USAA Homeowners Insurance Reviews

The adjuster did state to us and Roto-Rooter after about two-three weeks after the claim was started that Roto-Rooter's rates were too high, but did not provide specific information how they were too high to myself or Roto-Rooter. He also stated to the Roto-Rooter Director of Water Operations in our city, and I, separately, that if Roto-Rooter's rates were "a little closer" that USAA might be able to pay the full amount. When I brought to his attention that Roto-Rooter's rates were not disputed for the previous claim, which occurred exactly thirty days earlier, his response was that each claim is different.

I then contacted the adjuster's manager, who also said Roto-Rooter's rates outside the industry standards and the matter would have to be handled by dealing with the assigned adjuster. Finally, after a week of back-and-forth between Roto-Rooter, the USAA adjuster and I, my wife and I requested a conference call between all parties on 2 November 2023. During the call, the adjuster continued to state Roto-Rooter's rates were too high, even after I pointed out that Roto-Rooter was paid in full by USAA for the first claim.

The Roto-Rooter director of water operations in our city also pointed out to the USAA adjuster that Roto-Rooter's rates had not changed in two years. During the call the adjuster finally provided the breakdown of the disputed rates to myself and Roto-Rooter via email. The adjuster also refused to negotiate when Roto-Rooter offered to do so. His refusing to negotiate, when earlier the adjuster told Roto-Rooter and I separately he was willing to do so, is in my opinion, a sign of bad faith.

Since we were under contract to Roto-Rooter to pay any amount owed to them 30 days after they submitted their bill to USAA on 5 October 2023, we paid the balance on 3 November 2023 before it came due on Sunday, 5 November 2023. I requested another adjuster examine our claim and one was assigned but USAA still refused to to make the difference in what we paid to Roto-Rooter. Bottom Line: USAA refused to pay the full amount charged by Roto-Rooter for water cleanup and remediation. So much for being with them for over 36 years! I would not recommend USAA.

Yet my premiums did go up, especially in the past few years, and this year, premium increases amounted to $140 per month for both policies combined. A price that my wife and I could no longer afford. Keep in mind, no accidents, no tickets, no claims, yet skyrocketing premiums. It didn’t make sense to me, so I called USAA to ask why.

The person with whom I spoke told me that costs for repairs were going up, so premiums had to go up as well to ensure there was enough money in the “pool.” However, in my auto policy, when you take my premium from $190 to $264 in one year, that represents a 39% increase, and I know costs for repairs haven’t gone up that much.

Further, I had no claims, so in essence, my rates were going up so USAA had enough in their “pool” to pay other people’s claims. If you need to raise premiums so high, much of that increase should come from the people who are generating claims, not those who are not. I told the agent that my wife and I are retirees and live on a fixed income, and I was told that perhaps I should go back to work. A reply that was callous in a normal situation, but even more so because I was forced to retire with an illness that is most often fatal. In her defense, she obviously didn’t know that, but it just goes to show you that not everything that pops in your head should come out of your mouth. You never know what someone else may be going through. But that is not the focus of this review.

In June of 2023, there was a hailstorm in our area. I am a local, so I am used to hail, and have a pretty good idea when one is bad enough to warrant a look see for damage. In my opinion, this one did not rise to that level, so I wasn’t worried. However, I received a text from USAA telling me that I may want to get my roof checked. So, I thought, OK, maybe I should, so I told them to check it. Two weeks later I got a call from someone in Florida (I live in Colorado), telling me they were swamped with requests for inspections, and it would be some time before they could look at my roof. But then he told me that if they do look at my roof, since USAA would have to pay someone to inspect it, that would be a claim, and my premiums would go up.

Well, I was already stretched to the limit on that, so I told him not to inspect my roof. I had it inspected by a private contractor, and as I suspected, there was no damage. I was very put off by this “text warning” scenario. If you send me a text telling me I should get my roof checked, then I find out that if I do so, my rates will go up, it is an unavoidable conclusion that the main purpose of that text was not to help me, but to give USAA an excuse to raise my premium. After all, insurance boils down to one thing, take in more premiums than you pay out in claims. I understand the need to sometimes raise premiums, but a company, especially a company such as USAA, shouldn’t ARTIFICIALLY inflate those premiums.

