Fraudulent activity on your account or identity theft can be debilitating, take up a great deal of time and effort, and cost you significantly. Knowing who to contact at USAA when something doesn’t look right, or you find hidden fees on your account can be difficult. So what do you do when you report fraud, but USAA doesn’t help? We explain.
Bank accounts with USAA have federal protection against fraud thanks to Federal Reserve Regulation E. Credit cards come with § 1026.12 Special credit card provisions, which state that consumers are only liable for up to $50.
Yes, if there is legitimate fraud. USAA has multiple benefits based on the financial service you have, including personal identity theft protection, which can provide reimbursement of up to $1,000 for any costs to restore your identity, and a zero liability policy for fraud.
However, the zero liability policy does not extend to situations where you are found at fault or where you are engaging in peer-to-peer transactions like Zelle or Venmo.
If you see any type of fraudulent or suspicious activity on any USAA account, you have to contact USAA immediately. There are many ways to contact USAA for fraudulent or suspicious activity:
Identity Theft:
USAA Credit Cards:
After you make your report, USAA will give you information on how the fraudulent activity will be handled, what you have to do moving forward, if anything, and the process for reimbursement or provisional credit.
USAA Bank Debit Cards:
After you make your report, USAA will give you information on how the checking account or debit card fraudulent activity will be handled, what you have to do moving forward, if anything, and what the process will be for reimbursement or provisional credit.
The federal government recommends that anyone who is the victim of a fraudulent USAA account opened in their name not only contact USAAl but report any fraud to the Federal Trade Commission.
Yes, USAA legitimately investigates every report of fraud. In many cases, if you report the fraudulent activity and there’s clear evidence that you did nothing wrong, you get reimbursed and don’t necessarily hear back from them. Even if you don’t hear back from them, it’s in their best interest to investigate every situation because they want to be certain it was legitimate fraud and that the people responsible are caught if possible. However, there are situations where USAA has decided not to assist customers because the consumer was found somewhat at fault for the fraudulent activity. One customer explained:
“Fraudulent activity was made on my bank account on 02/18/2022. There were 3 different transactions paid through Zelle; $250, $251, and $253. Someone accessed my bank account acting as USAA (there call to me read USAA as caller ID and with their actually **** phone number). This is a fraudulent claim dispute that the bank decided not to assist me with because they said it was my fault that I offered information for the phisher to use to access my bank account. Even though, I explained to them, all they had to do was contact Zelle and request for those funds to not be processed, knowing that they were fraudulently made. I could not contact Zelle myself, as they said it needed to be dealt with by my bank because the transactions were not made on their app. USAA has not tried to resolve this issue. They made many mistakes in this process and did not remedy this by acting promptly to my phone calls. In the first phone call they said they submitted a fraudulent claim, three days later, they said the claim was never made. Then they said the claim was not in my favor. I then sent a letter to the bank on my app, which I was told to do by USAA, to reopen that claim. A week later I called them back to check on this new claim, and they told me it was misrouted and never seen by the right department. At this point, the Zelle transaction has been processed, all because of their incompetence and delay in taking action and taking correct actions. I also received an email from USAA a few days after the fraudulent activity saying “if the Zelle recipient does not create an account in 7 days, your account with be reimbursed”. So that right there proved to me that they had the power to contact Zelle and cancel those transactions, immediately after they were made on the very first day I contacted them about it all. Because of their negligence and unaccountability, I am out $754. I am also having to change banks. I was a customer of theirs for 10 years.”
If someone gets ahold of your bank account number or your credit card number, it can cause you financial problems and it can hurt USAA.Scammers can:
Still not having any luck with USAA? If you aren’t getting a response or the response you get isn’t satisfactory, consider consumer arbitration.
Share your complaint about USAA with FairShake today.
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