topic Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply? in Credit Card Applications

NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Jarheadmajor — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:01:29 GMT

Would like to get my 2nd card with Navy Fed but not sure if it's the right time. I have been a member since 1991. I got a GoRewards card in Jan 2022, SL $3500. Got a CLI to $7500 in April but didn't apply for another card at that time. I currently have a Flagship checking (opened this month) and savings account, direct deposit of retirement every month; however, the balances of both accounts is low right now. I did have a rough loan history in the past but has been paid off. As of January, internal score was 249. TU FICO 8, 702; Bankcard 8, 711; FICO 9, 671. CU is sitting around 34%, CU for the GoRewards is 25%. Income is a bit north of $200k. Pre-qualify tool shows I'm qualified for all the NFCU cards. Should I pull the trigger, wait or maybe apply for the Cash Rewards instead?

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

keekers — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:16:01 GMT

If it were me I'd get the utilization down before I applied for the Flagship card; NFCU is big on DTI (that should boost your FICO scores a bit as well). I'm not an expert on the NFCU internal scores but 249 seems average I believe (someone else chime in here if I'm off base) but I'm guessing that was before your Flagship checking (no clue how much that will raise your internal score). All that said, you would of course have a better shot at the Cash Rewards card since the UW is looser.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Anonymalous — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 01:32:57 GMT

249 seems a bit low. A lot of the successful applications seem to be closer to 300. And given your income, that's a fairly low SL. Do you have the ability to bring down your utilization?

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Jarheadmajor — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 02:00:28 GMT

The overall CU I can bring down a bit. Was planning to drop the OneRewards down to <= to 20% since it's the NFCU one. It was a low SL but I think that's probably because of the consolidation loan that hit several bumps. However, the CLI at 91 days went off without a hitch. I tried to call/message to get my updated internal score with no luck. Frankly, I was trying to get a 2nd card in hopes of a banging SL which would drop my CU and then cancel some builder cards i.e. Credit One.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Anonymalous — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 06:07:58 GMT

Navy doesn't share their internal score unless you apply for credit. And they've been giving out +$8000 CLIs (I got one in Feb), though they also seem to limit it to triple your SL (so +$7000 in your case). If they only gave you +$4000, you might have hit the max credit they're willing to extend you at this time.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Jarheadmajor — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 16:21:10 GMT

CORRECTION: I doubled checked and my GoRewards SL was actually $2500. So, my CLI in April actually tripled the CL to $7500. Not sure that changes anything but wanted to correct it.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

kilroy8 — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 16:35:22 GMT

Why not MoreRewards?

IMO, a much better card.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Jarheadmajor — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 17:16:28 GMT

Because it's an AMEX. I think I've been painted by them for bad history. Long ago history but was denied last year for an AMEX Hilton Honors and the rep pulled up said history. Thought that was the reason for the denial.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

pizzadude — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 17:44:28 GMT

@Jarheadmajor wrote:
Because it's an AMEX. I think I've been painted by them for bad history. Long ago history but was denied last year for an AMEX Hilton Honors and the rep pulled up said history. Thought that was the reason for the denial.

AMEX won't be involved in the approval / underwriting process for this, it's only NFCU, so any prior bad history with AMEX cards won't be counted against you other than what might be showing on your credit reports.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Jarheadmajor — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 17:50:36 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:
@Jarheadmajor wrote:
Because it's an AMEX. I think I've been painted by them for bad history. Long ago history but was denied last year for an AMEX Hilton Honors and the rep pulled up said history. Thought that was the reason for the denial.
AMEX won't be involved in the approval / underwriting process for this, it's only NFCU, so any prior bad history with AMEX cards won't be counted against you other than what might be showing on your credit reports.

Thanks for this I didn't realize that. But, I assume that the UWs will be more strict like with the Flagship, yeah?

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

pizzadude — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 18:03:19 GMT

@Jarheadmajor wrote:
@pizzadude wrote:
@Jarheadmajor wrote:
Because it's an AMEX. I think I've been painted by them for bad history. Long ago history but was denied last year for an AMEX Hilton Honors and the rep pulled up said history. Thought that was the reason for the denial.
AMEX won't be involved in the approval / underwriting process for this, it's only NFCU, so any prior bad history with AMEX cards won't be counted against you other than what might be showing on your credit reports.
Thanks for this I didn't realize that. But, I assume that the UWs will be more strict like with the Flagship, yeah?

My guess is that it's probably easier to get than Flagship but I don't have any direct experience to confirm this.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Jarheadmajor — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 18:04:38 GMT

@kilroy8 wrote:
Why not MoreRewards?

IMO, a much better card.

How so?

