Example:
One could easily go into a decent CU with $500 of the rent money, borrow it right back ( replacing the rent money) and now they've established a SSL at their CU generally at a much lower overall cost than the Self-Lender fee
Plus the CU may after 6-8 months pre-approve a CC for their 'member' that's not gonna happen with Self-Lender's 3rd party bank.
The benefits of using a different type of institution, in addition to the savings, IMO out weigh the 'cuteness' of Self-Lender's offering....
I also like the ability to stretch the loan period 24-48 months vs the 12 months
Why?
The scoring model rewards having an 'open' maintained loan, contributing towards the credit mix of 'open' maintained revolvers and installers
The moment the installer is 'closed' or paid off that arbitrary bump goes away ( this is why ppl ask 'hey why did my score go down after I paid off my car/ house) so all things equal why not leave the little bull crap loan 'open' as long as possible, especially when one is building and adding accounts when you want to highest score possible.
We all know that once the installer is paid it will hang on the profile has a positive for 10 more years, so paying it off in 1 year allows for 11 years of usage whereas allowing it to roll for 4 means 14 years of juice from the exact same account
The payment is so small and can be automated, at least until another installer pops up organically ( car loan etc) the goal again is to manipulate the scoring model, that's the whole point of a SSL/Self-Lender in the 1st place ( long game or short game but that's the game)
