topic Re: DCU Loan Payments in Personal Finance

DCU Loan Payments

KLEXH25 — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 17:44:16 GMT

I read somewhere here recently that DCU allows you to pay their loans up to 3 months ahead. Does anyone have any more information on this? If my next payment, I pay 3 months worth, will it automatically push my payment ahead? Or do I have to call in to make a special payment?

Re: DCU Loan Payments

FeeBear — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 17:49:00 GMT

Hey Klex,

It was a while for me with my car loan. I believe you are right, after a certain point they don't allow you to pay ahead but rather just pay principal/Dialy interest accumulated from your last payment. I pretty sure you are right about 3 months (Car payments back then were 1K/month) of course they will take your money but the systems are limited on paying ahead.

Fee

Re: DCU Loan Payments

RootDet — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 17:52:40 GMT

I bet you could always push a mail-in payment

Re: DCU Loan Payments

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 18:26:38 GMT

I do have a DCU HELOC. DCU lets you make regular payments and principal-only payment. A principal-only payment does not change the next payment date.

If you make a regular payment of any amount larger or equal to the minimum payment the payment date will be pushed forward automatically by one month.

To push the payment date by three months, just make three regular payments larger or equal to the minimum payment. I not sure whether you can make three payments on the same day, so you might have to spread the payments over three days.

The system even lets you move the payments date by more than three months. But then DCU send you a nasty letter that you are not allowed to push the payment date by more than three months and resets the payment date to three months ahead of schedule. So if you want to make more than three payments in one month, some of them have to be principal-only payments.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

KLEXH25 — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 19:46:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I do have a DCU HELOC. DCU lets you make regular payments and principal-only payment. A principal-only payment does not change the next payment date.

If you make a regular payment of any amount larger or equal to the minimum payment the payment date will be pushed forward automatically by one month.

To push the payment date by three months, just make three regular payments larger or equal to the minimum payment. I not sure whether you can make three payments on the same day, so you might have to spread the payments over three days.

The system even lets you move the payments date by more than three months. But then DCU send you a nasty letter that you are not allowed to push the payment date by more than three months and resets the payment date to three months ahead of schedule. So if you want to make more than three payments in one month, some of them have to be principal-only payments.

That's why I'm confused. My auto loan payments are due on the 15th of each month. One time I tried seeing if I could pay 1/2, every two weeks, but the first payment went to the principal and then the full payment was still due two weeks later, so I figured I couldn't do it. Now I just pay once a month on the 10th.

Then someone posted here that the max is 3 months in advance, so I was wondering what would happen if I made a payment 3x the normal amount at once? Would that automatically push it out? Maybe I'll try 2x to test it first.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 20:49:27 GMT

@KLEXH25 wrote: One time I tried seeing if I could pay 1/2, every two weeks, but the first payment went to the principal and then the full payment was still due two weeks later, so I figured I couldn't do it. Now I just pay once a month on the 10th.

How are you making the payments? When I make payments at the DCU website, I can choose between "Make a regular payment" and "Pay to Principal". Do you have that choice? Maybe that choice is only available for helocs but not for auto loans.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

KLEXH25 — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 21:20:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@KLEXH25 wrote: One time I tried seeing if I could pay 1/2, every two weeks, but the first payment went to the principal and then the full payment was still due two weeks later, so I figured I couldn't do it. Now I just pay once a month on the 10th.

How are you making the payments? When I make payments at the DCU website, I can choose between "Make a regular payment" and "Pay to Principal". Do you have that choice? Maybe that choice is only available for helocs but not for auto loans.

@Anonymous That's a good point. I automated my payments, so I'll have to look again, but I think I did see that option. Or maybe I only saw it from the desktop but not the app? I'm going to play around with it and report back.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

DaveInAZ — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 22:36:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
How are you making the payments? When I make payments at the DCU website, I can choose between "Make a regular payment" and "Pay to Principal". Do you have that choice? Maybe that choice is only available for helocs but not for auto loans.

I have a car loan and manually make my payments and I have the choice of Regular Payment or Pay to Principal:

I've always just made "regular" monthly payment, although I do round up from the $246.58 minimum payment to an even $250. And I think I remember a member here saying he had paid his DCU car loan 1 year ahead. If you want to pay ahead a few months I would just make a regular payment, when I do that the payment date for the payment for next month shows up. Pay that and it should just keep on putting another month ahead. For example, pay Aug. and Sept. will show up, pay that and Oct. should show up, etc. If you make one large payment I'm pretty sure it will just apply the surplus against principal and a payment will still be due next month.

My car loan is 2.99% so I'm not in any rush to pay it ahead.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

KLEXH25 — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 23:38:34 GMT

@DaveInAZ wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
How are you making the payments? When I make payments at the DCU website, I can choose between "Make a regular payment" and "Pay to Principal". Do you have that choice? Maybe that choice is only available for helocs but not for auto loans.
I have a car loan and manually make my payments and I have the choice of Regular Payment or Pay to Principal:
I've always just made "regular" monthly payment, although I do round up from the $246.58 minimum payment to an even $250. And I think I remember a member here saying he had paid his DCU car loan 1 year ahead. If you want to pay ahead a few months I would just make a regular payment, when I do that the payment date for the payment for next month shows up. Pay that and it should just keep on putting another month ahead. For example, pay Aug. and Sept. will show up, pay that and Oct. should show up, etc. If you make one large payment I'm pretty sure it will just apply the surplus against principal and a payment will still be due next month.
My car loan is 2.99% so I'm not in any rush to pay it ahead.

