My home insurance through Costco Connect which was a great value was sold to another company/affiliate, whatever it was. My premium increased +30% and their coverage is not as good as what I previously was getting. I am looking at different options and wondering if anyone has experience with USAA. Are their rates competitive/low?
OT - Home Insurance USAA
- Thread starter PSUForever
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USAA is a tremendous company. Like most companies, depending on different factors, your rate might be competitive with them or it might not. Every company has different factors that they put more importance on in their rating, but if they are competitive, they would be a solid company to have your insurance with.
USAA is arguably the best
It does matter where you live though--average increases were about 7-10% in 2025 but if you live in a high-risk state, like Florida, then a 30% jump isn't that shocking.
Good luck but definitely call USAA if you meet their qualifications
I also have Erie and you're correct--the fact they don't spend much money on marketing keeps their prices lower. Only negative is you can't file a claim online (last I checked) but that's a minor inconvenience.
Been with USAA since 1982 as a 2Lt, first just for auto insurance. When USAA Federal Savings Bank emerged in 1983, I migrated my banking there as well. Since then I added home/life insurance, as well as some investments. I'm sure there are certain services you may find cheaper elsewhere, but I've been extremely satisfied with their collection. They also do annual payouts to customers from their "Subscriber Savings" as well as (for me) "USAA Senior Bonus Distribution."
Thank you. I live in Southern California so not a low risk state. I will check out USAA and see what they can offer.
I have them though I dont know if the rates are low or not, haven't shopped around in years. The rates have gone up but we also had claims for the house (broken pipe flooded basement) and 2 auto (rear ended twice by distracted drivers, one was by an illegal) and MD rates are higher generally. They handled the claims quickly IMO opinion to that is a positive.
Have been a member of USAA for about 24 years now - have credit cards, bank accounts, car loans, insurance, etc. through them. Their customer service is, IMO, second to none in all aspects - especially when traveling abroad. We used to have home owner's insurance through them up until about 2020. By way of background, we built a new home in 2009 and of course had USAA homeowner's insurance at the time. As with many new developments, trees/forests were gutted and re-planted for uniformity's sake. We basically lived in a wind tunnel as a result. Over time, we had probably four claims on our roof - started with shingles blowing off and being replaced to eventually having to reinstall an entire new roof. This over a period of about five years. As new homeowners, we never thought twice about using insurance to pay for the damages - from the relatively low ($1,000's) to the roof replacement - it seemed like that was what insurance was for.
Around 2020, we bought a new home and I called USAA to have our insurance moved to the new property. Because it was over a million dollars, USAA uses a third party partner to cover it. We were told then we would not be able to get insurance because we had so many claims previously. Apparently, there is some kind of insurance 'blacklist' for owners who use their insurance a certain number of times within a certain time period (sort of like credit - over time, not using your insurance will cause you to drop off the blacklist). Obviously, we had several claims on our roof that ultimately led to replacement, but unbeknownst to us, each claim is a mark against you and will harm you in getting new insurance. Obviously, this was very distressful with a new home purchase; I filed a complaint with USAA about being denied and spoke with a high level employee about it. He basically said there was nothing they could do, and while apologetic, was not going to really do much about it. We ended up having to settle for some cut rate insurance to complete the purchase, but no major insurance companies would work with us until we dropped off the blacklist. So, that is on us a bit because I guess we should know better than to use the thing we're paying for to do the thing it was intended for, but I would gladly work with USAA again for insurance just because the convenience and customer service is so good (and we still have most of our money tied up with them). My car insurance has more than doubled in the past five years with them despite having no accidents or claims, so my guess is they are not going to be on the cheaper end if that is what you're looking for. Happy to answer any other questions though - good luck.
I will also agree that even if USAA does not give you the best rate (they will still be competitive), you are going to be satisfied with their customer service and claim handling. I've had them for 25 years now for bank accounts, life, auto, etc. Probably one of those cases where taking the lowest bid can be a red flag for customer experience. My only drawback is that there are no physical banks. However, I can use any ATM anywhere and be automatically refunded the ATM fees.
Yeah, that is the thing with homeowners insurance, if you file claims it makes your rates go up at the next company or sometimes the next company won't even insure you because of making claims. Filed claims on our first home for water damage(because we were young, poor and just starting out and couldn't afford the thousands of dollars to fix) when we went to move and get new insurance they started telling us we may not be able to get a new policy or would have to pay more because we filed some claims. I mean WTF!!
Yeah, I forget what the 'list' is called, but it's an established thing - something like four claims over five years and you're untouchable (has nothing to do with amounts; just frequency). You would think preventative claims would be preferable to a massive claim, but it's the opposite. Insurance is a scam either way and we've just accepted that you have to have it for everything, despite it working actively against you.
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Ask people who’ve had large claims if it’s a scam. It’s not meant to be a maintenance policy, it’s there for major losses.
To me it's just gouging people to take huge rate increases. Seems like a pure profit grab. Did my policy all of a sudden take a 30% increase in costs to service?
I used to work in the business of selling products to Costco, Walmart, etc. If you walked into Costco and told them one of your products that they had been buying from you is now going to cost them 30% more then they couldn't show you the door fast enough and that product is gone from Costco. Same with Walmart. These big retailers don't want any increases and of course accept them over the years but max increases are about 5%. And even those you need all your ducks in a row. You will need to show to them how your costs from your suppliers have gone up and the increase you are passing on to them are justified. And even at that they could just say well that is too bad but if you still want distribution at Costco then you don't take the price increase. You certainly can't simply take a price increase to enhance your profit margin.
I used to work in the business of selling products to Costco, Walmart, etc. If you walked into Costco and told them one of your products that they had been buying from you is now going to cost them 30% more then they couldn't show you the door fast enough and that product is gone from Costco. Same with Walmart. These big retailers don't want any increases and of course accept them over the years but max increases are about 5%. And even those you need all your ducks in a row. You will need to show to them how your costs from your suppliers have gone up and the increase you are passing on to them are justified. And even at that they could just say well that is too bad but if you still want distribution at Costco then you don't take the price increase. You certainly can't simply take a price increase to enhance your profit margin.