USAA’s Personal Loans

Complete Guide to USAA’s Personal Loans from $1,000 to $100,000.

I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know about USAA’s personal loans, so you can decide whether you want to use them to consolidate debt, make a big purchase, or cover a monthly shortfall. We have spent years in the lending industry and track dozens of lenders. We are going to bring that experience to help you make the decisions that would be best for your personal finances. 

You’ve probably seen USAA’s television commercials. They are a financial services company that offers insurance, banking, and credit to people who have a connection to the United States military. They pride themselves on their customer-centric approach.

The first thing we are going to look at is how much you can borrow from USAA.

Their lowest personal loan amount is $1,000. So, if you are looking for just a little bit of money to cover an emergency, USAA could be a good option. Not many banks will lend small amounts like that because it is tough to make money on small loans. So, it’s great that they do. If you are looking for a more substantial amount of money, USAA will lend up to $100,000. That is as high as any lender will go on personal loans. 

The terms for USAA’s personal loans are between 1 and 7 years.

They have a tiered system for their term lengths. This essentially means that longer terms requires higher loan amounts. They basically will not lend you $1,000 for a term over three years. You can only qualify for a 7-year term if you are borrowing at least $20,000. 

Seven years is a long time to carry a loan. It’s probably too long to carry a $20,000 loan. You will end up paying a lot of money in interest over that time. But if you are borrowing as much as $100,000, you probably need a term that long. The longer the term, the smaller your monthly payment, but the more you end up paying in overall interest. Even if you do get a loan with a longer term, USAA does not charge a prepayment penalty, so you should definitely work to pay the loan off early. If you have a longer term, making extra principal payments especially in the first year of the loan. That will save you a lot of money on interest over the life of the loan. 

Now let’s look at the cost of their personal loans.

USAA’s bottom APR is 10.19% and their top APR is 18.51%. The rate that you get will, of course, depend on your credit history, but it will also depend on other factors such as the term length and loan amount. 

USAA does not charge an origination fee on their loans. An origination fee is a percentage of the loan amount and comes out of the proceeds of the loan. The fact that USAA does not charge one means that when you borrow, you will get the full borrowed amount and the full cost of the loan will be wrapped up in their interest rate.

USAA primarily lends to people who have Good-to-Excellent credit.

I would think you would struggle to get approved if your credit score was below 680. It is important to know that their decision criterial will include credit score, payment history, debt-to-income ratio, income, loan amount, loan term, as well as USAA membership. You will need to be a member to apply. In order to become a member you will need to be active duty, guard, or reserve; a veteran; attending a US Service Academy, in an advanced ROTC program; you’re commissioning within 24 months; or your are a spouse or a child of someone who fits into one of those categories. 

If you think you might need extra support in getting approved for a loan, USAA will accept cosigners on their loans. A cosigner is someone who agrees to pay off the loan, if you fail to. In order to improve your chances of being approved, your cosigner will need a stronger credit profile than yours. If you can get the loan you need without a cosigner, don’t include one. There is no reason to entangle a loved in the process.  

If you would like to use the loan to consolidate other debts or credit card balances, USAA will not directly payoff your creditors with the proceeds of the loan for you. That’s too bad. Companies that do that show that they understand that the new loan is meant to replace other debts and not stack on top of them. That means the new loan won’t make your debt-to-income ratio worse. The fact that USAA won’t do this might mean that it will be harder to be approved by them.  

If you are late on a payment, USAA charges 5% of the late amount.

If they attempt to take a payment using an ACH draw, but it fails, they will charge you a returned payment fee of $25. It is likely that if you are hit with one of those fees, you are hit with both of them. That could get really expensive pretty fast. So, you will want to keep on top of your payments. 

USAA will give you a 0.25% APR discount if you sign up for autopay. I recommend using autopay because it’s a great way to make sure you never miss a payment. The fact that they will give you a discount if you do, is just an added benefit. 

How can you use a personal loan from USAA? USAA does not put any restrictions on how you can use a personal loan. However, common uses of personal loans like this include: credit card and debt consolidation, home improvement projects, car repairs, life events like weddings, funerals, moving, or family planning, medical bills, or just covering a monthly shortfall. 

Okay, let’s summarize the personal loans from USAA. 

USAA offers lower minimum loan amounts and higher maximum loan amounts than most lenders. Because of that top loan amount, they offer terms as long as seven years. They have competitive APRs, but that is a strong indication that they are likely to be fairly restrictive about who they lend to. If you have decent credit, you could get approved for lower loan amounts. But, if you are looking for a substantial amount, you are almost certainly going to need a strong credit score and a higher income. If you need a little help, they will accept cosigners. They do lack some of the features I would expect if they catered to people who want to consolidate their debt. Finally, they charge both late fees and returned payment fees, so you will need to be conscientious about making your payments on time. 

All in all, I think USAA would be a good place to get a personal loan. But before you accept an offer, you should always shop around. Every lender has a different algorithm for approving people. One might deny you while a better lender gives you an offer. You owe it to yourself to get the best deal you can. If you can, get two or three approvals before you decide who to go with. At The Yukon Project, we’ve tried to make shopping around easy. If you visit our marketplace page, you can apply to any one of our featured lenders. Behind the scenes, we will check your rate with up to 40 other lenders. Our partners use a soft credit check, so applying won’t hurt your credit score. We will show you all of the approved offers, so you can pick the loan that’s best for you. 

If you have any questions about USAA’s personal loans that we didn’t address, leave a comment below and we’ll try and get it answered. If you found this information useful, please like this video and subscribe to our channel. It really helps us out. Thanks for watching. 

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