Yeah I'm not seeing that option in the app. It must be on the desktop version. I know I've seen it before, I'm just wondering if it's possible to pay quarterly. I'm not exactly in a rush to pay off either.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 00:23:32 GMT

@DaveInAZ wrote:

And I think I remember a member here saying he had paid his DCU car loan 1 year ahead.

Unless it is different for car loans, you can only pay ahead by 3 months. If you make 12 regular payments in a row, the system will advance the due date by 12 months. But later DCU will send you a nasty letter that you are not allowed to advance the due date by more than 3 months and resets the due date. This has happened to me last year and I also have seen it mentioned by another member.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 00:29:17 GMT

@KLEXH25 wrote: I'm just wondering if it's possible to pay quarterly.

It seems one can even do this automatically: DCU lets you set-up three recurring regular payments for the same day and executed every three months.

But I would keep a close eye on it: Make sure all three payments do go through and the due date is really advanced by three months.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

KLEXH25 — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 00:45:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@KLEXH25 wrote: I'm just wondering if it's possible to pay quarterly.
It seems one can even do this automatically: DCU lets you set-up three recurring regular payments for the same day and executed every three months.

But I would keep a close eye on it: Make sure all three payments do go through and the due date is really advanced by three months.

Interesting. So I have to make three separate payments for it to work? I can't just make one payment for three times the amount? Right now I have an auto payment scheduled for the 10th of every month (from savings to auto loan). So if I schedule two more, it'll push it out for 3 months? I'm very anal and have alerts and reminders to double check payments are successful.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 01:22:04 GMT

@KLEXH25 wrote:

So I have to make three separate payments for it to work?

Correct.

Right now I have an auto payment scheduled for the 10th of every month (from savings to auto loan). So if I schedule two more, it'll push it out for 3 months?

I think so. It might be better to schedule the three payments for three consecutive days (rather than all on the 10th) to give the system time to update the due dates inbetween.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

KLEXH25 — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 01:50:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@KLEXH25 wrote:

So I have to make three separate payments for it to work?
Correct.

Right now I have an auto payment scheduled for the 10th of every month (from savings to auto loan). So if I schedule two more, it'll push it out for 3 months?
I think so. It might be better to schedule the three payments for three consecutive days (rather than all on the 10th) to give the system time to update the due dates inbetween.

Great, thanks so much @Anonymous !

I'll give it a try, and see how it works out.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

Revelate — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 14:49:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@DaveInAZ wrote:

And I think I remember a member here saying he had paid his DCU car loan 1 year ahead.
Unless it is different for car loans, you can only pay ahead by 3 months. If you make 12 regular payments in a row, the system will advance the due date by 12 months. But later DCU will send you a nasty letter that you are not allowed to advance the due date by more than 3 months and resets the due date. This has happened to me last year and I also have seen it mentioned by another member.

Probably me haha. I was testing playing reindeer games with my auto loan, paid it ahead in a lump sum by 12 months, and they wrote me a nasty gram and reset the next due date from 12 months out to 3 months out. Did the same thing again a few months later, got another nasty gram . At least they are consistent.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 16:59:22 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
Probably me haha.

Indeed.

paid it ahead in a lump sum by 12 months

So you were able to advance the due date by 12 months with just one large payment? I am under the impression that one needs 12 regular payments to do that. But maybe I'm wrong.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

KLEXH25 — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 19:59:12 GMT

I will probably test the waters with a double payment first (lump sum) and see what happens.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

Revelate — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 13:28:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
Probably me haha.
Indeed.

paid it ahead in a lump sum by 12 months
So you were able to advance the due date by 12 months with just one large payment? I am under the impression that one needs 12 regular payments to do that. But maybe I'm wrong.

If you make a single large regular payment, if the software allows paying ahead (most in my experience) it gets credited to each successive regular payment in order. Even DCU did that, just they reset the stupid thing for some unknown reason.

I suppose it might make sense to sanity check that with an individual lender as clearly they can do it differently but most take the route described above.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 02:22:09 GMT

@Revelate wrote:If you make a single large regular payment, if the software allows paying ahead (most in my experience) it gets credited to each successive regular payment in order. Even DCU did that, just they reset the stupid thing for some unknown reason.

Strange, I just checked by DCU statements, and DCU is not doing that for me:

My minimum payment on my DCU Home Equity Loan is $509.

In Oct 2019 I made 4 regular payments ranging from $1200 to $3200. The due date was moved forward by 4 months from 11/1/19 to 3/1/20. Then I got the letter from DCU and the due date was reset to 2/1/20.

In Jan 2020 I made one regular payment of $2000 and the due date was moved forward by just one month from 2/1/20 to 3/1/20.

So for me, each regular payment advances the due date by just one month, even it is more that three times the minimum payment.

Re: DCU Loan Payments

crnbread73 — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 15:51:45 GMT

I have a car loan with DCU. I split my payment up and pay twice a month and a little extra each payment. It does push my payment out if I choose to skip a payment I can or it just keeps pushing it out which is what I usually do.