USAA, the San Antonio-based financial services provider to the military, announced Thursday it is eliminating 265 jobs in its banking division.
The job cuts will occur in mid-November and affect employees within the company’s real estate lending operations in San Antonio, Phoenix, and Tampa, Florida. About 100 workers already have been offered other positions.
Of the jobs eliminated, more than 100 are positions in San Antonio in real estate lending and what is known as USAA Bank’s Real Estate Rewards Network, which handles home mortgages and supports USAA members during the home buying and selling process.
A statement from USAA said the company is providing affected employees transition services, including help with résumés and interview skills, and giving them 60 days to find other jobs within the company.
There are 269 job listings online for USAA’s San Antonio offices, which includes its main campus on the far North Side as well as newer downtown locations. Only two of those openings are in banking, however.
Employees who do not accept a new position at USAA within 60 days will receive a severance offer and outplacement services to assist with their job search. The deadline is just weeks before the company’s annual holiday bonus is traditionally dispensed.
“This decision was difficult, as we value our employees and appreciate that they go above and beyond for our members every day,” said USAA Bank President Chad Borton. “However, it was necessary as we focus on continuing to provide our members competitive mortgage products today and in the future.”
USAA, which is worth more than $28 billion, named Borton president of USAA Bank in April 2017 after its former top executive, Jaime Warder, left in November 2016 after less than two years on the job.
The most recent significant layoffs at USAA came in 2015, when the company cut about 100 jobs in its Addison, Texas, location. In 2001, the company eliminated 1,370 jobs in a restructuring that affected mostly San Antonio employees. USAA currently has a total of 30,300 employees.
The latest layoffs come amid a summer slowdown in the mortgage lending market and weakening home sales. Bankrate reported Thursday that mortgage rates have reached their highest point in seven years as the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate surged 10 basis points to 4.88 percent from 4.78 percent over the previous week.
Though mortgage applications ticked up 1.6 percent for the week ending Sept. 14, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey, that marks just the second time in two months that applications have increased, mostly due to a jump in refinance applications.
USAA is the nation’s fifth-largest homeowner insurer, based on direct written premiums in 2016, and it’s the business it is perhaps best known for. But customer service complaints about the company’s real estate lending services from the bank are frequent on USAA’s “member community” site.
In promoting the service, however, USAA’s website states that 92 percent of members who have used its Real Estate Rewards Network would recommend it to others.
A 2018 Bank RepTrak study ranked the USAA Bank as the most reputable bank among customers and non-customers. The study, a partnership between Reputation Institute and American Banker, first ranked USAA in 2017, when it came in first among customers and second for excellent overall reputation in the United States.
I am one of those that got laid off today. For my 11 years I have worked hard to do the best for our members. Because I love them. Now I’m faced with how to make ends meet. Am too old to start over. What does someone like me do? USAA you failed me. I might not be a veteran…but my son, sister, husband & friends are. And you pushed me to the side. I will pull every thing from you and campaign the rest of my days for everyone else to do the same. I really thought usaa was different. Boy was I wrong. You are just like any other company out there.
I am really sorry people lost their jobs today. I pray they find other work.
We had a terrible experience with their mortgage department when we bought our home. The manager was no better. At the time, we found it really unlike USAA to have employees so rude, indifferent, and lacking in math skills.
Sadly, I am not surprised by today’s news. Trouble could have been brewing in that department for years.
I understand you are hurt…however, USAA is a company, a business. Businesses have to do what is necessary to stay afloat. Wells Fargo laid off over 600 employees in their mortgage department. It is sad…but it is life. No business keeps people employed in an area that is not producing money.
However, to bash USAA like that doesn’t seem appropriate. They offered you 60 days away from work PAID to decide what you want to do. They offered many (I assume you also) a role in the insurance side as an easy transition to keep your income. And if that doesn’t work, they offered you a severance package and career search help. I think they went above and beyond vs Wells Fargo who just showed people the door.
Again, understandably you are hurt, but in these situations, count your blessings.
USAA lies to its employees. It pays less than the industry average. Since Texas is a right to work site, if you have any tenure, it will search for causes to fire you. It is not the land of rainbows it claims to be.
While, I am still a member because it is convenient because my family currently lives in SA, I have found USAA to be on par and average with my experience with normal large non-veteran, non- active duty banks about anywhere in the county. Pentagon Federal, and my hometown credit union actually treat me as a customer and member much better than USAA. I still have a checking and savings account, and have my insurance there, but I have moved all my other banking, investing, and loan accounts to another institutions that treat me better.
Read the reports everywhere by googling USAA bad reviews. It’s not just the mortgage department. Their insurance coverage and claims handling have also sunk to a new low. I have been a member for over 25+ years. I lived right down the street for the IH 10 location and watched them build it. Something changed with this bank several years ago. They stopped offering HELOCs. I sold my house in 2015 to someone using a VA and USAA mortgage services. IT ENDED UP COSTING ME MONEY.USAA kept canceling the settlement, submitting papers that were NOT signed by us to do this-fraud everywhere. I FORCED a cashout-so I could leave to Colorado, where I paid my buyer’s extra costs not to lose my new home due to those delays. I have read enough to see that I was the rule, not the exception. People have lost properties due to USAA. USAA has totaled cars, taken them and never sent settlement checks to the insured. I cannot still believe what I am reading and that the federal government has not taken action. They are even screwing active military members. Recently in March of this year, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. I had co-signed a personal loan with my son using a car he purchased as collateral. I chose to voluntarily let USAA repo that car. They took it in April. to an auction lot in Fountain Colorado. This was the epicenter of 2 massive multi-million dollar hailstorms this year. They sold the car for scrap metal on August 1st and expect me to eat the whole deficit as it was weighed and sold for scrap. The car was a very valuable car and should have brought a decent sum at auction, not $1000. THIS IS THE NEW USAA and how they are doing people every day. Read it for yourself. I DO NOT RECOMMEND USAA to anyone-most military folks are going to the Navy Federal Credit Union. They are treating military people like they say they do.
I was also laid off after 7 years of excellent performance reviews. I did my job. They kept people that dont even care about the member. So maybe that’s one of the reasons customer service is so bad. USAA is keeping the wrong people. As far as other positions with USAA, the insurance positions paid less than half of what I am making now. I have tried to apply for 6 other positions and didn’t get an interview for any of them. If they really cared about the employee they would have chopped heads where they needed to…the slackers…upper management where they have so many of them they do nothing but occupy office space and earn 6 figures. I too am too old to start over. For all I have given them it was very easy for them to take my life away.