Marine | frmr Asst Sec of Defense | Goldman Sachs Energy Trading Partner (ret.) | Writer-Investor | 2nd in Command West House (no chance of promotion) | Will help any servicemember
I joined Navy Federal Credit Union in 1991. In those days, it offered competitive interest rates. NFCU has grown up a lot, and not for the best. It aggressively advertises to expand its membership but its rates have plummeted. Today it pays military members a quarter of a percentage point in savings and 5/100 of a percent in checking. Its money market accounts are less than half as competitive as generic banks. It obscures these dismal rates by requiring navigation away from the member's main "Accounts" page. NFCU claims "our members are the mission." That's no longer true. It has chosen an aggressive retail profit model resembling Chase over a customer service boutique that was a fine introduction to financial services.
USAA too. I walked after being a member for 42 years. Not even close to the same company it once was.
If USAA sucks so bad, why is their revenue growing? It’s a serious question. Everyone here speaking on USAA is bad mouthing them. Yet their revenue grows. I had an accident about 3 years ago and their customer service in helping me was tres magnifique. Anecdotal, but bought some goodwill with me for a other few years. https://news.ambest.com/newscontent.aspx?refnum=258170&altsrc=23
Adin M. Pfeuffer
2mo
Owen West 100% agree. The same can be said of USAA. Both companies have lost focus of their original mission and have grown beyond their originally intended base.
Ki Ho Kang
2mo
Same with USAA, which I have been with for 35 years.
Bryan R.
2mo
It’s a shame, but true. Although military members, retirees, and families still are the target market, that market is steadily dwindling in scale due to smaller force structures and proportionately less people serving. Best solution moving forward is probably a conventional bank or CU that has a side business focused on military clients and their families. It’s about economies of scale. Wells Fargo has 70M account holders, NFCU and USAA are at about a fifth of that combined. Nothing to sneeze at, but maybe it’s time to just bank like other Americans do.
Amy Mahaney
2mo
On top of not paying you on your money, Credit Unions do not pay income taxes that banks must pay. They lobby government to say they need to be tax exempt so they can keep their rates on deposits and loans more competitive for their members, but it sounds to me like they are just greedy. They get the tax breaks AND they don't pay their members. We're a local community bank in South FL, but we have all the online banking options of NFCU. We start at 1% APY on savings accounts of $10K and go up from there, money markets pay even more, and we currently have a 5.30% APY special for a 7-month CD of any amount, as long as it's new money to the bank. Happy to help if interested!
Daniel Deitrick
2mo
Yea, why is USAA paying Rob Gronkowski for celebrity endorsement? Shouldn’t that money be going into products or back to the members? Doesn’t make sense to me, also their insurance products which used to be best and cheapest in the industry routinely get beaten by competition.
Seasoned Executive with a track record of successful transformations in high-performing/potential organizations. Experience in Multiple C-Suite Roles.
2moFind “NFCU” and replace with “USAA”