USAA - will they dump me once BK filed????

[seanp951]

I bank wiht a large compnay that also does home/life/auto policies.

I also have my auto insurance / life insurance / homeowners ins with them.
We also have one large credit card bill with them.
We also have a second mortgage with them.

once we do the BK - the second will be stripped, the CC will go itno the plan.... my concern is what will happen to my insurance policies?

will they refuse to renew my auto policy? My lawyer said many credit unions will just dump you as a client once a BK is filed and they are getting stiffed on their accounts.. he suggested we shoudl just proceed as if we will get dumped.

one issue I was worried aobut is my life insurance policy. I am about 40. i took out a 20 year fixed rate policy / term insurance - when I was in my late 20s..maybe close to 30. i got pretty good rates as I was younger, etc... I was wondering if people have seen their life insurance terminated ina situation like this - or if those policies are often kept separate by these large financial institutions like USAA? I could get new insurance.. i'm still healthy... no major healht problemms.. but i'm sure it will cost more since i'm older.

anyone here go throuhg a BK with USAA? did they dump you?

thanks.

[Nofilb]

I can tell you my attorney told me to get life insurance before we file Chap 13. So, I don't think your life insurance will be impacted. At least I hope not... I do know insurance companies use credit to determine your rate, but I don't know if they use it to determine whether or not you're a good risk. I'm interested to see some responses to your good question.

[booradley61]

They may not dump you (but if your attorney is sort of expecting it, then plan accordingly) but I can tell you this: Your insurance rates will increase a lot. My homeowner's insurance company didn't dump me (it is paid through escrow) but they went up on me about $450 that first year. I've never been so mad! Filing bankruptcy is a sign that you're in financial trouble, right? Yet they raise your rates! It's not right, and they shouldn't be able to do that. My car insurance went up a lot too for 2 years, then went back down. My life insurance wasn't effected at all. After my discharge last year, my homeowner's for this year has gone down to about what it was before we filed. Just ridiculous...

[DYLAN150]

I have not paid USAA for credit card debt for over a year now and they just renewed my auto insurance with no increase. (maybe they will get me next year) I have not filed for Bankruptcy. My credit score is in Death Valley.

[SweetGeorgia]

USAA did not dump us, and our rates stayed the same. Went down this year, actually. We included a large credit card balance from USAA in our BK, but we also re-affirmed our car loan through them.

My husband actually still has his bank account there, and it's fine but they won't let you use the regular website (you get to use the mobile one that doesn't do as many things).

[SMinGA2]

I did not have life insurance with USAA - but did have home and auto insurance. When we defaulted on their cards, they cancelled the policies. Perhaps the better phrase is they opted not to renew - they didn't cancel in the middle of a term.

A life insurance policy may be a different situation, since the 'term' is not based on a 6-12 month period of time.

[ValleYum]

We filed Chapter 7 in December 2010 and were discharged in March 2011. We had 2 CCs, a signature loan, 2 auto loans, a checking account and auto & homeowners insurance with USAA at the time of filing. Talk about having most of your eggs in 1 basket – ugh.

Our attorney was astonished that USAA did not cross-collateralize our loans. I understand that is a fairly common perception – but they do not. USAA is *not* a credit union. USAA is a federal savings bank.

We decided to reaffirm the two auto loans. The reaffirmation process with USAA was fairly painless, they made no changes to our contracts at all (we have a 4.9% and a 5.25% interest rate on two 2006 vehicles with super low miles). The nice part is that USAA did start reporting our auto loans again on all 3 credit bureaus after our discharge. All reference to the Ch 7 and BK filing was removed from the auto loans (we never had been late before or during our Chapter 7 filing) and they are both currently rated I-1/Pays as agreed. I did have to make 1 phone call to get both auto loans showing up everywhere and they were very decent to deal with.

