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Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card

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Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card

Hrm from my email exchange with them back in September:

 

With the Share Secured Visa Platinum, your credit report is not reviewed during the application.  . Please call Lending Solutions at <snip> Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm and Saturday 8:00am-12:00pm EST or complete the attached loan application and Visa Share Secured agreement along with two of your most recent paystubs...

 

 




        
Message 11 of 20
QueenofReinvention
Contributor

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card


@Revelate wrote:

@QueenofReinvention wrote:

FYI - I did go read their disclosures, and stuff, and the rate is anywhere from 6.99% to 14.99%; based on your credit: https://www.sdfcu.org/Library/Documents/Schumber%20Box%202.1.pdf That's the link to the CC information on rates & fees. There is other disclosure information on their site too.


Actually that's for the non-secured version; that disclosure agreement actually confirms what McArthur says about the interest rate being a flat 6.99% for the secured card.

 

Ah heck, I stll have my old BOFA deposit sitting around and since I have a while before getting mortgaged, may well just get it as I've racked up a number of inquiries in January already.


You are right! My reading skills obviously are not up to par! Smiley Embarassed I just re-read it, and saw where the secured was on the right hand side. Thanks for pointing that out!

I'm curious though, in your email they sent you, why they would need paystubs for a secured credit card? A regular one, I completely understand, but for a secured one I really don't get the purpose.

Message 12 of 20
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card


@QueenofReinvention wrote:

@Revelate wrote:

@QueenofReinvention wrote:

FYI - I did go read their disclosures, and stuff, and the rate is anywhere from 6.99% to 14.99%; based on your credit: https://www.sdfcu.org/Library/Documents/Schumber%20Box%202.1.pdf That's the link to the CC information on rates & fees. There is other disclosure information on their site too.


Actually that's for the non-secured version; that disclosure agreement actually confirms what McArthur says about the interest rate being a flat 6.99% for the secured card.

 

Ah heck, I stll have my old BOFA deposit sitting around and since I have a while before getting mortgaged, may well just get it as I've racked up a number of inquiries in January already.


You are right! My reading skills obviously are not up to par! Smiley Embarassed I just re-read it, and saw where the secured was on the right hand side. Thanks for pointing that out!

I'm curious though, in your email they sent you, why they would need paystubs for a secured credit card? A regular one, I completely understand, but for a secured one I really don't get the purpose.


I think it's actually part of their their employment verification potentially rather than a straight income verification.

 

Their system is a little awkward for setting up a new membership so I think they cobble it together a bit; namely, anyone can join through the American Consumer Council (something to that affect) but the only place I could find for putting it in dumped it into my employment field which is of course not correct.

 

I simply went through it, and I assume I can get it fixed up later; however, they have a seperate form for employment verification (which they sent as an attachment back then).  Also for reference, I had to send paystubs for my DCU secured card as well, so it may be an anti-fraud thing of some sort as to my knowledge anecdotally DCU hasn't asked for income verification on the unsecured credit cards they've issued to people.

 




        
Message 13 of 20
McArthur
Regular Contributor

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card


@Revelate wrote:

@QueenofReinvention wrote:

@Revelate wrote:

@QueenofReinvention wrote:

FYI - I did go read their disclosures, and stuff, and the rate is anywhere from 6.99% to 14.99%; based on your credit: https://www.sdfcu.org/Library/Documents/Schumber%20Box%202.1.pdf That's the link to the CC information on rates & fees. There is other disclosure information on their site too.


Actually that's for the non-secured version; that disclosure agreement actually confirms what McArthur says about the interest rate being a flat 6.99% for the secured card.

 

Ah heck, I stll have my old BOFA deposit sitting around and since I have a while before getting mortgaged, may well just get it as I've racked up a number of inquiries in January already.


You are right! My reading skills obviously are not up to par! Smiley Embarassed I just re-read it, and saw where the secured was on the right hand side. Thanks for pointing that out!

I'm curious though, in your email they sent you, why they would need paystubs for a secured credit card? A regular one, I completely understand, but for a secured one I really don't get the purpose.


I think it's actually part of their their employment verification potentially rather than a straight income verification.

 

Their system is a little awkward for setting up a new membership so I think they cobble it together a bit; namely, anyone can join through the American Consumer Council (something to that affect) but the only place I could find for putting it in dumped it into my employment field which is of course not correct.

