Apologies in advance for this lengthy response. It’s sort of cathartic.
I have never reported our experience with USAA because of the loyalty factor so many have for this company, and that’s great. But you asked, so…ours was horrible. We initially went with them due to price; with a California home and two teenage drivers they had the lowest rates.
First issue: a wooden fence blew down during a freak wind event. Called and they told me what they would pay. I had to do all of the leg work. Find fence contractors, get estimates, schedule the work, etc. Other than sending a check to me, they didn’t really do anything. I wasn’t really upset at the time, just sort of disappointed. But hey, saving money!
Second, and biggest, issue: our youngest began delivering pizzas with his car. My wife and I called (using speakerphone) to make sure he would be covered. A very nice young man wrote an endorsement for, if I remember correctly, other uses. Cost us less than $100. Great, or so I thought. Several months later USAA sent us a check for around $70 with the notation refund, no other detail. OK, very nice, these people are great. Saving money!
Well…when a rock sent flying from a dump truck shattered his windshield, he called us. We were up in OR so I had him call USAA to set up an appointment. When he told me it would take 9 days to get it fixed I found that strange. So I called. Why should this take so long and btw, he needs his car for work. Oh, what does he do? He delivers pizzas. At this point, the lady on the phone literally begins screaming at me. “WE DON’T COVER FOR PIZZA DELIVERY. HE CAN’T DO THAT. HE’S JEOPARDIZING YOUR ENTIRE POLICY.” When I calmly asked her to check for the additional endorsement we paid for over a year ago she told me no such endorsement existed and they would never write such an endorsement. We went back and forth with her and a supervisor with their claims about never writing that endorsement until they backtracked several times and finally admitted that they had received money for an additional endorsement (unspecified), had canceled that endorsement without informing us, had refunded us a portion of that canceled endorsement (remember that refund check?), and that our youngest had been driving, essentially, uninsured during his delivery times. And no, they will not cover him in the future. Spent an entire day, remotely, finding other insurance.
So…based on what others have reported and our experience, I would be very wary of insuring with USAA without something in writing. As always, YMMV.