Hi there,
As I was advised by several myfico forums members (here) to get a share secured savings loan at a credit union, I'm starting to make a comparison. figured might as well share it. I tried to include most cu's that are frequently discussed on this forum.
Many cu's offer these type of loans, but don't advertise them on the website. So if you are a member at a different cu, give your local cu a call to inquire what they offer.
Anyway, today this infomation is useful, I probably won't maintain this list well though
Then, some cu's may do a hard pull upon joining, alliant, state dept and andrews fcu don't (I think). there are other comparison posts on this. (usually on secured credit cards)
Notes:
- Apply by phone. if you apply online, the system may do an unnecessary inquiry automatically.
- Call the loan team/lending solutions dept during office hours, otherwise you may be transferred to an external party, they usually have less reliable info.
- Recommendation: Use the loan calculator recommended by themanwhocan
Alliant FCU
Amount: $500-500.000
Terms: 6-60 months
APR: 2.90%
INQ: no pull
PenFed FCU
no webpage (call) see this post
Amount: $250-no max
Terms: up to 142 months, minimum monthly payment of $25
APR: 2.00% + savings rate (0.05%)
Digital FCU
Amount: $200-
Terms: up to 10 years (120 months)
APR: 3.50%
For $1000 or less, the minimum monthly payment is $30 (ref: phonecall 6/17/15)
note: savings account has high yield on first $500
State Dept FCU
Terms: 6 months - 12yrs
APR: 3.10%
Amount: min. $500
(confirmed by phone by Monique 06/17/15, minimum is $500 and can be spread over 5years, no penalty for early termination)
(other user could spread $500 over only 36 months)
Andrews FCU
no webpage (call) appllying online is possible
Terms: 12-144months (depending on dollar amount)
Amount: $500-100.000
APR: 3.00% + savings rate
INQ: no pull
First Tech FCU
Amount: $500-500.000
Terms: up to 60/96 months
APR: 3.00% + savings rate
Patelco CU
Terms: up to 10yrs
APR: 5.00/5.10%
San Diego County FCU
APR: 5.00%
Coastal FCU
APR: 2.1%
Amount: $480 over 24 months is possible
Golden 1 FCU
Amount: $500-
APR: 4.99%
Affinity FCU
APR 2.75% + divident rate OR 2.00% + certificate rate
NASA FCU
savings secured loan rate is 3.1% (3% + the 0.1% interest rate of the savings account).
Minimum Shared Secure Loan is $500, Minimum monthly payment is $25.
Terms up to 60 months.
I am excluding most cu's that can't be joined by anybody
(i.e. regional or military requirements)
psecu, navy fcu, cath fcu, etc.
Quick calculation (by a sdfcu loan officer)
$1000 over 3yrs at 3.1 % = $29.13 per month = $1048.68
If anyone has any suggestions or further info, please reply 
have a good one!
Sincerely
Obvious disclaimer: I can't guarantee anything. that is the terms, approval, or the apr given here. the apr's are from either the website or by calling member services on the date of this post.
Calculations performed using this randomly chosen Installment Loan calculator: http://www.franklinsavings.com/calculator_installment.html
You said DCU required a minimum $30/Month payment for loans of $1000 or less.
$700 DCU Savings Secured Loan @ 3.5% APR for 24 months: Monthly Payment $30.24 ; Total Interest paid over 2 years: $25.80
DCU gives you 3% interest on the first $500 you have in your savings account.
Now, since you earn $500 * 0.03 = $15/year interest on your DCU savings account, you will gain $30 over a 2 year period.
So over 2 years you gain $30 and lose $25.80, so the DCU Savings Secured Loan is more than paid for. Rinse and repeat every 2 years. Enjoy your free monthly EQ04 FICO score from DCU.
"I love it when a plan comes together..." - Colonel Hannibal Smith
Are we certain that the secured part of that savings account draws interest at DCU's 3% bonus rate?
The account securing my secured card does not. It is listed as Savings 2 though but it was setup 3+ years ago and their interface / manner of securing might have changed. If they secure on the base savings account in their share secured loan I would think you'd get the 3%. Not sure how that works as every secured installment loan I've done has been base savings rate + 2 or 3% APR additional.
Only problem with DCU is you can't prepay more than 3 months ahead which excludes some potential FICO reindeer games with FICO 8 and EX 98. 
