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THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

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Anonymous
Not applicable

THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

A thread on CreditBoards inspired me to create this post:


 

 

So let's create a central post on Credit Unions with the following specifics

1. Credit Union

2. Membership eligibility: Anyone can join or Restrictive to certain locations / organizations

3. Hard Inquiry to join and which CR pulled

4. Pre-Approval for credit products upon joining? Ex: 1 inquiry to join + credit card

OR additional inquiries needed for additional credit products? Ex: Alliant

5. Easy / Strict underwriting criteria

6. Chex System pull?

7. Additional Notes:

---------------------------

 

K here is what I have so far, please contribute to this thread so we'll know how to pick out the best of the CU's.

 

1. Penfed:

2. Anyone can join

3. 1 hard inquiry to apply. Equifax

4. Pre-approvals offered

Same inquiry can be used for other credit products

5. Strict underwriting Criteria, Inquiry sensitive, new accounts sensitive, etc

6. No Chex pull

7. Great alternative to NFCU / USAA

 

1. Alliant

2. Anyone can join

3. 1 hard inquiry to apply. Equifax Pull

4. Pre-Qualifations to other credit products

Additional inquiries required for additional credit products (new policy here)

5. Not as strict as Penfed

6. pulls chex (I believe)

7. Lots of recommended from MyFico Forums

 

1. Digital Credit Union

2. Anyone can join

3. 1 hard inquiry to apply? Equifax inquiry

4.

5.

6. pulls chex (I believe)

7. CreditBoards lots of members are happy with this Credit Union.

 

Other notable CU's that we should discuss:

NFCU

USAA

PATELCO

CCCU

ADDISON AVE

JFCU

Message Edited by connect4 on 10-28-2009 04:01 PM
[Edited to remove a non-permitted link to an external website; however, acknowledgement of the inspiration for this thread is left in place. - Lel]
Message Edited by Lel on 10-28-2009 04:13 PM
Message 1 of 18
17 REPLIES 17
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

Re: Digital Credit Union

 

3. Hard credit report pulled when joined.

4. Pre-approvals offered. i.e., vehicles and credit cards

5. Not at strict as PenFed

6. Pulls Chex

7. Agree 110% - been a member since 2004!! Smiley Happy

Message Edited by moneycents on 11-02-2009 06:02 AM
Message 2 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

Hi, thanks for the post on DCU

 

So DCU requires a hard inquiry for membership? Can I use that same Inquiry to apply for a Credit card? or would a credit card be an additional inquiry?

Message 3 of 18
creditwherecreditisdue
Senior Contributor

Re: THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

On what information do you base your statement that PenFed does not consult ChexSystems?

Message 4 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

I found some reports on google that it does not. Although I am not 100% sure, and I have not experienced whether they do or don't firsthand.

 

Did you experience a chex pull firsthand from them?

Message Edited by connect4 on 11-06-2009 08:27 PM
Message 5 of 18
creditwherecreditisdue
Senior Contributor

Re: THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

Well as a PenFed High Achiever I know exactly how tight they run their ship and I think it would be unwise to assume they never look at ChexSystems. It just doesn't seem much like them.
Message 6 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

The day I opened my membership at the branch, they used the same inquiry to join DCU and get my credit card.
Message 7 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

I thought I would revive "The Official Credit Union Thread" in hopes of getting people to post their experience with applying for new credit unions in the past 6 months. 

 

If you guys prefer I can start a new thread completely with the same title Smiley Happy but for now I will post my recent experience with First Tech CU using the format 

 

So let's create a central post on Credit Unions with the following specifics

1. Credit Union

2. Membership eligibility: Anyone can join or Restrictive to certain locations / organizations

3. Hard Inquiry to join and which CR pulled

4. Pre-Approval for credit products upon joining? Ex: 1 inquiry to join + credit card

OR additional inquiries needed for additional credit products? Ex: Alliant

5. Easy / Strict underwriting criteria

6. Chex System pull?

7. Additional Notes:

 

1) First Tech CU

2) Anyone can join through Financial Fitness

3) Soft Pull EX for membership

4) No Preapprovals since no hard pull

5) Not sure how strict they are but from previous experiences they are a bit conservative and sensitive to INQ/Chex

6) Pulls Chex

7) Overall First Tech seems promising. Going to wait a bit before applying for a credit card

 

Message 8 of 18
xboxrunner
Regular Contributor

Re: THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:

I would definately recommend Alliant Credit Union to everyone as well. Very nice customer service reps, I have a Visa and car refinance through them, everything went smooth! Five Stars for sure!

Transunion - 820 (9/8/21)
Equifax Fico 8 - 832 (9/8/21)
Vantagescore - 821 (3/20/21)
Message 9 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: THE Official Credit Union Thread: How to choose from the hundreds of credit unions available:


@xboxrunner wrote:

I would definately recommend Alliant Credit Union to everyone as well. Very nice customer service reps, I have a Visa and car refinance through them, everything went smooth! Five Stars for sure!


how long ago did you join them? 

Message 10 of 18
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