topic Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products in Credit Card Applications

NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Anonymous — Sat, 13 May 2017 00:34:36 GMT

Hello!!,

I've lurked for a while and have had such amazing results from advice given here. I decided to finally post to see if my next step is feasible.

I want to join NFCU. My uncle is in the Army and I'm going to see if he will join and then I can get in that way. If not then I want to go through the seemingly convoluted SDNL way.

Has anyone had experiences with issues arising from joining this way. If I have to I want to do it correctly so my account doesn't get shut down. Any advise to prevent that from happening?

My next question is if I am able to join would I qualify for any of the products?

Here is where I'm at...

Auto Loan - 18900
Capital One Quicksilver (Pc'd from Platinum) 500
Chase Amazon Prime 500
Wells fargo College Card 1000
Wal-Mart Store Card 6000 (SL 900)
Amazon Store Card 5000 (SL 700)
Victoria Secret (SCT) 750
Wayfair (SCT) 1300
AMEX BCE 2000
AMEX ED 500
PayPal 1500 (Hidden TL)

Inquires Ex - 8, TU 8 Eq 9

Scores Ex- 690 (AMEX Site/Ex App) / TU- 710 (Amazon Sync) 698 (Credit Karma /EQ - 686 (Credit Karma) I know Fako scores but all kind of in the same realm.

Utilization @ 14% Currently (Will be lower once AMEX cards/Wells fargo are added)

Income - 44,500$

AAOA - Currently 6 months?? Neither AMEX or Wells fargo have hit my credit report yet all new cards. Will lower my AAOA but I don't know when.

I'm new to credit. My parents co-signed to get my auto loan in Nov of 15 after I turned 19. It was the only thing I had until this January when I applied to C1 from a mailer. Then app'd for both Amazon cards for the 130$ in gift card bonus. Then others all in January. Hadn't app'd for anything until last week AMEX Everyday 500 and then Wells Fargo 1000. Just today app'd for BCE SL 2000.

Heard I should app for charge card today as well so it's only 1 HP but I'll make a different topic for that.

With all that in mind do you think I'd be able to get a product from NFCU?

I'm not planning to spend a lot of money so any SL would do but I see how nicely there products grow and I'd like to have a really nice credit profile in the future. After NFCU if it's advised to go forward and apply I will promptly enter the garden until Feb. 2019 when my inquires all drop off....

With the exception I'm going to try the AMEX 3x CLI and C1 CLI before Steps increase in Aug. (Denied once for too many inquires so doubtful but SP so I'm going to try)

Thank you in advance for any help and sorry if this is super long!

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

CreditInspired — Sat, 13 May 2017 00:56:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello!!,

I've lurked for a while and have had such amazing results from advice given here. I decided to finally post to see if my next step is feasible.

I want to join NFCU. My uncle is in the Army and I'm going to see if he will join and then I can get in that way. If not then I want to go through the seemingly convoluted SDNL way.

Has anyone had experiences with issues arising from joining this way. If I have to I want to do it correctly so my account doesn't get shut down. Any advise to prevent that from happening?

My next question is if I am able to join would I qualify for any of the products?

Here is where I'm at...

Auto Loan - 18900
Capital One Quicksilver (Pc'd from Platinum) 500
Chase Amazon Prime 500
Wells fargo College Card 1000
Wal-Mart Store Card 6000 (SL 900)
Amazon Store Card 5000 (SL 700)
Victoria Secret (SCT) 750
Wayfair (SCT) 1300
AMEX BCE 2000
AMEX ED 500
PayPal 1500 (Hidden TL)

Inquires Ex - 8, TU 8 Eq 9

Scores Ex- 690 (AMEX Site/Ex App) / TU- 710 (Amazon Sync) 698 (Credit Karma /EQ - 686 (Credit Karma) I know Fako scores but all kind of in the same realm.

@Anonymous @ 14% Currently (Will be lower once AMEX cards/Wells fargo are added)

Income - 44,500$

AAOA - Currently 6 months?? Neither AMEX or Wells fargo have hit my credit report yet all new cards. Will lower my AAOA but I don't know when.

I'm new to credit. My parents co-signed to get my auto loan in Nov of 15 after I turned 19. It was the only thing I had until this January when I applied to C1 from a mailer. Then app'd for both Amazon cards for the 130$ in gift card bonus. Then others all in January. Hadn't app'd for anything until last week AMEX Everyday 500 and then Wells Fargo 1000. Just today app'd for BCE SL 2000.

Heard I should app for charge card today as well so it's only 1 HP but I'll make a different topic for that.

With all that in mind do you think I'd be able to get a product from NFCU?

I'm not planning to spend a lot of money so any SL would do but I see how nicely there products grow and I'd like to have a really nice credit profile in the future. After NFCU if it's advised to go forward and apply I will promptly enter the garden until Feb. 2019 when my inquires all drop off....

With the exception I'm going to try the AMEX 3x CLI and C1 CLI before Steps increase in Aug. (Denied once for too many inquires so doubtful but SP so I'm going to try)

Thank you in advance for any help and sorry if this is super long!

