Interesting CL Difference DCU vs. Alliant

[ntx]

Hi All,

I started visiting this forum in early August. At the time I had my auto loan from Oct. 2011, and a USAA Visa $3,000 from Feb. 2012. I had BK7 in 2005, and only a Credit One card from 2007-2010, and HSBC from 4/2010, both $1,000 limit. (Closed Credit One for HSBC, closed HSBC for USAA Visa). No baddies but a thin file since BK. EQ on 8/7 was 657 ( myFICO )

Now, three months later, I have the car loan plus a total of 11 tradelines - 3 store cards from GE, and 8 Visa/MC/Discover/Amex from decent lenders (all in sig). Total CL was $3,000, now is $17,800.    EQ was 658 on 10/31, though some of the new tradelines haven't reported yet.

This was done in two app sprees, one in early August and a smaller one in the past week. In all, 10 out of 13 apps approved (Chase & Discover on recon). I did have a big boost from USAA, where I now have Visa, MC, & Amex. I've been a member for 14 years, but have never had anything from them beyond auto & renter's insurance. Still, I'm sure that long relationship helped some. The 3 denials were from Barclay's, BoA, and Amex Zync.

BTW I'm self-employed, and I don't make all that much money, so I'm especially amazed at this progress. And I owe it all to the info & shared knowledge that the members here freely share!

Obviously I'm heading to the garden for a long time now.

The main reason I wanted to post though was to let everyone know about my last two apps, DCU last Thursday and Alliant today. I chose them because I've read here they are BK-friendly. I opened a $5 share account at each a couple of weeks ago. I do intend to deposit more into both, but haven't yet.

Both pulled EQ to join, and again to apply for their card. I called them and asked them specifically if they could use the same pull, and they both said no. ( Total of 8 HP on EQ for me now - 3 USAA, 2 DCU, 2 Alliant, Discover )

Here's what I found most interesting though. Both pulled exactly the same report, separated by 4 days. Neither my EQ score nor any reporting balances changed during that time. The only difference is that Alliant would have seen the DCU pulls.

Anyway, as you can see in my sig, DCU approved me for $3,800 CL, while Alliant approved me for "only" $1,000. Now I'm very happy with that - I'm not complaining, it's a great starting CL under my circumstances.

I just found it interesting that approval guidelines & policies can vary so much, since everything else was about the same.

NTX

[visorboy1974]

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@ntx wrote:

Anyway, as you can see in my sig, DCU approved me for $3,800 CL, while Alliant approved me for "only" $1,000. Now I'm very happy with that - I'm not complaining, it's a great starting CL under my circumstances.

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Alliant likes to see what you do with the card for the first 6 months before they'll consider you for an increase.  I had a BK7 in '06, was approved in '10 for $500.  6 months of steady, frequent usage got me bumped to $15K.  Use the card and they'll reward you.    

[ntx]

Thank you for the info - will definitely move them up in the rotation!

[jsickz32]

When you applied for DCU cc didnt they ask you for the amount you wanted? Iirc they asked me the amount i wanted and i put 7.5k and was approved but online it showed that only 2k was my cl because they needed to see paystubs, bank statements and DL to give the 7.5k i asked for.

[ntx]

Hi jsickz32,

I actually applied online, and they never did ask that. That's just the amount they came back with. They only asked which card I wanted to apply for, and I chose the non-rewards one. I was stunned, as I expected more around the $1,000 that Alliant approved.

I did call them first to ask about the 2nd HP. When they said there would be another, I decided to apply online a bit later in the day.

Alliant didn't ask for paystub, etc,. but DCU did. Hopefully they'll take a checking account statement, since I don't actually get a paycheck.

NTX

[amercnchopz34]

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@visorboy1974 wrote:

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@ntx wrote:

Anyway, as you can see in my sig, DCU approved me for $3,800 CL, while Alliant approved me for "only" $1,000. Now I'm very happy with that - I'm not complaining, it's a great starting CL under my circumstances.

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Alliant likes to see what you do with the card for the first 6 months before they'll consider you for an increase.  I had a BK7 in '06, was approved in '10 for $500.  6 months of steady, frequent usage got me bumped to $15K.  Use the card and they'll reward you.    

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Visorboy.....was the increase by Alliant given as auto CLI or did you request It?

[jsickz32]

I also applied online. when i applied i filled out the info (including the amount asking for) and then when i was approved they ask me to choose the card i wanted. For me was either the non reward platinum at 11.99% apr or the rewards one at 14.99% apr.

[jsickz32]

Maybe after you send then income info they will raise your cl. Thats what happened with me.

[CS800]

DCU is not the greatest out there but worth the Free  Monthly EQ FICO

[mark1210]

Although this is an older thread I thought I'd post my results in case it helps anyone...

I bank with DCU, Alliant, and PenFed.  All three accounts were opened within the past 30 days -

PenFed:

Visa Card:  7500 limit (attempted to CLI, but was thrown into the "Pyramiding" bucket and told I had sufficient credit.

Have a car refinanced with them as well at 1.74%

DCU:

Main bank, love the free FICO and early DD.

DCU Visa (Not rewards) - limit 3500.00 - attempted to CLI (You have sufficient credit line followed by perhaps you should close some accounts)

Alliant:  Received a pre-approval for a refinance during application but they couldn't beat PenFed.

Applied for a Visa - asked for 10,000.00 - said a loan officer would be in contact with me in 24 hours.  Never heard from anyone but received an automated e-mail saying approved for $25,000.00. 

I'm a bit perplexed at the large ranges in credit - don't they all pull EQ?  Alliant has been very eager for me to open all sorts of accounts but my score had to have dropped with all the inquries and new lines of credit.  Perhaps they have their own scoring system?