So, based on all of that, I decided to switch companies instead of paying the extra $140 per month, and I chose State Farm. Between the policies for my two vehicles and my home, I saved $300 PER MONTH! The coverage was similar, the only difference was my deductible on my auto went from $200 to $250, and my deductible on my homeowner’s went from $500 to $1500. That’s a big jump in deductible for the home, but keep in mind, I was saving $210 per month in premium on homeowners alone, so even if I had a claim every year, I would still come out ahead. But the average in the insurance industry is a homeowners claim every 12 years, so if that holds true, over that 12-year period I would save $28,740 with State Farm versus USAA, even with the higher deductible. Plus, I’d rather pay for what does happen (deductible) than what might happen (Higher premium), so I was very happy.

Unfortunately, shortly after switching, State Farm informed me that I was going to lose a discount I received on my homeowners ($100/year) because USAA had reported my response to their text as a claim with Lexis Nexis. Keep in mind, there was no claim. They did not even inspect my home, yet they reported my inquiry as a claim, and even labeled it as wind damage, not hail, which was an obvious and blatant error.

I spent about 5 hours on the phone and writing emails with USAA over the next two weeks trying to get this removed. I was repeatedly told that only a manager could handle something such as that, yet every time I got that far, every manager was either conveniently in a meeting (every single manager?), or unavailable to speak with me. What good is having a manager if all the first-line people are taught to do is act as a gatekeeper, and to limit the contact managers have with the customer? On three separate occasions, I left my contact information with these gatekeepers and was told a manager would call back to assist me, but sadly that never happened.

I was repeatedly told that removing the incorrect listing on Lexis Nexis was not as simple as just pushing a button, a claim I find to be disingenuous, at best. If you could place it on my record with the push of a button, why can’t you remove it the same way? I did manage to get a letter from a non-manager, acknowledging that this was entirely USAA’s fault, and that there was no claim, no indemnity whatsoever, and placing it on Lexis Nexis as a claim was done in error. Unfortunately, State Farm’s underwriters cannot simply accept a letter, they need it removed from Lexis to reinstate my discount.

Finally, I decided that the discount I was losing was not worth continuing to beat my head against the wall trying to get USAA to fix their error and decided to just move on. But my agent at State Farm told me if I don’t get the erroneous claim removed, if I do have a claim with State Farm, it would be my second claim, not my first, and my rates with them would go up.

So, I decided to send an email to the CEO of USAA, Wayne Peacock. I knew he’d never see it, but I figured his executive team would at least refer me to a corporate problem solver, and I could cut through the gatekeeper nonsense that I was experiencing, and maybe find someone who could help me that wasn’t “in a meeting.”

I was thrilled, right up until this problem solver emailed me and, in the email, he told me he was looking into my AUTO POLICY issue!? If you’ve read this far, you know my issue had nothing to do with my auto coverage. Right at that moment I decided to file a complaint against USAA with DORA, and with the BBB, as well as writing down my experience with USAA on these review sites. Please understand, this review is not meant to be vindictive, but predictive.

If this happened to me, it could happen to you as well, and warning other consumers about bad experiences, or describing good ones to encourage you to patronize those who provide good service, should be the purpose of these review sites, not just venting. USAA claims to be there to assist military members and their families and refers to us as “members.” In this series of events, that was decidedly not my experience. I was treated as nothing more than a premium, and the whole text warning thing could be perceived as an attempt by USAA to artificially inflate premiums. So, based on this episode, it seems to me that the things you see on USAA commercials are just empty slogans created by an ad agency and bear no resemblance to their actual business practices. Caveat emptor.

The help options on the website do not provide a section to address this issue. Further, the VRU (Call system) has no option to reach tech support. Additionally, they insist on you providing a four-digit id number. A number I did not have because they could not send a message to a landline, which was why I had made the calling!

