Hey all,
I seem to have about a 30-day clock in my head that starts to make me feel wonky if I don't try to someone get an HP on at least one bureau... So bored last night I got to thinking, it'd be nice to have a USAA Credit Card so I could have Overdraft Protection on my Checking accounts with them. So I pull up their credit card page and decide on their Preferred Cash Rewards. Nothing special, and nothing I don't already have, but the really the only one I might possibly ever use out of their selection.
I fill out the app, click submit and the page takes forever to come back. It finally does and says I'm approved for $2,000 at 26.15% APR. Yikes, a crummy limit and the maxed APR? Granted two years ago I would have killed for an unsecured card at $2,000. But now with cards ranging from $25,000 limits to $4,500 limits and one low ball (Barclay Apple Visa) at $2,700, $2,000 felt very low for me.
I was wondering what that was all about since I had some offers for an affiliate card of there's expiring last month at 17.9% or 17.99%. I know from my friend who works at USAA that the affiliate cards typically charge 1% more of APR to give to those affinity groups. Not worrying too much about it, I go to bed and figured I'd give USAA a call in the morning.
So driving to work I call USAA and the first rep I speak with tells me it was the Credit Bureaus, not USAA that determined my limit and my APR, yeah ok... I didn't want to be a jerk/expletive deleted, so I didn't argue and when I asked if I could talk to someone in underwriting the call dropped. I call back and get a different rep, explain that I know they pulled Equifax, I know my true Equifax FICO score was 719, and that I was rather disappointed with the APR and the limit. I ask politely if there's anyone who could manually take a look for a reconsideration. He says no, I ask about underwriting, he says well 99% of the time they'll agree with the computer. I said, sure I understand, but what about that 1%? He insists it wouldn't matter even if an underwriter takes a look. Fair enough I say, then I'd just like to close the card. I had no intentions of bluffing, but figuring that might be the only way they'll budge, if not I'm more than happy to close it.
So that rep puts me on hold, for a good 4-5 minutes and a "Senior" rep comes on. She asks why I want to cancel, I re-explain, they stand their ground and so do I. I really hate to waste the HP and the AAoA ding, but knowing USAA does HP CLIs if the CLI is requested, there was no point to keeping a card that I would literally never use. A lower APR and a better SL would have made it easier to justify keeping it around as overdraft protection.
Am I being a snob? More than likely, yes. But at the same point if Barclay gave me $2,700 almost a year ago with a 658 TU and major derogatories (defaulted student loans, a collection account, and a couple 60-day lates on other student loans), yet USAA only wanted to give me $2,000 with a 719 EQ with no major derogatories than they really must not want my business that bad. I guess I'll just stick to insurance with USAA, maybe it's about time I move what banking I have with them away from them too and stick with companies that are willing to give me decent SLs...
Oz