Both our auto and homeowners insurance premiums have actually dropped each renewal period after the BK was discharged. We live in a state that doesn’t allow your credit report to affect your current insurance product’s rates. I phoned to inquire about renter's insurance for when the house finally goes - and they stated they would cover us in a renter's policy and I specifically asked if the BK and new insurance product would be an issue and they said no.

We have gotten our USAA subscriber’s savings account distributions since the BK, too. They never touched a penny in our checking account although our balance is low - probably the original $100 I put in there to open the account - it was just to difficult too access their bank (before smart phones) and I was lazy and didn't feel like swapping everything back in 2004 when I opened the checking account.

We lost our online access to the regular USAA website but do have online access through USAA’s mobile application. It is the kiddie-pool version of the olympic-sized USAA website but it does allows us to schedule payments to USAA for our vehicles and insurance as well as print out policy documents and insurance cards. We never used USAA’s bill pay so we were not affected in that regard. The same login/password/pin information you used on their old website will log you in on the mobile site. https://mobile.usaa.com/

I did not have life insurance with USAA - but do have a term life policy with a big company in the SE and no problems at all - my rate did go up but it was because my age did, too!

I hope this information is helpful!

[DYLAN150]

Valle Yum, do you live in Washington State?

[ValleYum]

Yes, Dylan. Straight down I-5 and stop just before you hit Oregon! LOL

[lillymarlene]

That is just terrible how insurance companies can raise rates on people who can afford it the least. I'm 17/48 payments into my chapter 13 and none of my insurance rates have increased. I think it may be that Massachusetts and a few other states I've heard, prohibit insurance companies from increasing their rates due to their customer's bankruptcy.

[keepsmiling]

It is indeed sucky. I just pulled this up:

How does my credit history affect my home insurance and car insurance rates?
By Insurance.com
Posted : 01/01/2011
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[Compare car insurance quotes now.]
Insurance companies in most states consider your credit history as a factor in setting home and car insurance rates. If you have good credit, you're more likely to get affordable home or car insurance quotes than someone with poor credit.

While lenders consider credit history to gauge the likelihood customers will repay loans, insurance companies use the information to help predict whether customers will file costly car or home insurance claims. (Credit history is not used to determine health insurance or life insurance rates.) Insurers, who have used credit-based insurance scoring since the 1990s, say there's a relationship between credit history and claims. Theoretically, customers with poor credit are more likely to file home or car insurance claims than those with good credit.

The practice is controversial. A few states prohibit insurance companies from using credit scoring for certain types of insurance. Massachusetts, Hawaii and California don't allow credit-based scoring for car insurance, and Maryland has banned the practice for home insurance. Michigan also banned credit scoring for personal insurance lines, but the Michigan Supreme Court lifted the ban after insurance companies sued.

Maintaining good credit will help you qualify for better home and car insurance rates if you live in a state where insurance companies are allowed to use credit-based risk scoring. Get free copies of your credit reports each year from Annualcreditreport.com to make sure they're accurate. Follow instructions to correct any factual errors.

To improve your credit, pay bills on time, catch up on any late payments and keep credit card balances below 30 percent of credit limits.

For more, see "My credit affects my auto insurance rate?"

[lillymarlene]

I don't know if insurance companies can raise the rate for home insurance in my state, but I swear my insurance company sure changed my policy quite a bit this year. My rate is still the same, but they seem to imply they will not insurance any contents, and the conditions that must be met for coverage on any claim seem harsher.

[ValleYum]

Lilly:

OT but I saw on another thread that your BF had surgery... I hope all is well with you guys and he is on the mend!

[lillymarlene]

ValleYum, thanks. He does seem to be slowly getting better.

[budgetgal]

I'm with USAA and they still renewed my auto and renters after Chapter 7. I just have to do the special log in. I live in CA where they can't use credit Scores to determine auto insurance rates, so maybe that helped. I'm so glad they didn't dump me. I have been very happy with them. Wonder if I'll ever get back into the regular log in mode and be able to get loans again.