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Anonymalous — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 18:21:31 GMT

@Jarheadmajor wrote:
CORRECTION: I doubled checked and my GoRewards SL was actually $2500. So, my CLI in April actually tripled the CL to $7500. Not sure that changes anything but wanted to correct it.

It does. The max CLI seems to be triple the SL. Which is a more positive sign, suggesting, you haven't hit the unsecured credit limit they're willing to extend to you, based on your profile.

Regarding the other conversation, Navy seems to have three tiers when it comes to underwriting:

Hardest: The Flagship
Easiest: The nRewards secured
In the middle: All their other cards

The More Rewards doesn't seem more difficult to get than then Platinum, Go Rewards, or Cash Rewards.

Though I'd personally wait until the end of the quarter, before applying for the MR. The SUB bonus right now is just a 1.99% APR for 6 months, which is pretty bad compared to what they usually offer. There's a good chance it'll jump back up $200 or $250.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

mfinsmi1 — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 18:56:39 GMT

i think the more rewards is a little bit tougher than the go rewards - other wise it makes no sense that they have both these cards with similar rewards except the more rewards has better rewards rate and even more categories but i really dont have any proof of that i dont do their underwriting

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Anonymalous — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 21:20:48 GMT

@mfinsmi1 wrote:
i think the more rewards is a little bit tougher than the go rewards - other wise it makes no sense that they have both these cards with similar rewards except the more rewards has better rewards rate and even more categories but i really dont have any proof of that i dont do their underwriting

It may just be payment networks and swipe fees. The Go Rewards is a VISA or MC, and the standard baseline VISA or MC's swipe fees are lower than Amex's (which is more comparable to a VISA Signature, or MC World+), which means there's a smaller margin that can be passed thru as rewards.

Though I agree in general that it's curious they offer both cards, when they're so similar and from a consumer standpoint one seems to be clearly better than the other in the vast majority of cases. The Go Rewards has a slightly better APR, and may be better for international travel (where VISA/MC vs. Amex acceptance is more significant), but that's fairly minor.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Jarheadmajor — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 20:47:24 GMT

Is there any truth to having a couple hundred in checking and savings at app time? I may have seen that on Reddit or some other such place. Like I said, was hoping to get a larger SL to drop my CU and enable cancelling other worthless cards.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Jarheadmajor — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 21:33:03 GMT

@Anonymalous wrote:
@Jarheadmajor wrote:
CORRECTION: I doubled checked and my GoRewards SL was actually $2500. So, my CLI in April actually tripled the CL to $7500. Not sure that changes anything but wanted to correct it.
It does. The max CLI seems to be triple the SL. Which is a more positive sign, suggesting, you haven't hit the unsecured credit limit they're willing to extend to you, based on your profile.

Regarding the other conversation, Navy seems to have three tiers when it comes to underwriting:
Hardest: The Flagship
Easiest: The nRewards secured
In the middle: All their other cards
The More Rewards doesn't seem more difficult to get than then Platinum, Go Rewards, or Cash Rewards.

Though I'd personally wait until the end of the quarter, before applying for the MR. The SUB bonus right now is just a 1.99% APR for 6 months, which is pretty bad compared to what they usually offer. There's a good chance it'll jump back up $200 or $250.

I just remembered as well that NFCU just upgraded my GoRewards to a Signature VISA as well.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

OmarGB9 — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 23:08:42 GMT

@Jarheadmajor wrote:
Is there any truth to having a couple hundred in checking and savings at app time? I may have seen that on Reddit or some other such place. Like I said, was hoping to get a larger SL to drop my CU and enable cancelling other worthless cards.

I don't think so. My accounts have always been empty/near empty, but I've been doing fine.

Also, you keep using CU, I know you mean "credit utilization," but on here we generally use CU to mean credit union, so it's getting a bit confusing lol.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

Jarheadmajor — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 00:54:55 GMT

@OmarGB9 wrote:
@Jarheadmajor wrote:
Is there any truth to having a couple hundred in checking and savings at app time? I may have seen that on Reddit or some other such place. Like I said, was hoping to get a larger SL to drop my CU and enable cancelling other worthless cards.
I don't think so. My accounts have always been empty/near empty, but I've been doing fine.

Also, you keep using CU, I know you mean "credit utilization," but on here we generally use CU to mean credit union, so it's getting a bit confusing lol.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I did mean credit utilization, I'll adjust for future messages.

Re: NFCU Flagship -- Should I apply?

arifjk — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 02:25:59 GMT

Flagship is a bit harder to get. It's because they have a minimum SL of $5k. If they can't approve you to have an SL of $5k, then they will not approve you their Flagship card.

But I think since you've been with them for at least 3 months, your internal score might have gone up. And considering that you got a full 3X CLI, you might be approved for their Flagship. And if they like you, you'll get a generous SL with it.

But i agree with the others, try to lower your UTIL first.