Thanks again mates.
I was able to check the status of FNBO application online today, said approved for $8k. Logged into the Vantage West account today and it showed my Card in the account with a limit of $5k, so I'm guessing it was approved.
This spree is going to tank my AAoA, down to about 1.2 years from 2.5 years, but they will all age together and make the score less easy to move in the future.
Will update with what happens to my scores when the inq's and new accounts post. I'm kind of hoping that USAA doesn't release the Limitless soon, I waited so long and don't want to have blown it at the last minute...I was trying to wait until October 1st since that seemed like a good day to release it, but couldn't hold out =D.
Thanks for keeping us updated and congrats on your approvals! That was pretty fast considering Vantage was manually reviewed. How did that work anyway? I went to the site and filed out something on the side and it said that I would be contacted by someone in 2 business days (which would be today), but after visiting a little longer, I saw an application. Is that how you applied, or did you apply over the phone when they contacted you? I'm not sure if I should just apply or wait to be contacted. And if you applied online, did you specifically request a particular SL? It asks for "Requested amount" so wasn't sure if you put in $5,000 or another number or skip this altogether and applied over the phone when they called. Any additional DPs would be greatly appreciated! TIA!
Hi LadyJEsq,
There are a few things to consider when getting a card from Vantage West. They don't have the greatest reviews and they have fees for everything, including a $25 "Account Review" fee if you have a dispute with a vendor that you can't resolve. The language about that is a little strange, but a normal credit dispute has some protections from the CFPB that they can't violate, and their language for that is the same as every other credit card agreement I have.
I was willing to give it a shot, mainly because I would be using it almost solely for Charitable Donations, and I really only support one financially, so the chance for fraud is really low.
To setup an account was not really straight forward and I should've given you my experience first, sorry I didn't post it earlier =D
I went through these steps:
Join the Greater Arizona Bicycle Association for $15, be sure to choose an Individual membership (https://gaba.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=60&club_id=307669&sl=737781840) - They will send you a member card in an email with your membership #.
Join the Credit Union by opening a "Regular Savings" Account and depositing $5 (can be paid with credit card), you will need pictures of your Driver's License and the picture of your GABA membership card, just upload them both when they ask you to upload the supporting documentation - (Click on the red "Open" button under the "Regular Savings" column from this page (https://vantagewest.org/accounts/savings/) - Remember the username and password you create for this application!
Some magic will happen in the backend, eventually you will get an email that says something about your account being active the next day, so wait a day.
Enroll in Online Banking and eStatements the next day using your membership number that you got the day before. One of the emails you got the day before will say something like "Great News: Your Regular Share has been opened", in that email there will be a link for "logging in" to your application (use the username and password you created for the application). Under "Regular Share" next to the words "Account Opened" there are 2 numbers, your membership number is the first number with all the leading zeros lopped off. You can now enroll in Online Banking (https://vantagewest.org/login/onlinebanking/) using that membership number and the last 4 of your SSN, they will ask you to create a username and password upon logging in the first time, I recommend making it the same username and password that you used for the CU application for simplicity sake.
I made sure that their system would be able to transfer electronically to/from my main checking account and enrolled it. They use Quicken in the backend so everything went pretty good. They were able to verify my checking account electronically almost instantly and I can now use it for transferring/paying the CC bill.
It was at this point that I actually applied for the Connect Rewards Visa card, and yeah it was strange when they asked me how much I wanted the "loan" for. I just put $5k because I thought it a good number for me and my spend. It just said "Thanks for the application!" when I was done, and I never got a call or email from them, so I waited a day.
The next night I logged into the Online Banking and the Connect Rewards Visa was in there alongside my "Regular Savings" account with a limit of $5k. I got an email later that day from them saying something about a Credit Score notice, but when I logged into their portal I didn't see any notification or anything, maybe it was just their funny way of telling me I was approved.
I was able to apply for the card completely online without talking to a CSR using the above method. If anyone has any questions I'll see if I can remember and offer what help I can.
Looks like minimum redemption is $25, points expire if you haven't used the card in 2 years in this kind of neat system where all points are set to expire in 2 years, and everytime you use the card it resets the timer back to 2 years. So the points don't expire if you don't use them, they expire if you stop accumulating them =D
I was a little hesitant of the CU, and I still have my guard up kind of, but they have ~150k+ members in Arizona and they're online banking uses Intuit/Quicken so it is up to snuff.
Hope that helps. Try to keep this one hush-hush, don't want word to spread like crazy and they are forced to change the program =D It sounds like you went about this in the opposite direction, you applied for the card before joining the CU, I hope that doesn't cause too much of a headache for you! The whole process took 3 days, one for applying to the CU, one for applying for the Card, one for getting a yes/no.
Thank you so much digitech! Wow, that seems like a lot. I don't know if I'll go through all the steps or if I'll see if I can't simply apply. I left my work number, so if they do in fact call, they'll get my VM since I'm working off-site until Thursday. I'll try and apply without joining GABA and opening up a savings, and see what happens. I'll report back.
Thanks so much on the heads up on their reviews. Like you, this doesn't bother me too much since it won't be my DD. I had planned to only use it for CD, but I see it also applies to Wholesale, so on off quarters, I may select Costco and then I won't have to app for the Costco CC. We'll see if I'm approved.
So I decided to just app, like I said I would and at no point during the app did it say I had to join. It did say that my "loan" approval was conditional on me becoming a member, so I'll have to do that at some point if I'm approved. Said I should hear back in 1 business day to finalize app, so Monday/Tuesday would be my guess. Wish I hadn't waited and just app, now gotta sit through weekend to see what else I'll have to do. Guess, this is where I'll be glad (not really 
) that my weekends go so fast!
Good luck with the app!
Thanks digitech. Got a call about 10mins ago inquiring about the fraud alert on my EX CR (I didn't even know I had one, so will have to look into that) and once I answered a few questions, the lady said she would go ahead and submit the application. I thought okay great, I'll hear back on Monday/Tuesday like I initially assumed. Just got off the phone, was approved for the full $20k that I asked and now I just have to join an organization and then union to finalize the application. I'm amazed at how quick that was considering it was a manual review.
Sweet! I guess we can be the forum guinea pigs when it comes to this CU and this Credit Card =D
Congrats!
Thanks! Yeah we can. It'll be interesting to see how they code CD. I had a couple that didn't "code" as a charity according to US Bank, so they wouldn't pay the 5%. Hopefully, won't have the same problem with Vantage. We'll see. I'm excited! 
Huge congrats on the successful spree!
Side note: Oh snap... I just noticed that 'travel' can be a 5% category! 
Edited to add: I just saw the $1500 quarterly cap in the fine print; this is still a fantastic card, but the cap makes me a little more satisfied with my 3% options (at least for now). 
