USAA Bank forcing customers to take a debit card (Dallas: sale, home)

[Rustybolt]

Originally Posted by RadiantBaby

Folks... Hacking happens with ANY PLASTIC. If you truly are concerned with security, then you keep all of your money in cash and hope you have enough room under the mattress for it all.

Debit is the way the world is going with cash. Deal with it. You can't fight it and USAA isn't going to make an exception for you alone.

Debit is the way the world is going with cash? Actually, cash is on the way out. I can fight it and so can others. I'm not a customer of USAA. I am a member. I own a sliver of the place. I also know that others are complaining too as when I called yesterday the person I spoke with told me I was the tenth person THAT DAY she had spoken to with the same complaint. USAA has had the option of an ATM card vice debit card for decades. They can keep that option. USAA isn't Time Warner Cable yet, and I'm doing my part to make sure they don't become that way. This isn't BOHICA. I'm saying no. If you are a USAA member and you don't like this change, call and complain! If you aren't a USAA customer, just answer my question "does your San Antonio bank give you the option of an ATM only card"?

[grjr]

Why would you want to use a debit card at all? I pay for everything with a cash-back credit card and then pay it off every month with a transfer from the bank account. Why is that not better?

[Rustybolt]

I agree grjr, that is better. I have no use for a debit card.

[flashfearless]

The major difference is that a hacked debit card gets you unlimited access to your checking account. If you're concerned about the debit card, shred it when you get it. I use a Citi bank double cash back credit card for everything almost.

[prim8]

His issue is that if he shreds, or leaves his USAA debit card locked up, he doesn't have access to his cash at an ATM.
Even though I don't carry my ATM debit cards with my and keep them locked up, I can still understand his concerns and an occasional need for cash.

[RadiantBaby]

Originally Posted by Rustybolt

Debit is the way the world is going with cash? Actually, cash is on the way out. I can fight it and so can others. I'm not a customer of USAA. I am a member. I own a sliver of the place. I also know that others are complaining too as when I called yesterday the person I spoke with told me I was the tenth person THAT DAY she had spoken to with the same complaint. USAA has had the option of an ATM card vice debit card for decades. They can keep that option. USAA isn't Time Warner Cable yet, and I'm doing my part to make sure they don't become that way. This isn't BOHICA. I'm saying no. If you are a USAA member and you don't like this change, call and complain! If you aren't a USAA customer, just answer my question "does your San Antonio bank give you the option of an ATM only card"?

Good luck with that. 20+ year member of USAA here. Those of us who have money with their wealth management program are having current issues as well, but fighting them on it isn't going to make things any better. It's a bottom-line issue for them. Member or not, they're still a business. **** and moan all you want, but it's not going to make much of a difference.

Adapt. Survive. That's the key to life.

[Rustybolt]

Originally Posted by RadiantBaby

Adapt. Survive. That's the key to life.

No! That is a defeatist attitude. I choose to shape my environment to my liking. I'm not going through life just to survive. I may be retired from the military and moved onto a second career, but I'm still a warrior and have the warrior mentality. Guess not all folks that served were able to hang onto that...if they ever got it at all. Change can happen if enough of us care. If you don't care, then stop trying to drag down those of us who do.

Here is a quote to energize you:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat".
- Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne, 1910

Now who is with me? C'mon folks, pick up that phone and call! Register your disatisfaction!

[Bo]

Originally Posted by prim8

His issue is that if he shreds, or leaves his USAA debit card locked up, he doesn't have access to his cash at an ATM.
Even though I don't carry my ATM debit cards with my and keep them locked up, I can still understand his concerns and an occasional need for cash.

If this is the core issue, is OP sure he can't call USAA and ask them to disable the ability to use the card for purchases? (I believe the term for what should be disabled is "Point of Sale" or POS.) Seems like it makes more sense to rule that out than to start a campaign.

[forest1492]

USAA allows you to set the set daily limits for each of the following on debit cards:

*ATM withdrawals
*Purchases with a PIN
*Purchases without a PIN

Why don't you see if you can set the two daily purchase limits to 0 (or as close to 0 as possible if 0 isn't an option). Seems like that would be a lot simpler way to handle this issue if you are worried about your card being compromised.

[Rustybolt]

Originally Posted by Bo

If this is the core issue, is OP sure he can't call USAA and ask them to disable the ability to use the card for purchases? (I believe the term for what should be disabled is "Point of Sale" or POS.) Seems like it makes more sense to rule that out than to start a campaign.

OP called and asked that and OP was told no, that wasn't possible.