USAA Credit Card

USAA credit card – offers many benefits & rewards that aren’t available with other credit cards.

The USAA credit card is only available to:

Active-duty officers and enlisted personnel.
Children whose eligible parents have or had a USAA auto or property insurance product.
National Guard and Selected Reserve officers and enlisted personnel.
Officer candidates in commissioning programs (Academy, ROTC, OCS/OTS).
Former military personnel.

The USAA credit card has a cash back version and a rewards version. Furthermore, they have a MasterCard version and an American Express Version. The Mastercard and Amex version are essentially identical. What we’ll look at is the cash back and reward version.

Cash Rebate Formula – Let’s start by looking at the cash back card and it’s rebate formula. Turns out it has a tiered system. For the first $2,000 in spending, you will earn 0.35%, for the next $2,000 in spending, you get 0.75% rebates, for the next $11,000 the rebate is 1%. When your spending is over $15,000, the rebate is 1.25%. Rebate checks will be automatically debited or sent to your address every January.

Total Rewards – Rather than choosing cash rebates, you can also choose to earn reward points instead. You can earn one point for every dollar that you spend on the card. You can redeem points for a variety of rewards like airline tickets, merchandise and gift cards.

But how good are the rewards? – That is ultimately what will determine whether this will make a good reward card. Let’s look at the different components.

Airline Travel – The USAA rewards program allows you to exchange points for the value of the airline ticket that you buy. There are some pros and cons to their method. Firstly you have to book the tickets through their partner agent Traveler’s Advantage Services (the “Airline Rewards”). They reserve the right to exclude an airline for safety or quality purposes. They also do not guaranty the availability of any flight, airline, or seat. Tickets may be booked online at usaa.com or by calling (800) 980-8722.

The good thing about the program is that tickets can be First Class, Business, or Coach, with no restrictions on dates, times, or seating. They can also be one-way, multi-leg, or round-trip in and out of any airports serviced by the airlines included in the Program. The other plus point is that Reward Value includes any taxes, destination fees, September 11th Security Fee, and any airline-imposed surcharges.

If the cost of the airline ticket is less than the Reward Value for the amount of Points redeemed, USAA will credit one of your USAA Total Rewards Accounts for the difference.

If the cost of the airline ticket is more than the Reward Value for the amount of Points you want to redeem, you will have the option of paying the difference with one of your USAA Total Rewards Cards or other card we accept or choosing another flight within the Reward Value.

Gift Cards – You can also use points to redeem for gift cards. The number of points required are listed in their program catalog (see below). Their partners are the usual suspects found in most other programs.

Merchandise – Their website has a “sample catalog” which is where I got all the information for the review. Because it is just a sample, I can’t say for sure how great their selection is.

Charity – You can use your points and donate to Habitat for Humanity.

Cash Rebates – You can also exchange your points for cash. But you need to use 10,000 points before you can even get an equivalent of 1%.

Fees and Rates – There is no annual fee for the USAA card. The APR is varies but could as low as 5%.

Verdict – To sum up, strictly on a reward basis, I would say that the USAA credit card is at best an average card. However, given how major issuers like Chase and Bank of America have pissed off their customers by cutting credit lines, jacking rates to ridiculous levels, those who are eligible for this card should at least consider it. I personally do not have this card and so cannot comment on their service and what level of credit you need to get approved. If you have this card, we would appreciate your feedback and comments (especially on the credit score you need to get this card and their travel reward features).