Anyone ever use USAA's Car Buying Service?

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you can do just as good, if not better, on your own if you halfway know how to negotiate.

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We have USAA. They have great mortgage rates, too.

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I always went with them first to get a fair rate, but then shopped around with them as my reference point. I was always able to find folks to go lower.

Same thing happend with homeowners insurance. I stayed with them for my first house, but after moving to a larger house, I found USAA to be ridiculously high. Had to break up with them.


But regarding a car buying service, I would recommend trying to negotiate first on your own. Go in there with the dealer invoice prices and rebate information and see what you can do. Remember NOT to tell the dealership anything about how you plan to finance or even whether you intend to trade-in a vehicle. Just get a written offer that includes all fees. Negotiate out things like "holdback". The dealer says this is the fee that they pay to get cars on lots. That's true, but what they don't tell you is it is a deposit that they get back. So it's not a fee that customers need to pay for.

But don't buy on that day or even the next day. Use the next day to see if they can go down a few hundred. After you have completely exhausted your efforts (when the dealership stops calling you), THEN call USAA and give them the price that the dealership wouldn't give you. It will be worth the experience of trying to do it on your own.

I tried again a year ago and found they were just over twice as high as what I'm paying now with Travellers. The lady I chatted with said the reason was their figures for the replacement cost of my home.

But they're like an old girlfriend with voodoo poonanny. I keep trying to get back with them, but I keep getting what seems like terrible reasons for not letting me back in.