WHOA! Slow down on applying, especially since your AAoA is only 6 months! IMHO, you should think about going to the garden now. I just read from another post where the doors have slam shut on getting into NFCU through SDNL. So joining through your uncle who is in the military is your best shot. You have some decent cards already, so it's time to nurture them and let them grow.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Anonymous — Sat, 13 May 2017 01:02:52 GMT

Hi welcome to the forums. Just so you know the uncle/aunt-niece/nephew relationship is not considered family for purposes of signing up. At least it wasn't 2 months ago when I joined. My nephew is active duty Marine and was willing to sponsor me but I had to use the backdoor instead. Unfortunately, it looks like that door closed earlier today.

You might want to investigate the relationships that are accepted on the NFCU site before going any further.

Even if they don't work out for you, I am sure you will find what you need here to reach your goals.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

nolamike — Sat, 13 May 2017 01:08:55 GMT

SugarPixie,

According to the NFCU website

https://www.navyfederal.org/life-money/managing-your-money/articles/savings/are-you-eligible-to-join-navy-federal.php

Eligibility for family members:

All in the Family

If you have an immediate family member who has joined or one who’s eligible to join, you can become a Navy Federal member. Immediate family members include grandparents, parents, spouses, siblings, grandchildren, children (including adopted and stepchildren) and household members. Household members are defined as those who share your address and pay a major utility bill.

In the application process, family and household members are referred to as "sponsors" (the person through whom you're eligible for membership).

Your uncle would have to have you as or say you are a household member and as a college teenager a major bill would probably not be needed but he needs to check as you would not want his accounts frozen .

as for the other poster saying that the NLSD path is closed, I would be skeptical as that path exists due to a contractual entry on a Federallly Approved Merger agreement. It is possible, but I would contact NFCU and ask the CSR straight out. If they act or sound like they don't know who Navy League San Diego is, thank them and call back until you get one that knows who they are, I have found that some newer ones don't know a thing about them but do know who is BEA.

If nothing else works, joining Navy League gets you access to PenFed which is almost as good as NFCU.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Anonymous — Sat, 13 May 2017 01:39:59 GMT

You guys ROCK! Thank you so much for your responses. My thinking was to app a ton so all accounts would age together.

I think it might be best to head to the garden now especially if Penfed is able to be joined via Navy league in the future with no hassle. Havent read much on Penfed but it seemed nice too. At this point even if I could join through my Uncle I wouldn't want to jeopardize any accounts of his because of it.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Anonymous — Sat, 13 May 2017 03:04:36 GMT

PenFed is another great CU, and Navy League would make you eligible for it as well.
Using your uncle to get in with Navy though wouldn't have any effect on his accounts if they shut yours down. You'd use him for membership, but not to co-sign for anything

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

nolamike — Sat, 13 May 2017 03:08:16 GMT

Tigers09

I know 2 NFCU members who did not tell the truth about the relationship/living arrangement with people they sponsored and their accounts were frozen and one lost membership.

You have to fit one of the criteria as listed in the above post. You cannot live in peoria and say your address is with your uncle in omaha if it is not provable.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Anonymous — Sat, 13 May 2017 03:21:50 GMT

I love the idea of NFCU but I didn't know the about the relationship portion being complicated. I've looked up Penfed and it looks pretty good too. I'll go the Penfed route but in the future I don't want to jump in when I can wait and get something better to begin with down the road.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

rmduhon — Sat, 13 May 2017 11:09:21 GMT

Your uncle can sponsor one of your parents and they can then sponsor you. I don't know if this is an option for you.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Anonymous — Sat, 13 May 2017 14:22:46 GMT

I didn't even think of that!! 😃 Thanks that would be an option. I'll talk to my uncle and dad about it and see what they say. Still will wait to apply but that would be my way in because I wouldn't have to worry about not meeting criteria.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

rmduhon — Sat, 13 May 2017 14:38:39 GMT

I'm glad it's an option for you. Good luck

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Anonymous — Sun, 14 May 2017 19:35:25 GMT

Had my app for membership via SDNL since Apr 27th. Finally asked for and I sent supporting ID docs and was told by a CSR today that NL is no longer accepted. I'm out of luck (by days) When I get my formal decline in writing I am going to ask for a recon as I had applied long before they cut that off. Doesnt seem fair.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Anonymous — Sun, 14 May 2017 20:56:21 GMT

No, that's not fair 😥 They should honor the people that sent their applications before they removed the charter from their list. That's super unfortunate. If you get a decline you'll have to let us know how the recon goes.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Jaydawg220 — Mon, 15 May 2017 01:59:36 GMT

Oh no!
When did they stop allowing SDNL as a way in at nfcu?
I literally just joined with that method 4/24/17. I hope they don't cancel my membership...

