NFCU vs USAA

1mom

1mom

5-Year Member
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Sep 30, 2015
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Family has primary checking/saving NFCU accounts and insurance accounts with USAA.
DS is deciding which to use while as USAFA. Has anyone use NFCU for direct deposits while attending USAFA and thereafter? We've been a USMC family, but are becoming USMC/USAFA family.[emoji4]
 
I've been with NFCU for 40 years. After retiring from the Navy my wife who is a physician, who was also Navy, and I retired to a small town in the middle of the country. While we do some banking in our little town NFCU is still our primary though the closest branch is about three hours away. Like you it's been insurance with USAA but after talking with our 2021 DS about it and an NFCU rep along with seeing that there is a branch in CO Springs, though about 30 minutes from the academy he stayed with NFCU. One of the things that sold us is the NFCU rep told us that once at the AFA he needs to call and they change his status for their checking account to active duty. That means he can use his debit card anywhere with close to no cost. The close comes in that they pay the first $20.00 of ATM transaction fees. We have been happy with NFCU.
 
Thank you so much for the quick response. We've been with NFCU for over 27 years after switching from MFCU. I'm thinking of keeping the NFCU at least until after graduation 2021 when duty stations consideration and branch locations of NFCU vs USAA will come into play.
 
I used NFCU for my entire AD career, USAA for other things, then worked for USAA after I left the Navy. I started banking with USAA and kicked myself for not doing it earlier. They pioneered many of the mobile app advances so important to the military lifestyle, as well as the use-our-ATM-card-anywhere-with-fee-rebate-up-to-x-dollars concept. NFCU, PenFed and others quickly copied those advances, so they are pretty much alike in terms of convenience. I think USAA is $15/month in fees, 10 transactions, any ATM. I've never exceeded it, never paid a fee.

I cannot recall the last time I had to go into a USAA or NFCU office to do business. In my entire Navy career, I did it all via phone and Internet, with some paper very early on - never even met a USAA employee until they flew me to San Antonio for a job interview.

They are both well-run and healthy. NFCU has certainly grown by changing its charter to accept other services. I do like having many things in one place with USAA.

You can't go wrong with either or both. They both understand the military lifestyle.
 
DS is with USAA and loves it. There is good reason to also have an account with NFCU in my opinion... having parents make large deposits while you're overseas and unable to do so. Very few brick and mortars with USAA. Fortunately when depositing the +$10,000 check from the sale of his jeep we were able to deposit it in nearby Jacksonville NC. Very soon their only brick and mortar locations will be at HQ in San Antonio and at the Academies. I keep encouraging DS to open an account with Navy Federal, which we have easy access to, should such a situation arise again.
 
We cannot ever consider any other banking/insurance provider. DS will be just fine. Thanks you.
 
I have NFCU and USAA. We use USAA for everything...banking (mobile deposit, mobile check writing, etc.) credit cards, home insurance, savings, investing, car insurance.
I love USAA. I have never been in a USAA branch office--ever in more than 30 years. It is designed to support service members and their families.
When my husband died--on active duty--USAA gave me some special crazy interest rate for a year and also a direct number to call for assistance--and then they sent me the only bit of reading material (not related to banking but more so to the death of a spouse) that made me feel the least bit better or at least understood. For this and for so many other reasons, I can only recommend USAA.

however, when it came time to buying my house--NFCU had slightly lower rates for the mortgage--and I took it; however, I regretted it immediately as unlike USAA, NFCU does NOT prepopulate the forms--I found the process messy, inconvenient and confusing.

So...USAA all the way!
 
USAA is definitely a terrific institution. Best customer service I have ever encountered. Just difficult to use for some weird situations.
 
kinnem said:
DS is with USAA and loves it. There is good reason to also have an account with NFCU in my opinion... having parents make large deposits while you're overseas and unable to do so. Very few brick and mortars with USAA. Fortunately when depositing the +$10,000 check from the sale of his jeep we were able to deposit it in nearby Jacksonville NC. Very soon their only brick and mortar locations will be at HQ in San Antonio and at the Academies. I keep encouraging DS to open an account with Navy Federal, which we have easy access to, should such a situation arise again.
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You can call USAA and request a temporary increase over the $10,000 daily limit. You tell them the amount you want to deposit that day and they can increase the limit that day to the amount you need.
 
Blackbird said:
You can call USAA and request a temporary increase over the $10,000 daily limit. You tell them the amount you want to deposit that day and they can increase the limit that day to the amount you need.
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That may be, but I wasn't going to trust a +10,000 check in the mail to Oki. We managed to get it done, so...
Also, they never mentioned that to DS whenever he called them. All they said was there was an insurmountable $10,000 limit via the mobile app, which makes some sense with current federal laws.
 
I also love that USAA reimburses you for ATM transaction fees for non-USAA ATM machines.
 
We've been USAA customers for over 25 years.

Banking, insurance, investments - YES.

Mortgage - shop around prudently. Customer service is not great. They are particularly slow. They need to raise the bar in this area.
 
Soldiergriz said:
Mortgage - shop around prudently. Customer service is not great. They are particularly slow. They need to raise the bar in this area.
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I agree with this. As a result, we have used Pentagon Federal Credit Union for our last 2 mortgages and they were incredible to work with.
 
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