@newhis wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I took out a $500 Alliant loan recently and made a $420 transfer from the savings to the loan to bring down the balance. It now shows the originally scheduled first payment the loan officer setup for next month date changed to 2/2021 after I made the large payment. From reading it seems they will still pull the $9.xx payment that was scheuduled for the first original due date, should I leave this go thru to drop the balance more or call in and ask them to cancel it and future auto payments?
No need to call. You can do it manually after you log on.
You have to cancel the automatic payments. This is the only way to be sure that next month they will not apply the payment.
If you don't cancel the automatic payments, your loan will end in less than 5 months and we want the loan to be open for 60.
DO NOT CALL ALLIANT TO CANCEL IT..
DO IT YOURSELF ONLINE !!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have to wait for right before the original autopay date before you can cancel it (usually can cancel 12-24 hours before the original first autopay date....(or let it go through once and cancel it right after)
Please.... you dont want them in your account... or to draw attention to it
The fact you can cancel the autopay and it changes the payment sechedule is part of the distinct features of using this bank..
You dont want the loan due in 5 months...
Please reread the steps in the stickyed posts on this thread by CreditguyinDixie... (Think is in the third one)
http://www.doctorofcredit.com/dont-call-the-bank/
STEP 4: PAY IT DOWN.
To start with, you will want to make sure you locate where the new loan account is on your online banking portal. Just log in to the Alliant portal with your username and password and you will by default be taken to the Account Summary page. You will now see your Share Secure Loan as a new account, along with the Savings account that you are used to seeing.
You will see a DUE DATE and PAYMENT AMOUNT for that loan. For example, the due date and payment amount might be May 9 and $9.19. Write both of those down (whatever the date and amount are). Hopefully you chose a date that is maybe 7-10 days from when the loan was approved. Later is fine too.
Next you want to locate the Autopay that was set up by the loan officer. To do that, go to the TRANSFER MONEY tab at the top of the page. Then look to the far right margin. You will see several links. Look for the one that says Scheduled Transfers. Click on that. You will be taken to a page that shows an automated transfer from the Savings account to the Loan account. That's a way of automatically paying the amount due each month. Do not try to delete it or change it. You can't do that -- yet. The test cases we have done so far seem to indicate that you need to pay it ahead a good bit AND also wait for the first transfer to go through before it will permit you to delete the transfer.
Next pay off a good chunk of the loan. Personally, I would start with something really simple. Like pay off $420 of the loan amount ($500). Your eventual goal is to get it down to just under 8.99% (i.e. a loan balance of $44). But more than one person has reported that it can take a few months to get the autopay turned off and then confirm that it is really turned off. So if you start with $420 you should still have a good buffer if a few more autopayments go through.
The way to make a payment (whether big or small) is to go to the TRANSFER MONEY tab. Just set up a one time transfer of $420 from your savings to the loan. Simple.
When you have executed that, go back to the Account Summary page. You will see that the Current balance is very low -- around $80. You will also see that the Due Date has been pushed out way WAY into the future.
The next steps are easy.
(a) Wait for the first autopay to go through. If the autopay has changed so that the next "scheduled transfer" date has been pushed way ahead in time, ignore that. It is likely that your autopay will still go through on the first date that you agreed to. Wait until a couple business days AFTER that date. Then look in your savings account. You should see that the payment still went through. Your loan balance is now smaller, maybe $71 or so.
(b) Now go back to that recurring transfer that your loan officer set up. If you try to delete the autopay before it has gone through once, most people report getting a big red error message. So now that you have waited till after the first autopay, you can delete it. Just click DELETE. It will ask you if you are really sure. Say yes.
Your autopay should now really be deleted. Note that some people have reported success at deleting the autopay a day before the first autopay was scheduled to go through (the big red error message seems to vanish the day before, roughly). But that may require more work and careful timing than you care to invest. That's why the guidance above gives a way that is guaranteed to work: wait till after the first autopay goes through, then delete.
(c) Make a final payment to bring your loan balance down to $44. Your amount owed will then be < 9% of the original amount, which is what this technique is all about.
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.
FINAL NOTE: Many savings accounts have a maximum number of six withdrawls that can be made monthly without incurring a penalty (federal law). This has no practical impact for this technique, unless you decide in the first month or two that you want to experiment with several smaller payments. Always keep the total number of payments to five or less each month. Of course, the appeal of the approach is you only really have to make one big payment and then you are set for a very long time.
* * * * *
Starting Score: Ex08-732,Eq08-713,Tu08-717
It's been 2 days and no call or email since doing online application. I also didn't call back earlier for setting up account. How much longer should I keep waiting?
Ok experts. I made a payment to get my truck balance at 8% when it posts on the 29th. The loan ends in August. I will have a history of 4 installments closed and paid. When would be a good time to start this techinique? Right after the truck is paid off before FICO dings me for no open installments, or right before so it is there once the truck is paid in full. I dont want to buy another truck for a long while. Save that payment I used to make and put it into savings.
@Anonymous wrote:
@FireMedic1 wrote:Ok experts. I made a payment to get my truck balance at 8% when it posts on the 29th. The loan ends in August. I will have a history of 4 installments closed and paid. When would be a good time to start this techinique? Right after the truck is paid off before FICO dings me for no open installments, or right before so it is there once the truck is paid in full. I dont want to buy another truck for a long while. Save that payment I used to make and put it into savings.
If it will be upsetting to you to see your scores drop when the loan gets paid off, I would get your Alliant loan in place beforehand. (You could start the whole process in June, say.)
Otherwise, it's up to you. Either before or after is fine.
PS. Can you confirm for us that this loan for your truck is your only open installment loan right now? You have no student loans, personal loans, home loans, etc?
Yes it is my only installment. No other loans. June sounds cool. Give it time to get it set up. I know I'll get a bump up once it reports below 9%. After pay-off. Who knows.
Edit: Sept. is payoff month