I dialed (0) to bypass the system to reach an operator. I was sent to a home insurance agent. Again, there is no option to reach tech support. After a wait, the agent came online. I explained my concern and I was then sent into a cue for tech support. The tech support agent insisted on me providing a four-digit code to verify who I was. The same id code that my analog phone never received! Addition verification of the other info I had provided in my failed account setup was insufficient. She insisted that I call back!

As a retire NCO, I can only summarize my experience just to get a quote and information about their services as a **. My assessment is that if the obstacles I encountered as a prospect are common then I can only envision greater obstructions and to their services. With such roadblocks I found you just can't get there from here.

I call USAA to file a claim and was told they don’t cover Foundations under any circumstances in Texas which was not the case in Kansas. Also I never received a full copy of my policy when I transferred the policy. So when I had utilized my customer portal to view what USAA has labeled as Homeowners Policy it’s only a 14 page document, not the full 69 Pages. When you search the Texas Insurance Commisions website the policy that is posted there as the standard USAA policy approved by the insurance commission it does not show the exclusion for foundations either. So now I am from November of 2022 to July of 2023 and I am still fighting with USAA.

Their adjuster came out and told myself and my contractor things in person that they would cover then when I tried to follow up on those things he tells me through the portal that management had to make those decisions and then comes back and tells me they are denied. My sewer lines are broken and he told me they would cover the access and egress at first and is now saying he didn’t say that. He also has said that their plumber came out and did a camera inspection and there were no breaks found so my claim is unfounded.

I was here when their plumber came and he and his helper never even removed the lid on my cleanout. Their report says they did a 30-minute leak check, these guys weren’t even in my house 10 minutes much less on my property for 30 minutes. I hired a third-party plumber to do a static test which the house failed, then paid him to run his camera up my pipes from the cleanout and he videoed three separate breaks.

Then USAA tried to force me into using their contractor to do water damage repairs. Their contractor came out, took measurements, did their inspection and bid the job at 28k as soon as USAA accepted and approved the bid their contractor called me wanting to, “Cash Me Out.” I asked why and their contractor said they couldn’t do the work and it would just be best if I hired someone else to do the job so I bring my Contractor back. He comes in, reviews the job and scope USAA had approved for the water damage and said the reason the other guy wanted to cash me out is because the job couldn’t be done for 28k, his bid was nearly 50k to do the job.

USAA refused to accept his bid until I hired a public adjuster. Now they are willing to pay 48k but still refusing to cover the access and egress for the sewer lines. Which by the way to repair the sewer line with access and egress is nearly 30k. What makes this all even worse are Texas lending Laws that preclude you from doing a CashOut Refinance on your property if it needs repairs. I have been financing these repairs slowly through third-party unsecured personal loans which I am about tapped out on because of Debt to income ratio. I have over 100k of equity in my home if I only financed 80% of the market value, that I cannot touch because the house needs repairs and Texas has those bogus lending laws.

I finally pulled up a letter with my renewal policy to see at the bottom of the letter that the change was due to "Credit-based Insurance Score", so I had to look that up. Now, this made me feel some kind of way. First, to be lied to. Second, I do not have a bad credit score, but according to these guidelines, I'm being penalized, I'm guessing for my lines of credit. No late or missed payments across the board. From my understanding, there are only 4 states that do NOT allow this practice when it comes to homeowners' policies. Unfortunately, mine is not one of them. USAA is the about the dollar not the Military members and Veterans in my opinion.

USAA sent two adjusters out over the course of 2 months and they still denied my claim. Currently my roof has tarps over the damages that have been there for 3 months already. I am losing shingles every time the wind blows and USAA states the roof had prior damage. Prior damage? Really? On a house that's 4 years old and I JUST had inspected when I closed in November and was fine? This is beyond absurd. They aren't going to make it right but I have nothing else to do but ensure they spend money dealing with me every 15 minutes until I am satisfied. Beware of this company, they are a garbage. I am currently in the process of changing insurance companies as well as banking. It's no wonder USAA is having to lay people off because their business is failing.

