Below is a letter I have sent to the President of USAA:

General Robles:

I see the thriving organization you have become, I once was proud to be a 25-year member, now I cannot wait to get away from my association with you.

I did trust USAA and USAA Federal Savings Bank betrayed that trust, TWICE now.
I refuse to retreat here and I am taking a stand, either with direct correspondence with you or via the media. I tried using the chain of command but that chain is broken; your subordinates appear to be unaccountable and or lacking in integrity. I thought we “took care of our own”. I guess that virtue went out the window as well.

The latest issue involves the USAA – GMAC alliance. I hold USAA accountable as you are also a culpable as your allies in the Military and Business.
I went through a rough Divorce in May 2008, many people do. I was taken advantage of by my ex wife, her children and her ex husband. In the past two years I have cleaned up 64000.00 of debt and bills. All the time I was fighting your people on a weekly basis. What I have to show is a broken credit report and a score that will take a decade to clean up. I recently was in the final interview stages for a position which would allow me to not to have to travel 100% of the time, get my health and finances in order plus try to finish my MBA so I may enter my next career, teaching at a University and College Level. That plan has been temporarily ruined as well due to the inconsistencies and half truths told by your employees.
The following are the two independent issues that have made me feel so glad to have you as the financial institution of choice.
The credit card company:
I went to all of my creditors and asked for renegotiations. The USAA Credit Card Company and Mortgage have been the most difficult ones to deal with. The surprising aspect of all of these issues is that I have done business with you folks twice as long as any of the other creditors.
In order to get any type of reduced payment plan from the credit card services I had to be in default with you regardless of my situation. At the time, I had to take a pay cut at work and was trying to make a mortgage payment that was 50% of my take home pay.
On or around May 6, 2009, I received a cell phone call from Credit card services. I was working at a client site at 0954 EST in the middle of a factory floor where the noise level is above 100 decibels. I could not answer so I let it go to voice mail. I had planned to call back I knew who it was and would return the call. Within ten minutes, I received a phone call from my Ex wife (we had been divorced for over a YEAR) and my Ex wife’s Attorney. Wondering why my credit card company was calling My Ex wife and her parents!
You see, for the five months before that date, due to the state of the economy, I was told to take a pay cut. I was paying around 200.00 a month in payments and then my credit card rates tripled and you wanted around 800.00 a month. I did not have the funds.
Your credit card people were merciless and wanted me to go to counseling or bankruptcy, something someone in my line of work cannot do. I sent what I could every month. You continued to report me late and the late fees and interest rates accumulated.
To make this instance worse, the last charge on the account is a trip she took with her parents and her kids to Costa Rica after she threw me out of the house. She had forged my signature. We were still married and the account is in my name. I am responsible for the bill.
That aforementioned day, your credit card personnel, went into my Personal USAA Membership Profile and took the phone numbers of those affiliated with me and after not being able to talk to me directly, called my ex wife and her parents. This is a huge violation of my privacy act; the request is not in connection with a law enforcement investigation. You had no warrant versus me.
Your representative proceeded to call them and tell them WHY they were looking for me. That is a direct violation of my privacy act rights under the 1974 Federal Law.
I complained to the Federal Savings Bank and was give a few halfhearted apologies and we retained our personnel action plan statements, which I do not believe. I call that a band aid corrective action. In my line of work, which deals extensively with corrective and preventive actions, as well as information security standards, this is a major non-conformity.
You see I am the one left holding a bigger mess than just embarrassment. I was trying to make some consistent payments of my bills and while following the year old court order from my divorce to get my ex-wife off of my mortgage which is impossible until I get a clean credit bill from Federal Savings bank who has reported me late ever since and continues to do so.
Your people did little to help me or correct what you did, not even a letter telling me NUTS. To say I am disappointed is an understatement.
Remember that developing a sense of responsibility in your subordinates I cannot see that was ever done in my case.