@Revelate wrote:Are we certain that the secured part of that savings account draws interest at DCU's 3% bonus rate?
The account securing my secured card does not. It is listed as Savings 2 though but it was setup 3+ years ago and their interface / manner of securing might have changed. If they secure on the base savings account in their share secured loan I would think you'd get the 3%. Not sure how that works as every secured installment loan I've done has been base savings rate + 2 or 3% APR additional.
Only problem with DCU is you can't prepay more than 3 months ahead which excludes some potential FICO reindeer games with FICO 8 and EX 98.
Not certain at all 
Its a $700 loan, right? You can do whatever you want with the $700, including depositing it in your DCU savings account to earn interest.
Or so I assume...
Edit: DCU does allow setting up auto pay, to make this a no effort loan, right? From their web site, in the Q&A in the Reviews tab for Savings Secured Loans: The hold on your Savings used as collateral for your Share Secured Loan would decrease as the loan balance is paid down to match the outstanding loan balance owed. So I assume if you deposit the loan into savings, you can then auto pay the loan from savings, and always be maintaining a comfortable cushion so that there will always be enough funds in the savings account, after considering the net gain due to the 3% interest on $500 in Savings.
@Themanwhocan wrote:
@Revelate wrote:Are we certain that the secured part of that savings account draws interest at DCU's 3% bonus rate?
The account securing my secured card does not. It is listed as Savings 2 though but it was setup 3+ years ago and their interface / manner of securing might have changed. If they secure on the base savings account in their share secured loan I would think you'd get the 3%. Not sure how that works as every secured installment loan I've done has been base savings rate + 2 or 3% APR additional.
Only problem with DCU is you can't prepay more than 3 months ahead which excludes some potential FICO reindeer games with FICO 8 and EX 98.
Not certain at all
Its a $700 loan, right? You can do whatever you want with the $700, including depositing it in your DCU savings account to earn interest.
Or so I assume...
Edit: DCU does allow setting up auto pay, to make this a no effort loan, right? From their web site, in the Q&A in the Reviews tab for Savings Secured Loans: The hold on your Savings used as collateral for your Share Secured Loan would decrease as the loan balance is paid down to match the outstanding loan balance owed. So I assume if you deposit the loan into savings, you can then auto pay the loan from savings, and always be maintaining a comfortable cushion so that there will always be enough funds in the savings account, after considering the net gain due to the 3% interest on $500 in Savings.
Does sound like it's different than my secured card implementation then.
Don't know, I've chucked DCU out of my lender list to go do this with - if I'm going to be tacking on secured loans to play reindeer games on my report, appears to be a further optimization that can be done but with DCU I explicitly can't and even though I've been a member there for the last 15 years, they're out of the gene pool on this one heh.
NASA FCU savings secured loan rate is 3.1% (3% + the 0.1% interest rate of the savings account).
Minimum Shared Secure Loan is $500, Minimum monthly payment is $25.
Terms up to 60 months.
The due date advances a maximum of 6 months if you pay in advance. The scenario I suggested is paying 12 months in advance, and they said in that scenario the due date for the next payment would only advance 6 months.
@Themanwhocan wrote:NASA FCU savings secured loan rate is 3.1% (3% + the 0.1% interest rate of the savings account).
Minimum Shared Secure Loan is $500, Minimum monthly payment is $25.
Terms up to 60 months.
The due date advances a maximum of 6 months if you pay in advance. The scenario I suggested is paying 12 months in advance, and they said in that scenario the due date for the next payment would only advance 6 months.
Ah neat, they're out then.
Turns out USAA might only advance 12 months too, noticed I wound up 12 months ahead of my loan when I paid $1800 of the remaining 2K at basically one shot. Have to double check that, but thank you for the NASA datapoint!
Alliant is stupidly far ahead at this point, and I wouldn't mind making SDFCU my second goto choice on it.
Is there a reason you aren't just getting two secured loans from Alliant?
@Themanwhocan wrote:Is there a reason you aren't just getting two secured loans from Alliant?
Lender diversity is never a bad thing even in this case, but FICO wise, yeah doesn't matter. Alliant is my go-to for this product for certain until they change things up, hard to do better than what they offer today. Only thing that would be even better would be a longer term than 5 years but that's plenty for most people's needs.