At that point I did not see the value (it was manufactured in 2012/2013), nor cared about claiming it again. I only inserted the laptop because I was told to make a list of EVERYTHING affected by the fire. During the claim USAA became fixated on the laptop. Despite saying I did not want to claim the laptop which is why it was the only item on my list without a price, they would not exempt it from the claim. They stated that in order to process my claim I needed to provide a receipt indicating I fixed the computer after the claim from years ago. Since I do not keep receipts from repair work done I could not provide it. While I tried to rectify the issue multiple times, even had documented proof that the company would need a Repair number to pull up the past repair, USAA would not listen.

On January 3rd they denied my claim and upon appealing it with a 17 page letter showing the extent of fire damage in my home and that we never intended to claim the laptop, they denied us again within two hours of receiving the information. We have been a member with USAA for over 30 years. We have multiple products through them – Banking Accounts, Retirement Accounts, Investment Accounts, College Accounts for my children, Credit Cards, etc.. I have had multiple loans through them which I always paid on time and paid off years early.

Despite being a loyal customer, USAA chose to deny our entire claim over the receipt of one item. They stated while there is no dispute that there was a fire, that the claim in its entirety had to be denied over one item that we never intended to claim. All because one receipt. They couldn’t just accept that we didn’t want coverage for that computer and approve the other items that we actually put values on. To add, after experiencing a traumatic event and then fighting with an insurance company, we were ultimately dropped from our coverage due to being denied.

After this experience I will never do business with USAA again. Imagine losing your home, losing all your valuables in your home and every receipt you may have saved to prove past purchases. How would you go about filing a claim? Should you be denied coverage solely because you can’t proof purchase or repair over EVERYTHING in your claim? While I did not lose my entire home, I did experience a fire, and my claim was ultimately denied over not being able to provide ONE receipt out of over 30 items that I did have receipts for.

However, my wife and I, along with several other homeowners in our neighborhood, eventually discovered that our tiled master bathroom showers began to leak and show signs of mold. Two of my immediate neighbors filed claims with their own non-USAA homeowner insurance providers and they quickly received the help they needed for repairs. As for me, USAA immediately denied coverage stating that they do not cover any home damage due to "poor workmanship." Upon appeal, rather than consider that workmanship was adequate but the materials used had failed, they simply chalked the bathroom damage up to "poor maintenance," which they also conveniently do not cover.

Now, I don't claim to be the world's smartest person, but it doesn't take rocket science to determine that barring obvious catastrophic damage, any damage to a home can always be blamed on "poor workmanship" or "inadequate maintenance." In the end, my wife and I had to pay more than $20K out of pocket for repairs. Extremely disappointed with USAA homeowners insurance. I'm just glad that my neighbors got the help they needed from their non-USAA homeowners insurance companies for the very same problem we had.

Lot of out-of-pocket for me and the project is just getting started. Additionally, for one aspect of the original project I got two different stories from the reconstruction company representative and from the USAA insurance adjuster concerning coverage. Not sure how much of this was miscommunication or USAA cutting costs.

During this time I was already going through and dealing with some very stressful situations like my slum landlord trying to evict me for legal reasons and on top of that I was also breaking up with a girlfriend at the time. I tried to address all these these matters and how the adjuster her investigator was treating me and what they were asking was almost impossible, but my agent and her supervisor basically told me I had to do it. Investigator said if I could provide what he was asking for my claim would be tonight.

The manner in which USAA treated me was so awful that I Noticed it was triggering my PTSD. I mentioned That comment and Lucia treat me was triggering my PTSD and I informed her/them of the different symptoms I was starting to feel. One of them being severe depression which I knew suicidal thoughts Were Going to be coming on, I was absolutely shocked when they showed absolutely no signs of sympathy or empathy and continued with their bully like tactics. It was getting so bad now I was being so stressed out that I wasn’t really able to focus on everything that you’re requesting me and I had asked for extensions multiple times when I was coming up to the Time limits.

