Another great benefit of serving
October 1st, 2007 (5:03 pm) by Troy-I have mentioned before in previous posts about the great benefits of being in the military and what all they have to offer. I have talked about the discounts at restaurants, hotels, and other establishments. In addition I also talked about the great specialty services that are only available to the military, like USAA insurance. USAA offers a lot of great services like banking, insurance, loans and other similar services. I already use them for homeowners, life and auto insurance so this weekend as I was shopping around for a vehicle I thought I would check them out for a car loan…and boy am I glad that I did.
When I do major purchases like this I tend to get pretty OCD and research the fire out of everything. Besides all the research I did on the vehicle like safety ratings, consumer reviews and critic’s comments I also researched the loan part of the deal. I searched around for all the interest rates in my area and some that are offered here by national companies. I was also on the USAA site at the same time trying to figure out what my insurance would be on this new vehicle. In doing so, I thought I would check them out on the loan rates also. I was able to apply over the web on their site and get approved. I was blown away at the how quick and easy it was. Their rates are as low as 4.95% which beats anyone else that I have looked at. In addition they do not do compound interest financing, which is where the first year or so of payments is all interest and very little principle. Instead they do simple, fixed interest which means the amount of interest in each payment is the same through the life of the loan. So not only is that better if you decide to pay it off early, but also it gives you more and faster equity in the vehicle.
Now I know this may sound like a commercial for USAA, but it is not. This is a customer testimony to what a great company and what great services they provide to only military clientele. You know when you see the progressive or Gieco commercials, they all mention several companies they are cheaper than but USAA is never one of them.
If you are in the military and need any of the services they provide, you are a fool for not looking to them as an option. In the world of car buying, the buyer wields much more power when they can walk in with a check for the amount rather than trying to finance through the car dealer. So as someone is looking at whether they are going to stay in the service or not, measuring these benefits may be tough but should strongly be considered. When the best a bank can do is 8% interest and a place like USAA can do it for essentially half that amount, then I would consider that a benefit not to be overlooked.
**NOTE, Troy is a 1SG in the New York Army National Guard and writes several blogs on his website at http://www.bouhammer.com**