USAA

Has anyone had to settle with these guys? My wife has had a long standing (20+ years) relationship with them on her auto insurance (her parents were in the military). This past year, we accepted their offer for a credit card, now can't pay the $24k balance. In talking to a couple of debt settlement companies, they both have said that we'll need to find a new auto insurance company if we are going to settle their debt. This has made my wife terribly upset, and for reasons that probably aren't worth explaining on the forum, she is blaming me for this.

So I'm putting this to the forum, has anyone settled with USAA? Did you have any other relationship with them, and were you able to maintain or save it? Or is there a way to somehow keep the relationship going (like though a $100 savings account), and then in 4-7 years after our credit is repaired, go back to them for auto insurance? We're not in the military, or veterans, so I'm concerned that if we end the relationship over this debt, we won't be able to use them again once we are credit worthy (just for insurance, not for credit).

I'm trying to put this in perspective for my wife, as it's just auto insurance, but she's not taking it well at all.