Alliant CU discontinuing Share Secure loans

[Glen_M]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@seattlecredit08 wrote:

Question: So far, the only credit union that seems to meet most of the criteria is NFCU. However, it's not open to everyone.

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I've already disqualified both of them. Don't remember why.

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This might not be so easy as we thought it would be.

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Most likely the membership restrictions and quantity required to reach a lengthy term.  After those hurdles, I would say NFCU was even easier than Alliant.  

[manyquestions]

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@Glen_M wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@seattlecredit08 wrote:

Question: So far, the only credit union that seems to meet most of the criteria is NFCU. However, it's not open to everyone.

 ...

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I've already disqualified both of them. Don't remember why.

...

This might not be so easy as we thought it would be.

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Most likely the membership restrictions and quantity required to reach a lengthy term.  After those hurdles, I would say NFCU was even easier than Alliant.  

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Yeah.  So far, NFCU is the only other institution where I have seen posts from people who have actually done the loan with them and it worked as desired over a long period of time such as multiple years.  I'm sure there are others, but we won't really know until posters report their experiences with actual loans.  If you are eager to find a new institution to do this you will have to call institutions to verify their loan has the desired features, then be a bit of a pioneer and try one that you believe will work based on what they told you and hope it works as described.

[manyquestions]

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@jamie123 wrote:

Yes, I checked the SDFCU website and discovered that new membership does indeed require a HP. The other factors that regard the SSL do seem promising though. This is from the SDFCU website:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/dD2B2bF.png[/img]

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I think SDFCU is a good one to investigate.  I recall a poster in the long ago Relevate SSL thread reporting that they got the loan but then I think there might have been an issue with how far it could be paid down, something like only 12 months in advance, but I might be wrong in what I think I recall.  Something to investigate, worth making a phone call,  if you don't mind eventually taking a hard pull to join.  I think they pull Experian.

[SouthJamaica]

I'm researching Vantage West Credit Union. It looks promising. I know that they have share secured loans starting at $500 and that there's no hard pull for the loan.

I believe that there's no hard pull for membership but I'm confirming that.

I can tell you that customer service there is excellent.

The money to be used as security has to have been in the account for 30 days or more, so for me to find out how the loan behaves in terms of reporting, etc, it's going to take me a couple of months. When I find out one way or the other whether Vantage West is the answer, I'll report back.

[Revelate]

There are very very few simple interest loans you cannot prepay.  Really the deciding factors are length of term, minimum payment, and if you care about such things, inquiry.

DCU doesn't flunk on the minimum payment side, they flunk on the fact if you overpay them more than 3 months in advance they will reset your next payment date back to 3 months in the future.  This is explicitly how they handle their installment loans (I had one so speaking from personal experience on this one heh).

I'd be very surprised if we found any that were as awkward as DCU TBH.

[Anonymous]

The credit union that was my primary bank during 2001-2010 didn't permit prepayment.  You could make a big initial payment of course but since they required that you continue to make payments it shortened the life of the loan.

Clarifying how any particular bank/CU will handle a huge additional payment early in the life of the loan (i.e. does the bank simply postpone the due date of the next payment, which is what we want) seems like a reasonable thing to do, before you apply for an SSL with them.  There's no downside to double checking, certainly.

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

I'm researching Vantage West Credit Union. It looks promising. I know that they have share secured loans starting at $500 and that there's no hard pull for the loan....

The money to be used as security has to have been in the account for 30 days or more, so for me to find out how the loan behaves in terms of reporting, etc, it's going to take me a couple of months. When I find out one way or the other whether Vantage West is the answer, I'll report back.

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It seems like we keep finding about yet more of Alliant's "nice to have" qualities.  With Alliant a person could apply for membership on the 25th, and fifteen days later he'd have the full score boost on all three bureaus.  That was a nice feature for people who had gotten themselves into a bind with a need for a score boost quickly (or for people who were just nervous or impatient).

Thanks so much SouthJ for taking the lead on a promising CU.  Really appreciate this.

[manyquestions]

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@Revelate wrote:

There are very very few simple interest loans you cannot prepay.  Really the deciding factors are length of term, minimum payment, and if you care about such things, inquiry.

DCU doesn't flunk on the minimum payment side, they flunk on the fact if you overpay them more than 3 months in advance they will reset your next payment date back to 3 months in the future.  This is explicitly how they handle their installment loans (I had one so speaking from personal experience on this one heh).

I'd be very surprised if we found any that were as awkward as DCU TBH.

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NASA is another one that will not let you prepay and keep the original term.  They shorten the term if you prepay more than six months.  I think the prepaying down to 8.9% and keeping the loan for close to 60 months to enjoy the FICO benefit for multiple years is the somewhat rare characteristic we are looking for.  

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

I'm researching Vantage West Credit Union. It looks promising. I know that they have share secured loans starting at $500 and that there's no hard pull for the loan....

The money to be used as security has to have been in the account for 30 days or more, so for me to find out how the loan behaves in terms of reporting, etc, it's going to take me a couple of months. When I find out one way or the other whether Vantage West is the answer, I'll report back.

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It seems like we keep finding about yet more of Alliant's "nice to have" qualities.  With Alliant a person could apply for membership on the 25th, and fifteen days later he'd have the full score boost on all three bureaus.  That was a nice feature for people who had gotten themselves into a bind with a need for a score boost quickly (or for people who were just nervous or impatient).

Thanks so much SouthJ for taking the lead on a promising CU.  Really appreciate this.

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@Anonymous the Alliant Credit Union entry into the "reindeer games", pioneered by @Revelate, was a great find. It won't be easy to replace.

Update on Vantage West: I just confirmed that they don't take a hard pull for membership.

So we have a credit union with great customer service which has no hard pull for membership, and no hard pull for SSL's, with SSL's starting at $500 available to be obtained by online application.

Now I'll wait for 30 days to apply for the loan, and then see how it works.  Will report back when I find out.

[seattlecredit08]

For Vantage West - do we know yet if they pull (soft) Equifax, Experian or TransUnion?

Thanks!