Sign-Up Offers: Alliant vs. NFCU vs. PenFed

[haulingthescoreup]

I joined PenFed on a Thursday and app'd for the CC and auto loan 2 days later. I app'd for the card and was approved, and at that point, she said that I was pre-approved for an auto loan, and did I want it? Why sure, little lady.

I'm guessing that it helped that I am a federal employee. This doesn't qualify me in any way for membership --I went in through the National Military Families Association --but I was able to tell the CSR my grade and step (the GS pay schedule). I guess she was able to verify this, which kind of creeps me out, but at any rate, she could see my reports and knew my salary. I never had to supply pay stubs or anything else. In fact, with the auto loan, I kept forgetting to mail in the copy of the title. They kept sending polite, sad notes for a year until I finally mailed it.

So maybe after I joined, they did a quick run to determine pre-approvals? But I initiated the second call, not they, and I had to squeak out my request for a $5K limit, as I am a terrible chicken.

And since then, I've had the magic pre-approval screen appear twice, and I've pounced on it both times.


eta clarification about which CU

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 07-27-2009 03:55 PM

[Anonymous]

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@creditwherecreditisdue wrote:
Read two posts back.

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I can neither confirm nor deny that post as a general policy of the CU's.  My post was a recital of my "personal experience" having joined and app'ed all relevant CU's (recently) and general knowledge of posts I have read on the subject (other's experiences), and was not intended to represent a commentary of CU policies, since I do not know what that is.

If my experiences provide any useful info to the OP, I am happy to be of assistance.  If not, no harm no foul. 

Message Edited by txjohn on 07-27-2009 04:00 PM

[Anonymous]

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@score_building wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't believe PenFed gives you any online preapprovals when you first join.

After a few months/years you might get online preapprovals if your credit is excellent.

After you join PenFed and get a hard inquiry on EQ you can ask PenFed to use it to apply for additional products - credit cards, car loans. In some cases that might result in an additional inquiry on TU, but in most cases it won't.

PenFed uses the same credit pull for up to 60 or 90 days(not sure which).

Message Edited by refskuska on 07-26-2009 11:56 PM

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Thank you!

I was hoping they were more like USAA or Alliant.  Do you know anything about NFCU?

Do you know of any other credit unions that work like Alliant and have online preapprovals when you join?

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DCU, JFCU,

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Anybody with experience on DCU?  I thought I read somewhere on the forum here that they weren't very good.

JFCU -- do they have an open membership or some qualifying organization you can join?  Or is everybody a cop?

[Anonymous]

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@creditwherecreditisdue wrote:

The preapproved offers are truly preapproved. Both the SO and I have recently received offers that we accepted. They were processed without delay or inquiry.

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I have posted this before but I feel the need to post it again so people are not misled. These Penfed preapprovals are not a sure thing. I have received two for credit cards and have accepted both times. The first time resulted in an additional credit pull on my TU report and a denial. It wasn't long before the preapproval showed up again online, this time for an even higher amount. I accepted it again and was denied again with a 798 EQ score. It is a YMMV situation.

As far as NFCU goes, they do have an "offers" link but I have never seen anything there but just today I received a letter from them offering me their cash rewards card. It included a 5 digit acceptance code. I haven't followed up on this as I have two cards and a LOC with them already but considering NFCU products are so easy to get in the first place I would think a preapproval from them might hold some weight.

I don't know of another CU besides Alliant that offers a card, with the benefit of knowing what the credit limit and APR is before you accept it or not. This seems to be unique. They use a company called Andera to qualify you for these products and they pull a soft inquiry on EQ. I joined Randolph Brooks CU and they use Andera as well for membership but do not offer preapproved products so it is not just a matter of finding a CU that uses them.

Message Edited by hobojon on 07-27-2009 04:58 PM

Message Edited by hobojon on 07-27-2009 04:59 PM

[creditwherecreditisdue]

To avoid obliqueness and be perfectly unambiguous about the matter Her Ladyship immediately received multiple pre-approved offers from PenFed at time of membership. It is, therefore, their policy to give them to somebody. (Unfortunately I was not so lucky. I had to go scratch until about the 13th month point for them to bestow their largess upon Myself.)

[haulingthescoreup]

Basically, to sum up all the PenFed posts I've read (and written), most folks don't have offers at the time of application, but they might be there a few days later. And when they do have pre-approvals, they are almost always legit, without hard pulls, except for an unlucky few.

[creditwherecreditisdue]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't know of another CU besides Alliant that offers a card, with the benefit of knowing what the credit limit and APR is before you accept it or not. This seems to be unique. They use a company called Andera to qualify you for these products and they pull a soft inquiry on EQ. I joined Randolph Brooks CU and they use Andera as well for membership but do not offer preapproved products so it is not just a matter of finding a CU that uses them.

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This is good.

[Anonymous]

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@creditwherecreditisdue wrote:
To avoid obliqueness and be perfectly unambiguous about the matter Her Ladyship immediately received multiple pre-approved offers from PenFed at time of membership. It is, therefore, their policy to give them to somebody. (Unfortunately I was not so lucky. I had to go scratch until about the 13th month point for them to bestow their largess upon Myself.)

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I am not debating that folks receive preapprovals upon joning or at a later date. What is debatable is your statement that they are sure things. IME, they are not. As I said, YMMV. I believe that the policy you speak of is more like a software program that is prone to glitches.

[creditwherecreditisdue]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Basically, to sum up all the PenFed posts I've read (and written), most folks don't have offers at the time of application, but they might be there a few days later. And when they do have pre-approvals, they are almost always legit, without hard pulls, except for an unlucky few.

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[creditwherecreditisdue]

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@creditwherecreditisdue wrote:

The preapproved offers are truly preapproved. Both the SO and I have recently received offers that we accepted. They were processed without delay or inquiry.

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Res ipsa loquitur.