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

nolamike — Mon, 15 May 2017 02:02:39 GMT

Jaydawg,

legally you are fine, just keep your accounts in good standing. as long as you don't quit or do something "hinky" that would allow them to legally close your membership you are fine.

if you want more assurance somewhere on this topic is a post citing legal code concerning how federally chartered credit unions must behave vis-avis membership cancellation.

in other words, if you have 5 bucks in your share savings account you are good to go.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Jaydawg220 — Mon, 15 May 2017 02:23:56 GMT

Pheww, glad I got a proved when I did nolamike. I just read the entire 7 page post about the sdnl option closing.
But on a different note, my scores are about in line with yours. I didn't get approved for NFCUs rewards cc, so I got there secured nrewards a few weeks ago. Any advice on how to get approved for one of NFCUs unsecureds?

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

nolamike — Mon, 15 May 2017 03:23:30 GMT

Jaydawg,

I am glad for you that you beat the clock. I don't know of any "warning" from NFCU for this, but who knows. I am also a member of NLSD and I have sent an email to the Council President and Membership Chair to find out for sure. If they bother to respond I will post it here in a new thread.

As for secured card and graduation, search the forums for "nfcu secure card graduation" and a lot of threads show up. I do know that I have read in various threads people have gotten unsecured in anywhere from 3 months to a year but I also see one or two that say they never graduated.

AS for advice i will tell you what I see on here a lot. BE good to NFCU and they will be good to you. Use and payoff your card every month. If it is your only trade line then leave a few bucks on it to report usage to the CRA's (less than 10%). If you have other trade lines, then get them all down to between 0-9% and then only let one have a balance past the statement cut date if you can.

NFCU is a little odd compared to other credit grantors we read about on here.

They do check CRA's but they seem to rely very heavily on their internal scoring and I have not yet found a thread that claims to know for a fact how that scoring works.

I think it is from 100-450, but it seems to only show up on denial letters, or at least it was not included with my card and my CLOC paperwork has not yet arrived.

I also don't see it on the website in my account. I may call tomorrow and ask, just for grins.

As a suggestion you might want to search for NFCU AR's, which are account reviews. I cannot find it offhand but on page 262 of a very large NFCU thread (I think it is in the
NFCU+CLI thread which is like 280+ pages) there is a great explanation of AR's and frankly it should be an NFCU Sticky.

The short version is that every two months they do an SP and reevaluate everyone's credit.

Couple that to the 91 day / 3 statement rule for CLI (I think this also applies to secured trying to graduate but I am not sure) and you can figure out when you should have any other credit lines paid down to nothing.

there is great date calculator at
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/durationresult.html?m1=5&d1=10&y1=2017&m2=8&d2=10&y2=2017&ti=on

to help you figure out the exact date that applies to you.

In my case I got my approval on the 10th of may, so August 10 would be 93 days (if you include Aug 10), I don't know my statement cut date yet, but it should be about 30 days from approval date.
There was an AR in May, so July then September (they happen in the odd months or so I have read). So in my case I will wait until September to let them do the SP and automatic evaluation instead of hitting the love button and taking an HP. (NFCU seems to be HP crazy).

With that information I can then plan on how to pay down all my credit lines to the lowest point possible before the September AR. It is important to remember that the AR will pull data already posted so it will be about a month old when the do they AR. Credit Reports are a lagging indicator as they represent stuff (statements) already posted, not necessarily what you paid before the due date.

To maximize my chances for a solid increase on my first CLI, I will target having all lines to zero before the August statement cut dates. So to be clear 90% of my statements cut around the 16th of the month, so before that date I need to pay everything down so when they report it will be the lowest amount possible and then on the Sept AR my UTI and debt will be at the lowest possible.

Hope all that provides you some information and stuff to research.

Keep us informed of your progress and maybe add some info to your signature.

Mike

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Jaydawg220 — Mon, 15 May 2017 11:56:04 GMT

Wow, thanks. All great info. I appreciate it. Are your signature scores auto updated or do you manually adjust them?

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

Anonymous — Mon, 15 May 2017 13:58:03 GMT

[They do check CRA's but they seem to rely very heavily on their internal scoring and I have not yet found a thread that claims to know for a fact how that scoring works.

I think it is from 100-450, but it seems to only show up on denial letters, or at least it was not included with my card and my CLOC paperwork has not yet arrived.*]

Mine came with my $1300. cashrewards card. It was maybe 230 and listed adverse factors. Different ones than my regular reports, so I was thinking about starting a data share thread on it.

AFaik, they don't have any easy place for us to check it.

Re: NFCU Advice for applying for Membership/Products

nolamike — Mon, 15 May 2017 14:13:07 GMT

Random,

I think a new thread would be great. if you make it could you suggest a template other posters could use on what to include?

For example

CR pulled

CR score

Income range

baddies on CR

NFCU result

Join Date

CLOC

1st card

2nd card

Internal Score

factors on denial

those and maybe a couple other data points would help us learn about their process.

You say yours came with an approval of a card, did it come with the card or a seperate letter? I have not yet received anything but the card but I paid for expedited processing and got the physical card the next day. A letter maybe coming seperate, I don't know.

thanks