USAA Mortgage:
At the beginning of the 1st quarter of this year, I was trying to finalize a loan modification, USAA / GMAC and I were not able to locate my ex wife who is living “off the grid” and is not to be found without a warrant. I was not able to complete the modification and since I was on trial forbearance for my loan payment I was required to make up the difference of 9152.00 in a matter of weeks. I was given until the end of February, which I took out a 401 K Loan to do and made up the difference. I paid the difference on time to avoid any negative effects.
In January, I was reported clean to the major credit bureaus. As of last week, I now have 5 counts of 180 days past due on my mortgage. I was told when I entered the Modification programs, Hope for Homeowners, I was not going to have to worry about being counted late on my mortgage to the credit bureaus. Your partners lied there as well. Now I have to hire an attorney to get this fixed. By the way, my job offer went up in smoke, thank you for ruining that.
General Robles, My calls to any of your servicing center are fruitless and I just deal with clerks and customer service agents, powerless and unwilling to help.
I have repeatedly asked for some form of corrective action. I just keep getting passed around to people who seem to want to pass me around more.
I can tell right now that there is no one who is willing to take the responsibility for making a command decision. With due respect, I don’t see any one making that decision so I will make the decision for you.
To correct this action for both the Mortgage Company violating an implied contract and the Credit card companies violation of my privacy. This would be an acceptable action plan;

1. Report the mistake from the Mortgage and credit card issues to the Credit bureaus. I do not think this is out of line for the amount of trouble I have been through.

2. Restore and repair the back issues of the credit card as you took advantage of me when I was vulnerable.


I would be more than willing to talk to you via teleconference or in person regarding this issue. I would also be willing to discuss this at a shareholders meaning as well, presenting the actual plight of many of your members who are struggling out in this down turned economy. Maybe you should concentrate on “taking care of our own” versus the bottom line.
Regards:

April 1999 we got a car loan thru USAA. The payment were directly deducted from our USAA checking account every month by USAA. June 2002 we opened a checking account with a local bank and USAA started deducting the loan payemnts from that account - No problem!!! then in September 2002 Chapter 13 bankruptcy was filed and USAA was notified. The car loan was current and USAA continued to deduct the payment from our checking account. In December 2002 USAA reported the loan as 3 months past due!!! Needless to say, we proved to the court that the loan was current.
The loan was paid off in April 2004. USAA has been reporting this loan as a charged off bad debt since May 2003 ansd as 3 month past due. USAA refuses to correct this on the credit report and it will stay on there till May 2013. We are now reopening the Chapter 13 only to get this corrected.

I feel in my opinion that I have been treated unfairly by USAA Federal Savings bank. Now for all most 2 years I have been a customer of theirs and at first they were wonderful. They treated me fairly and not once did I ever have any concerns about their behavior. Well recently that has changed.

For over 2 years of being with USAA, they have never charged me an overdraft fee unless the funds were actually taken out, now well they changed their tactics. These people have been charging me up to 250 dollars in overdraft fees for debit transactions that were never paid. So in other words... they charge me a 29.00 overdraft fee regardless if the money was drawn or not. They are pretty much charging solely off the attempt alone.

I consider such a policy to be wrong and very deceitful considering that they have never committed such wrong doing in the past, not since the 2 years I have been with them. This whole thing started this year. Now, I found out they have a tendency to change their policies on the whim and force all their customers, both new and old to abide by their changes.

In my case..not only did their fees drove one of my 2 accounts into the negative by 332.00. They turned around and took this same amount out of my other account to bring my first account current without my permission. That money they took was for my rent and other bills I have to pay in order to maintain my home. Now I am forced to seek other means in regarding the monies they blatantly stole from me. According to CSR and her supervisor (even if it really was a supervisor) they had the absurdity to tell me they were doing me a favor. I honestly don't see how that is the case considering that they only substituted one problem with another. Just that this new problem, they don't consider it their concern. They got their money. I would like to know how I can fight this? I am in the process of hunting for another banking institution, hopefully a more honest one.

Honestly I can understand that a bank has the right to collect whatever monies owed but not at the expense of causing major distress to customer and/or placing them in a situation that can disastrous to themselves as well as their families. I hope anyone can tell me where I can go.