 

I simply went through it, and I assume I can get it fixed up later; however, they have a seperate form for employment verification (which they sent as an attachment back then).  Also for reference, I had to send paystubs for my DCU secured card as well, so it may be an anti-fraud thing of some sort as to my knowledge anecdotally DCU hasn't asked for income verification on the unsecured credit cards they've issued to people.

 


When I went through it there was no income or employment verification for secured products.  I think that is still the case.  There is a document on their website which states what documentation is necessary for each product.

Message 14 of 20
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card


@McArthur wrote:

@Revelate wrote:

I think it's actually part of their their employment verification potentially rather than a straight income verification.

 

Their system is a little awkward for setting up a new membership so I think they cobble it together a bit; namely, anyone can join through the American Consumer Council (something to that affect) but the only place I could find for putting it in dumped it into my employment field which is of course not correct.

 

I simply went through it, and I assume I can get it fixed up later; however, they have a seperate form for employment verification (which they sent as an attachment back then).  Also for reference, I had to send paystubs for my DCU secured card as well, so it may be an anti-fraud thing of some sort as to my knowledge anecdotally DCU hasn't asked for income verification on the unsecured credit cards they've issued to people.

 


When I went through it there was no income or employment verification for secured products.  I think that is still the case.  There is a document on their website which states what documentation is necessary for each product.


How long ago did you go through it?  This was from an email one of their CSR's sent me back in September when I was looking hard at them.  

 

I guess we'll see, I did the membership application earlier today and likely won't hear back for additional paperwork until Tue or Wed, at that point I can go through the process of getting the card from them.  Decided it made sense to do so given my roughly three year financial plans for a rainy day insurance policy.

 

Also interestingly enough it seems as though I can transact against the security deposit account as well both for addition and subtraction of the funds with the way they worded the secured agreement, and can even use mixed accounts to secure the card... definitely going to have to ask about those capabilities as it seems almost too good to be true in my situation.

 




        
Message 15 of 20
QueenofReinvention
Contributor

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card

Revelate, definitely post back once you hear, because I'd be curious to see what they require, as well as the addition of funds to the account. I saw the information that McArthur was talking about regarding docs that were required; depending on which loan/credit product you were attempting to acquire.

 

I wish I could open my account now too Smiley Sad But, I am waiting, because I want to do everything all at once, unless I find out they don't do HP's. If that's the case, I could open the savings now and just add funds, and once I had other things paid off and closed, then I could just do the secured card. Can't wait for you to find out sometime this week. Hopefully it won't be a painful process. I read a lot of the threads on here about certain credit unions (DCU, Patelco, to name a couple), and some of the stories seem outrageous for what they have to do/supply, in order to open an account. I've had online accounts and things before, and it's always an easy 1-2-3 process to open. I wonder if all of this seemingly "cloak & dagger" activity is because they are CU's?

 

Anywhoooo, good luck!

Message 16 of 20
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card


@QueenofReinvention wrote:

Revelate, definitely post back once you hear, because I'd be curious to see what they require, as well as the addition of funds to the account. I saw the information that McArthur was talking about regarding docs that were required; depending on which loan/credit product you were attempting to acquire.

 

I wish I could open my account now too Smiley Sad But, I am waiting, because I want to do everything all at once, unless I find out they don't do HP's. If that's the case, I could open the savings now and just add funds, and once I had other things paid off and closed, then I could just do the secured card. Can't wait for you to find out sometime this week. Hopefully it won't be a painful process. I read a lot of the threads on here about certain credit unions (DCU, Patelco, to name a couple), and some of the stories seem outrageous for what they have to do/supply, in order to open an account. I've had online accounts and things before, and it's always an easy 1-2-3 process to open. I wonder if all of this seemingly "cloak & dagger" activity is because they are CU's?

 

Anywhoooo, good luck!


Yeah, I honestly don't know why CU's can be such a pain at times, though admittedly you're essentially acquiring an ownership stake in the CU by depositing money into a share account, so I suppose they're a little more suspect on that... also given that their typical assets are dwarfed by that of the major lenders, individual issues of fraud or default may hit them comparitively harder and odds are their infrastructure isn't quite as comprehensive either.

 

I can definitely understand wanting to do everything at once; I'm having a terrible time this month having realized my mortgage date was going to be pushed out a ways, and then simply opening accounts because I can and it'll all age together anyway.  USAA MC which is just tradeline farming, the SDFCU does make good financial sense if I hit a bump in my personal finances as I have every so often over time, and now a Wally card for contact lens purchasing, freebie FICO, silly CLI chasing, silly TU report utilization, and the ipad I'd been planning to buy but never pulled the trigger on.

