Re: Adding an installment loan -- the Share Secure... - Page 18 - myFICO® Forums

Anonymous · ‎06-13-2016

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Anonymous · ‎06-15-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
It's difficult to be sure, since you haven't told us the name of the CU, and therefore it is difficult to research the two options in any depth.

It does appear that the CBL product is secured by a CD, and thus you won't br able to access any of the money you deposit until the loan is fully paid off.

If you scroll back a few posts, you will see a 5-point description of how best to compare loan products.

I will say that you should be careful about getting involved with any lender that says "we loans you money."

@ CreditGuyInDixie,

Had a conversation with my CU and decided to follow your advise, i did open a saving acct with Alliant and already made the external transfer from my bank to the saving acct, i did the transfer this morning and after called to confirm, CSR told me that any transfer made before 12pm CT will be available next business day so it should be there tomorrow available for me.

I will follow your/others recomendations and report back.

I do have a question, after you make the payment and lowered the amount to $44, can i pay every 2 or 3 months? or do i have to make regulary small payments every month ?

Thank you sooo much for this info

Anonymous · ‎06-15-2016

@Anonymous wrote:

@ CreditGuyInDixie,

I do have a question, after you make the payment and lowered the amount to $44, can i pay every 2 or 3 months? or do i have to make regulary small payments every month ?

You do NOT need to make small payments every month. All you have to do is make a payment often enough to prevent yourself from being charged an "inactivity" fee. Here is what the guidance recommends (toward the end of STEP 4: PAY IT DOWN):

Finally, you'll need to figure out a plan for keeping your loan and your savings account "active" so that they do not receive a fee for standing inactive/dormant for a long time. Here are some options:

* MANUAL. Just remember to sign on to your Alliant account and manually initiate a transfer of $2 every six months from your savings account to your loan account. If you are confident you'll remember, that's simple and easy.

* AUTOMATIC: Use billpay from a checking account to make a $2 payment to your loan every three months. The checking account can be an Alliant checking or one from an external bank. If it is an external bank, you should also set up a billpay to your Alliant savings account to keep it active as well. Note that, because you have deleted your monthly autopay, Alliant seems unwilling to let you set up another autotransfer from savings to loan. So if you want to go the automated route, you'll need to use a checking account.

Regardless of the approach you choose, sign in once a year to make sure things are going OK. You may need to tweak your payments a tiny bit, especially toward the end. It's very important for your payment plan to avoid paying off the loan way earlier than you intended, but also important not to make such small payments that you eventually fall behind Alliant's schedule for paying off the loan.

Anonymous · ‎06-17-2016

i just wanted to report that i submitted my application for a 60 month loan and the loan officer called me back a few minutes ago saying a 60 month term for $500 is ridiculous and they'd only be able to do 500 and then in 12 months convert it into a credit card. obviously i wasn't happy with that since it'd just add another acct with low limit to my line.

i asked her to check if we can do anything longer than 12 but i am pretty unhappy.

Revelate · ‎06-17-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
i just wanted to report that i submitted my application for a 60 month loan and the loan officer called me back a few minutes ago saying a 60 month term for $500 is ridiculous and they'd only be able to do 500 and then in 12 months convert it into a credit card. obviously i wasn't happy with that since it'd just add another acct with low limit to my line.

i asked her to check if we can do anything longer than 12 but i am pretty unhappy.

Which lender?

Anonymous · ‎06-17-2016

Alliant. They called me back with a 36 month offer and that's good enough for me I guess.

Anonymous · ‎06-17-2016

Sorry you had a tough experience.

Can you clarify a few things for us?

(1) Up until you got a call from the loan officer, was all your contact with Alliant computerized? For example, opening your savings account, applying for your loan, etc... did you do all of that via their web-based interface? Or did you call them at any point?

(2) When the LO spoke with you, did that person describe your loan request as Ridiculous? The LO used that word? That's really surprising -- very unusual for a customer service representative.

(3) Are you certain you were applying with the Alliant Credit Union headquartered in Chicago? (11545 West Touhy Avenue, Chicago, IL 60666) There is more than one Alliant. For example, Alliant Bank is a very different animal. There may also be more than one CU named Alliant.

I will say that, as with any institution/business (Citibank, Chase, Kroger, Walgreens, Lowe's etc. etc. etc.) it is always possible to occasionally run into a customer service rep (CSR) who doesn't grasp or is misinformed about his own company's policies or products. It bites when that happens, but it can happen. Talk to enough CSRs at enough companies and it is certain to happen. Best approach in those situations is to stay friendly and polite, and find a way around it, typically by trying again the next day: you typically get somebody who knows what he's talking about.

If you do decide you want to explore your options further with Alliant, this table may help you:

https://www.alliantcreditunion.org/borrow/get-a-credit-union-personal-loan#compare

If you look carefully you will see that Alliant clearly shows that a $500 60-month Savings Secured Long loan is totally an option.

Best wishes...

Anonymous · ‎06-17-2016

Hey so yeah my experience up until the phone call was computerized.

She didn't say it was ridiculous; she said the term was just very long and unfit for a loan so small and they wouldn't be able to do that.

Yes I know what Alliant we are talking about

and another thing is that when I accepted my 36 month term she did not ask when I want my first payment to be. my first payment due date is August 1...

Anonymous · ‎06-17-2016

I am guessing that you just had some bad luck and got a clueless LO.

Naturally we'll all be very interested to hear if anyone else has an experience like yours later this summer. In that case that might signal a shift in policy.... but thus far many many people have had no problem obtaining a 60-month $500 loan. If such a shift does occur, I'd recommend that people just step up to a $1000 loan, since you can get almost all of it back in a month anyway once you pay it down.

Your 36 month loan is still going to be a great help to you. My advice is to just add a new Alliant loan in 33 months. You can probably get a 60-month loan easily at that point.

SouthJamaica · ‎06-17-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
I am guessing that you just had some bad luck and got a clueless LO.

Naturally we'll all be very interested to hear if anyone else has an experience like yours later this summer. In that case that might signal a shift in policy.... but thus far many many people have had no problem obtaining a 60-month $500 loan. If such a shift does occur, I'd recommend that people just step up to a $1000 loan, since you can get almost all of it back in a month anyway once you pay it down.

Your 36 month loan is still going to be a great help to you. My advice is to just add a new Alliant loan in 33 months. You can probably get a 60-month loan easily at that point.

Let's hope Alliant isn't changing its policy.