Yesterday USAA announced they were lowering the cash-back percentage on their original Visa Unlimited Cash-Back card to 1.5%. It had been 2.5% for a long time. 
The reason they gave was “to remain competitive” and “to allow for new programs for members.”
Checked my USAA 2.5 Account… Read the PDF.
It goes to 1.5 but the PDF says I will get a Bonus 1% through the end of 2022… Plenty of time to decide.
It was a great deal. They let you put your USAA Insurance Payment on the card… giving a 2.5% discount.
I agree it’s still a good deal. But at 2.5% for all purchases it used to be a GREAT deal. I liked the 3% for USAA insurance and the small margin left over when I used it to pay for taxes. They dropped the use of the card for taxes immediately. I could also pay for utilities by the quarter and come out well ahead at 2.5% but not at 1.5%.
I guess all good things must come to an end.
Must be losing money. Dropping to 1.5% cash back is not acceptable. At least “loyal” customers have a reprieve until 31 Dec as USAA has declared they will add a 1% to it, equaling no change.
Come 1 Jan maybe they think we will forget? Ha! At this point about the only time Limitless does not get used is when something trumps it, like the calendar category 5% bonus with Discovery and Chase cards. I spend a lot, but that will come to a screeching halt.
Before this year ends, I plan to apply for the Alliant Signature Visa,
I do most of my banking there anyway.
That looks good, but who designed their web site? The credit card info page just scrolls automatically once you go down a little bit!
I’ve never had the USAA card, so I’ve been using the Citi Double, and more recently the Wells Fargo 2% card. I found a BlockFi Visa that pays 3.5% for the first 90 days, but when that drops back to 1.5%, I’ll switch back to Wells Fargo. 2.5% might be enough for me to scrap the quarterly “credit card cheat sheet” that I slip into my wife’s wallet every three months. But we spend way more than $10k/year.
Basically the Alliant card is just a 1.5% cash-back card with a $100 sign-up bonus. The 2% from CITI’s Double Cash Back card looks to be the best deal going after USAA stops the 1% bonus on their old 2.5% unlimited cash-back card.
If I can use it for utilities and taxes I might get the CITI card next year.
If you read through my link carefully all the way, you’ll see that the visa signature card pays 2.5% if you maintain an average balance in the checking account of $1000. The checking account is free and it pays .25% I keep that much in checking anyway. .
The Alliant card caps the 2.5% cash back: “Earn up to 2.5% cash back on your first $10,000 of qualifying eligible purchases (1.5% for purchases over $10,000)”
It’s effectively a $100 incentive… oops… correction:
fuzzbutt is right: it later qualifies the $10K purchases *"per billing cycle,"* which one must assume is 30 days.
I almost missed that too.
It is tough to go over 10,000 in a billing cycle.
I did it once on another card.
I was ordering Concrete to pave a long driveway and charged the deliveries.,
Would anybody care to opine on whether USAA might re-think this next January when Limitless cards go in the drawer?
I’m thinking they probably will not. There have been various occasions over the years when USAA did something to piss me off enough to close this account and that, moving biz elsewhere.
I don’t think they’ll back off the decision to cut back their cash-back card. They’ve been trying to improve the bottom line in the banking operation for the last five years or so, this was just one more step in that direction. I think that way too many folks were attracted to it that didn’t do their part in paying the huge interest on card debt.
Well it was just a matter of time. The new USAA business model is to squeeze as much out of their customers as they can. They just couldn’t resist changing this…but from 2.5% to 1.5%? A little overkill on the squeezing, don’t you think? I canned them for insurance a year ago and kept this credit card and the required bank account. Now the card goes in the drawer and the bank account gets closed, and I’m now totally done with them.
While I am disappointed in the USAA Credit Card change, I still like the Insurance. Over 50 years of being treated fairly.
BTW, take a look at Alliant FCU… just started 2.5 CB.
I signed up for the Alliant 2.5% credit card in anticipation of USAA canceling their card last summer. The rollout of this new Alliant card was a dumpster fire. I had to wait 5 months to get the 2.5% (because of the date of my signup). During that time I made three minor charges to make sure the account was active. NONE OF THE CHARGES GENERATED ANY POINTS. I called numerous times. I was on hold for 30 minutes both times as the supervisors put their heads together. I had two responses (which were both BS) as to why points did not post to my account.