nice digital camera as a gift. I specifically requested the model, a Fuji Finepix S7000, for its features that approached that of an SLR (manual focus, shutter speed, and apeture settings, etc.) but wasn't too expensive. It was ... Read
