USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

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Redwing
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:09 am

USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

Post by Redwing »

Each month for the past 12 years, I've downloaded my USAA credit card transaction detail into an excel spreadsheet in order to track category spending. At one point I could edit the USAA suggested category and the software would remember the next time I visited the hardware store and know that the category should be home maintenance, for example.

Several months ago, this feature changed and all the category descriptions were reset to some new default. I can no longer manually change the description as I monitor my account. The only option I have now is to download the transaction history to a spreadsheet and change the category description in excel. With this approach, however, I have to recreate the wheel so to speak every month.

I am using a laptop when I am logged into my USAA account. USAA customer service is unable to help in this matter, including the team responsible for website technical support.

Has anyone else experienced this?
gokartmozart
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Location: Pacific NW, USA

Re: USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

Post by gokartmozart »

I have a similar process with USAA. I've designed my own custom categories and a do monthly download to a spreadsheet. I do this twice. Once with a USAA credit card and once with a USAA checking account. I did the downloads a few minutes ago and they worked as always.

I recall seeing something from USAA about category changes to occur "in the near future". Perhaps they are phasing the changes in and they've changed it for you but not yet for me.
Topic Author
Redwing
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:09 am

Re: USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

Post by Redwing »

I recall seeing something from USAA about category changes to occur "in the near future". Perhaps they are phasing the changes in and they've changed it for you but not yet for me.
Thanks. I was beginning to wonder if I was simply imagineering this issue. No one at USAA had any idea what I was talking about.

In the end it's no big deal to update categories in Excel, it just adds one additional step to a process that wasn't yet broken. Sounds like USAA sourced the project out to some coders without letting them know about legacy Laptop users, or folks that paid attention to category spending.
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Marmot
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Re: USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

Post by Marmot »

gokartmozart wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 12:44 pm I have a similar process with USAA. I've designed my own custom categories and a do monthly download to a spreadsheet. I do this twice. Once with a USAA credit card and once with a USAA checking account. I did the downloads a few minutes ago and they worked as always.

I recall seeing something from USAA about category changes to occur "in the near future". Perhaps they are phasing the changes in and they've changed it for you but not yet for me.
Quick question: do you miss having a local "brick and mortar" bank? We have pondered USAA checking.
Marty....don't go to the year 2020....Dr. Emmett Brown
absolute zero
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Re: USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

Post by absolute zero »

Redwing wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 5:17 pm
I recall seeing something from USAA about category changes to occur "in the near future". Perhaps they are phasing the changes in and they've changed it for you but not yet for me.
Thanks. I was beginning to wonder if I was simply imagineering this issue. No one at USAA had any idea what I was talking about.

In the end it's no big deal to update categories in Excel, it just adds one additional step to a process that wasn't yet broken. Sounds like USAA sourced the project out to some coders without letting them know about legacy Laptop users, or folks that paid attention to category spending.
That's a bummer. If you're Excel savvy, perhaps a work-around is to create a custom sheet with a lookup table that has your preferred category mapped to every vendor name. Then you dump your downloaded data into the custom Excel sheet, and it could automatically use vlookup to show the proper category for every expense. Just a thought. The ability to have everything setup the way that you want it within the bank's website/app is definitely more convenient though.
delamer
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Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:13 pm

Re: USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

Post by delamer »

Marmot wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 5:27 pm
gokartmozart wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 12:44 pm I have a similar process with USAA. I've designed my own custom categories and a do monthly download to a spreadsheet. I do this twice. Once with a USAA credit card and once with a USAA checking account. I did the downloads a few minutes ago and they worked as always.

I recall seeing something from USAA about category changes to occur "in the near future". Perhaps they are phasing the changes in and they've changed it for you but not yet for me.
Quick question: do you miss having a local "brick and mortar" bank? We have pondered USAA checking.
We’ve had a USAA checking account for about 25 years and our adult kids have them too.

Very happy with their service.

I would recommend having a savings account of some sort at a physical bank nearby so you have access to cash in the event 1) there was a problem with your USAA’s debt card/ATM access or 2) you needed to do a large cash withdrawal. Although neither has never happened to us.

There also is a limit on the mobile deposit of checks ($100,000 per day or per check, I believe) so if you frequently need to deposit really large checks, keep that in mind.
One thing that humbles me deeply is to see that human genius has its limits while human stupidity does not. - Alexandre Dumas, fils
gokartmozart
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Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:32 pm
Location: Pacific NW, USA

Re: USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

Post by gokartmozart »

Marmot wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 5:27 pm
gokartmozart wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 12:44 pm I have a similar process with USAA. I've designed my own custom categories and a do monthly download to a spreadsheet. I do this twice. Once with a USAA credit card and once with a USAA checking account. I did the downloads a few minutes ago and they worked as always.

I recall seeing something from USAA about category changes to occur "in the near future". Perhaps they are phasing the changes in and they've changed it for you but not yet for me.
Quick question: do you miss having a local "brick and mortar" bank? We have pondered USAA checking.
We've had this USAA checking account for about 8-10 years. It has worked fine for us. USAA reimburses* ATM fees, so every ATM out there works like it's "my bank's" ATM. When I have check to deposit, I mail it in using the no-postage-cost-to-me business-reply-mail envelopes USAA provides for the purpose. You have to request the envelopes.

One complaint I have is they recently simplified their paper/PDF monthly statements so much they are just useless. Looking at the account online one can still see all the details, but the monthly statements have been pared down to uselessness.

*within certain limits, which work out to many per month.
Opinika
Posts: 99
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2021 4:40 pm

Re: USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

Post by Opinika »

Quick question: do you miss having a local "brick and mortar" bank? We have pondered USAA checking.
[/quote]

We've been customers of USAA Federal Savings Bank for over 20 years. They got our business because they were early adopters of online banking i.e. bill pay. I have no complaints. On the rare occasion when there is an issue they take care of it.

BTW, I live in New England and probably will never visit Texas. I've never had any problem with local vendors not accepting a check from San Antonio. Similarly positive experiences with their credit card.
delamer
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Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:13 pm

Re: USAA Credit Card Transaction Detail Category Changes

Post by delamer »

gokartmozart wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 11:43 am
Marmot wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 5:27 pm
gokartmozart wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 12:44 pm I have a similar process with USAA. I've designed my own custom categories and a do monthly download to a spreadsheet. I do this twice. Once with a USAA credit card and once with a USAA checking account. I did the downloads a few minutes ago and they worked as always.

I recall seeing something from USAA about category changes to occur "in the near future". Perhaps they are phasing the changes in and they've changed it for you but not yet for me.
Quick question: do you miss having a local "brick and mortar" bank? We have pondered USAA checking.
We've had this USAA checking account for about 8-10 years. It has worked fine for us. USAA reimburses* ATM fees, so every ATM out there works like it's "my bank's" ATM. When I have check to deposit, I mail it in using the no-postage-cost-to-me business-reply-mail envelopes USAA provides for the purpose. You have to request the envelopes.

One complaint I have is they recently simplified their paper/PDF monthly statements so much they are just useless. Looking at the account online one can still see all the details, but the monthly statements have been pared down to uselessness.

*within certain limits, which work out to many per month.
I recommend you try mobile deposit using their app. You won’t go back to mailing checks. :happy
One thing that humbles me deeply is to see that human genius has its limits while human stupidity does not. - Alexandre Dumas, fils
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