 

I'll let you know what occurs with SDFCU, will probably get dragged out towards end of next week with the holiday I'm guessing but if they're as flexible as they appear to be, I'll be pretty happy with them.  I won't know about a membership HP which I assume is there for some period of time, namely when my Equifax report becomes available.  I do know they used the EQ identification service so they may have a copy of my report anyway before the actual submission of the application so theoretically it might've all been done via SP.

 

Edit: historically it is just a SP and a Chexsystems, also there are some which are instantly approved and others that aren't; I fall into that second category... apparently joining this CU is one of the more time intensive processes hah; however, anecdotal data suggests it's just a HP for any of the loan products *except* the secured card which is no credit check... if that does turn out to be the case, albeit with the hassle involved, think this may be one of the more interesting secured options available.




        
Message 17 of 20
McArthur
Regular Contributor

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card


@Revelate wrote:

@McArthur wrote:

@Revelate wrote:

I think it's actually part of their their employment verification potentially rather than a straight income verification.

 

Their system is a little awkward for setting up a new membership so I think they cobble it together a bit; namely, anyone can join through the American Consumer Council (something to that affect) but the only place I could find for putting it in dumped it into my employment field which is of course not correct.

 

I simply went through it, and I assume I can get it fixed up later; however, they have a seperate form for employment verification (which they sent as an attachment back then).  Also for reference, I had to send paystubs for my DCU secured card as well, so it may be an anti-fraud thing of some sort as to my knowledge anecdotally DCU hasn't asked for income verification on the unsecured credit cards they've issued to people.

 


When I went through it there was no income or employment verification for secured products.  I think that is still the case.  There is a document on their website which states what documentation is necessary for each product.


How long ago did you go through it?  This was from an email one of their CSR's sent me back in September when I was looking hard at them.  

 

I guess we'll see, I did the membership application earlier today and likely won't hear back for additional paperwork until Tue or Wed, at that point I can go through the process of getting the card from them.  Decided it made sense to do so given my roughly three year financial plans for a rainy day insurance policy.

 

Also interestingly enough it seems as though I can transact against the security deposit account as well both for addition and subtraction of the funds with the way they worded the secured agreement, and can even use mixed accounts to secure the card... definitely going to have to ask about those capabilities as it seems almost too good to be true in my situation.

 


Several months ago.  DW just did it a month ago before deciding to app CSP.  Front line CSRs may not fully understand, but they do not require income or employment verification for secured cards.  

Message 18 of 20
QueenofReinvention
Contributor

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card

I totally hear you Revelate about "hitting a bump in the road." Having filed BK7 back at the end of 2010. I'm not Donald Trump, and do NOT revel in the possibility of that happening again, so with that in mind; I'd prefer to err on the side of caution in respect to any financial endeavors/cc's/loans, etc. I'm all for OPM (other people's money), and while I've been continually learning so much since my BK, I know that it only takes one bad thing to happen, to cause a downward spiral. As they say, "The road to hell is paved in good intentions."

 

I know that with a secured card banks have the possibility of some risk, but it is significantly decreased. Also, given that it's not probable (even when my scores rise) that I'll be able to get large credit lines, simply because my income is all over the place being partially self-employed (I also work p/t too), so I have different circumstances than some who've hit bumps, but have FT employment to sort of counterbalance things.

 

Anyway, out of all the CU's I've been researching (even those here in my state), SDFCU seems like it would be really good for me. I travel internationally, so the EMV will be great. Plus, I love the fact that I can add to the secured card at anytime to increase the limit with no credit pull. I want to get that card limit up to 10-20k in a few years! For my work, I travel, so it's hard to have "toy" limits for deposits and stuff; especially if you are in Europe for a couple of weeks.I don't like to use my debit card for this, bcause they place those da#n holds on your account, and they aren't released immediately, so that can put your main checking account in a precarious state if you've traveled, but have bills coming out!

Message 19 of 20
Ron1
Super Contributor

Re: Question: State Department Federal Credit Union Max for Secured Credit Card

I joined State Department Federal Credit Union for membership two weeks ago. They sent me an email to ask for ID.   They got it . They told me it's under review. No pull from any CRA.

 

 

Ron.

Message 20 of 20
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