... because it appears some of their customers are having problems. Beans, blogging at Chant du Depart, describes what he found.
So, there I was, Saturday, planning on holiday meals and planning bills (like car tag renewals and such) and while reviewing my bank statement (on-line, I'm not a total Luddite) and lo and behold, something was missing.
Utilities - check.
Cable/Internet - check.
Rent - check.
Death insurance - check.
Scamazon - check.
Food, food, food, food - check, check, check, check.
Drugs (legal variety) - check.
Car insurance -
Car insurance -
CAR INSURANCE!!!????Lo, and behold, the wondrous USAA of which I have been a valued and happy member, thanks to Dad and Mum, for a very long time, has not dunned my account for October or November.
. . .
USAA lady - "Hello, how can I help you?"
Me - "Why have you not dunned my account for October and November? And does this mean I no longer have car insurance?"
USAA lady - "Well, (goes onto short but clearly understandable explanation of how USAA has gone to new computer system and they migrated most data over, like phone numbers, addresses, email addys, shoe sizes, but not billing info)."
Me - "Just my billing info? Because that would be my usual luck."
USAA lady - "No, a lot of billing info."
Me - "So you've been answering a lot of these calls?"
USAA lady - "Yes." Deep remorseful sigh...
There's more at the link.
Of course, I immediately called USAA, and found that our insurance premiums had been debited as usual. However, our account was no longer listed as "verified", which meant I had to do that at once, otherwise our December premiums would not be withdrawn on time. That's in hand right now.
Full marks to USAA for sorting out the potential problem as soon as I queried it; but it's not so good that I had to find out about it through a third-party blog on the Internet. If you insure through USAA, you might want to give them a call to make sure that everything's on the up and up with your account.
Thanks, Beans, for the heads-up. It was very timely.
Peter
Thanks for the heads up, I will check that today.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the first company we have had billin/new system issues with since Covid1984 started. 2 utilities and Walmart have been a mess for weeks, all being blamed on new systems.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I don't think this "working from home" for the IT crowd is actually working very well.
Grumpy
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ReplyDeleteBlogger Night driver said...
ReplyDeleteFor the record, if you are insuring virtually ANYTHING OTHER THAN CARS (and certain pick up trucks) with/through USAA, you are insuring them through Progressive. This is a LONG STANDING partnership (30 odd years worth).
Bride spent several years as an SME for Progressive in ref USAA.
Exactly. In most states, they only insure cars.
DeleteI've got more vehicles with Progressive than I do with USAA!
I balance each of our accounts with every statement (banks and credit cards), plus I have my finance program preload regular monthly bills and deposits in advance so I can see how things are going.
ReplyDeleteNot seeing a payment made to an insurance provider would start alarm bells ringing the first month it was missed.
Admittedly, it was my own gosh-durned fault for not checking in October, but, dangitall, computer migration issues with billing are a known thing. If I didn't have my head sewn on, I'd lose it.
ReplyDeleteI won't regale you with my tales of woe dealing with Cox Cable, just, well, I gave up having deductions made automatically and now I make a point of going into their damned store and coughing like a 4-pack-a-day smoker while I coon-finger everything I can while using their pay kiosk.
Dagumit, they told me combonculators are supposed to have made things easier.
I checked the status with USAA. I think that I'm ok, but I appreciate the heads-up.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, one should never "auto enable" payments to anybody. For example, in Texas after the winter storm, some power companies drained people's bank accounts completely because the cost of power skyrocketed during that storm. With auto pay enabled, the power companies were able to pull thousands of dollars out of those accounts.
ReplyDeleteI talked to the gal at USAA. She sounded nice. The wheels come off on December 12th. Or, you know, I pay them.
ReplyDeleteI guess my husband’s recent encounter with a deer was kind of lucky since we were able to confirm our coverage. That said, USAA is still better than any other insurance company I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with.
ReplyDelete