They agreed to give me an extension but I received a denial claim letter shortly after that. While I was arguing and fighting with him about that I got into a car accident where the paramedics stole all my jewelry and a backpack with very expensive computer in it. I was in my car, so I have filed another claim. Then like a year later while I was still fighting the first two claims department was broken into a new store or damage pretty much everything I owned. So I had to file another claim but by now their treatment was so bad that when it came down to just listing all the stuff that was stolen or damaged I didn’t. My PTSD was full and full fat. No matter how hard I try to focus on filling out these forms, I couldn’t.

I had to reach out request help because when I explained this to my adjuster, she acted like she wanted to help and she literally said this when I started going over my first claim, which I was still within the deadline of two years limit, it was like they used this to their advantage and they denied everything. “No let’s start with most recent and work our way back to the first.”. She insisted, because they wanted to pass that two year deadline. She didn’t try to help me at all.

They bullied me just like they have been. Do you like to do everything over the phone or via online forms so when I asked For a copy of those forms and any phone conversations that they had they said I had to get a lawyer to request those. They knew because he denied my claims that I was left out or anything I ended up having to move out of my place and start living out of car on the streets of San Francisco. I knew I could afford a lawyer and I’ll be had me pants down over a barrel. USAA is a giant charlatan which just takes advantage of military members.

Well there is no point in getting the interior fixed before the exterior or more damage will occur... So I had to grind (this is during the start of Covid) to save up over 10,000 to get a new roof, which during the hard times took over a year. I finally was able to afford to fix my roof. So I went back to USAA for the internal damage. This time around they told me they probably wouldn't cover it because it's been too long, but I can get quotes anyway. Left it completely up to me to find quotes...

So I call around, no one can give me an estimate because it's all "hidden damage" behind the walls/ceiling. To get an accurate number, they have to start busting into the walls and ceilings which will cost money. So I went to USAA to try and tell them I can't get a good estimate without work starting.. they refused to agree. They said I need an estimate.

TL;DR - USAA said they would cover something that would get re-damaged if something else wasn't fixed first. So I had to save myself for a year to fix that something else, and then USAA said it's been too long and they won't cover anything. Also they expect you to do all the leg work for estimates on repairs and when the only way to get an estimate is to start work they refuse to help you.. Complete "figure it out yourself, we will do anything we can to get out of ever forking over a dime to anyone in need" mentality at USAA. Think Twice before you trust them as a military member... they are just as greedy and cruel as any other corporation.

Did USAA provide a moderator when I asked for assistance? No. Did they try to offer any help? No. Did they pay ServPro off, despite the company having failed to honor their contract and finish their work? Most certainly. As a lawyer friend said, USAA and ServPro are clearly in bed together. I only wish I'd known before I became involved with such corrupt, godless individuals as the people I've dealt with at both USAA and ServPro of Montgomery County (the names Clements and Breeden being key ones you should avoid at all costs).

I've since had to engage the help of the Attorney General, BBB, Contractor Connection, and Insurance Commissioner for assistance in the matter--now having an inhabitable house, due to ServPro and USAA--but strongly suggest anyone with USAA drop them immediately, and anyone considering letting ServPro of Montgomery County, Tennessee do any work for them seriously rethink the matter. Multiple lawyers have told me bad things about USAA. Other policyholders, likewise, have said they're only good for automobile insurance, but not homeowner's. For me, unfortunately, having USAA insurance is like having no insurance at all.

I am in the process of filing a consumer complaint with the state office of insurance. I have never had such a difficult time dealing with an insurance company in my life. I cannot recommend strongly enough that others avoid USAA insurance. Their agents communicate no concern for my mother or her situation, which has disrupted her plans to move to the condominium. I do recommend Liberty Mutual as the best insurance company I’ve ever dealt with regarding service and claims. Take your business to another insurer, perhaps Liberty Mutual.