Complaint Review: United Services Automobile Association (USAA)

I have been a customer of USAA fo 36 years - since before the death of my Marine Corp fighter pilot husband in 1972. I've had car insurance and home insurance with full replacement/no depreciation with them. Then on October 17, 2006 my Special Needs adopted son left a lamp on his bed. It fell over - caught the bed linens on fire. He crawled in bed with me not telling me what had happened - he was 9 years old at the time and had been in Special Ed/Early Childhood Development since he was 3.

My home burned on one end, but temperature in the attic reached excess of 2600 degrees and the entire house and contents were devastated with sweltering black soot. Ruined everything. USAA's reps appeared saying "You have available x amount of money." What they failed to say was "we'll be damned if we're gonna give it to you, and will try everything within our powers to NOT pay ." They've done a good job of exactly that.

FULL REPLACEMENT HUH - do not believe them. First the house - my mother was very ill and I decided I'd just pay off most of my mortgage, put a small dbl wide on the property and go take care of my mother........WELL - if I do that, then they keep $60,000. SO - I'll rebuild.......even got a bid for $389,000 from a competent builder....their adjuster bid $342,000 and refused to go higher - it's been a battle ever since......and they reatained $41,000 which they won't pay till the house is finished..........that's bad. BUT it gets worse.

Contents coverage was $270,000.......itemized list is in excess of $300,000......and it's supposedly full replacement, no depreciation - even says that on the top of the page - NO DEPRECIATION.......so why are they withholding $93,000 approx in funds - refusing to pay until I replace the items...........what if I do not want to replace everything I had accumulated for 40+ years? I'm 65 years old - maybe at this age I should put the money to better use.  They don't care. They refuse to work with me - refuse to release any of these remaining funds - EVEN THOUGH I"M IN FORECLOSURE because AHMSI mortage company has refused for over a year to release the last 25% of my insurance structure funds so I can finish rebuilding my home and I had to take mortgage payments to repair my home.

SO here I sit - USAA had $21,000 structure insurace they wont' release till my home is finished - I can't finish without those funds.  USAA has $93,000 plus funds in depreciation - oh wait - they don't depreciate, right? BULL - now they call it "withholding" funds they wont' release.........THEY OWE ME excess of $100,000.......and I'm losing my home. HOW IN the name of God, did our country get this way.

Lots of complaints against USAA......class action suit? Only forked tongue unethical lawyers win and the rest of us still lose. and USAA - on my - they have a whole department of forked tongue lawyers waiting to earn their stripes by making sure the company does NOT have to pay what I've been paying for 36 years for - protection in case of catastrohic event!

DO NOT GO USAA. Years ago - they were wonderful. Until my home burned, I'd have invited everyone to go to USAA.....don't know if it's the change at the top or the greed in the middle, but they are NOT where you want to be.

God Bless - if you're with USAA - you're going to need it.