topic Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU! in Credit Cards

Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:52:54 GMT

I've been racking my brain for the last two weeks, trying to find an "in" with Navy. Yesterday I remembered that DW's mom works at Tripler Army Medical Hospital through a contractor. I jumped on Navy's site and sure enough, it looked like it would qualify. I waited for DW to get home from work. Had her call up and open up a joint account for us. Now I've been wanting in with NFCU because I know that they're BK friendly, have great service, and give great CL's. Well, all of that was proved true last night. The reps were a complete joy to work with. They never even mentioned the BK. And, they approved us for a $7K nRewards Visa! Holy hell! We have tons of inquiries right now, I still have a few baddies that are supposed to be marked as IIB, but are violating right now. Together, our combined CL's total $4120 between about 8 cards. Only $2620 of that was actually reporting at the time, and we were reporting 40% utilization because all of our cards are being slow to report.

Wow. Just wow. DW couldn't figure out why I wanted in there so bad, and why I made her call as soon as she walked in the door. NOW she knows!

Time for serious garden mode now Thanks to the members of this board for helping us get our credit where it is so far, and pointing us to NFCU. They've got all of our business now. Moving our banking, cars, and mortgage there as soon as we can.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:59:43 GMT

Congrats!

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

FicoScore626 — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:04:25 GMT

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

As for First Premier, did you toss their prestigious card in the shredder?

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

RockinRay — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:10:17 GMT

Shred it two times! Feels much better!

Congrats...

Ray

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:25:03 GMT

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!

Somehow, I'm sure that you'll manage to muddle along without that FP card.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Datx — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:26:11 GMT

Awesome, congrats! I'm sure you will be happy with NFCU.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:06:38 GMT

Thanks everyone. So far, I'm very pleased. I wish I could access my account and get that all set-up, so that's the only hitch I've found so far.

As for FP, my AF is due in January. I'm going to keep them open until then and run a bill on autopay each month, just to have some usage and report a few more payments. But it will be hitting the shredder before they try to charge me an AF again!

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:22:47 GMT

I have to agree that waiting for the online account access is a pain. Since I just had my membership approved yesterday, I called today about the online access (hoping it would be faster if they set it up over the phone), but she said they still have to mail me an activation letter with the instructions, which takes 5+ business days.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:55:34 GMT

Hi AndyK,

Did you have to jump through a lot of hoops to have your membership approved? Your post motivated me to apply for membership. I'm biting my nails until I get approved. I hope it goes smoothly. Of course I sent in a deposit as part of the online application process. That always greases the wheels, at least I hope.

I'm not applying for a card, simply for membership and a savings/checking account.

*sorry, I meant to say that it was stangg's post that motivated me. I've been following the thread with great interest.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:21:17 GMT

If I work for a construction contractor and we do work on the local Air Force base does that mean I would be eligbile? I may just call the 800 number but from what the elibility wizard says I think I might be.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:03:02 GMT

@Chester

My mother-in-law was career military in the Army, so I asked my wife to join NFCU - and she got her account set up immediately on Thursday. Her mom didn't need to join, didn't need her social, anything like that - they just confirmed that she'd be eligible through her 20+ years of service, which means that my wife was eligible, so she joined. Once she got her access number, I called in to join too. They said they had to verify the account, so it took a few days. Yesterday (Tuesday) evening I recieved my access number and all that stuff. I had to send in a copy of my ID to verify my identity, that was the only real hassle.

The first rep I'd asked said that her mother would have to join before my wife could, but all the others had no problems with us joining without her mom becoming a member - so if you get a rep that gives you problems, just call back. The vast majority of NFCU's employees have been really helpful on the phone.

@rebuilding

I think you'd have to ask the membership department that. DOD civilian contractors are eligible, but I'm guessing it depends on the exact contract with the AFB.
But, NFCU does say:

"Civilian Defense Contractor

This includes all contractors who work for private and public companies who have a contract with the Department of Defense and regularly work at a U.S. Government Installation or facility, afloat or ashore."

So as long as your company has some sort of contract with the Air Force, I'd imagine you could be eligible. But you should call and ask. If you get told no, call back later and ask again. Some reps are just way better at helping than others. Overall NFCU's customer service seems exceptional so far.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

bichonmom — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:04:08 GMT

Congratulations! How wonderful for you. What an awesome CL!

I tried to join because my grandfather served in the Marines in WWII, but they said that I wouldn't qualify because he wasn't "career" military. I grew up hearing his stories about WWII and can't help but feel disappointed that that doesn't count in their eyes.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:54:22 GMT

I hear you. My grandfather, uncle, and stepfather were all Naval officers. It wasn't until I remembered my MIL works at an army hospital that I was able to become eligible. Heck, my grandfather lied about his age so he could get into the Navy. I heard all kinds of stories, so I'm with you.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

bichonmom — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:49:25 GMT

It's great that you found a way in. I keep wracking my brain, trying to think of something.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:20:53 GMT

You can always enlist in the service - marry a member - or move in with a member and gain eligibility. Just kidding I hope you know.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:05:54 GMT

Woohoo! Got our cards in the mail. It feels darn good to see that $7,000 credit limit. Considering we're less than a year out of bankruptcy, I don't think we could do much better. Hopefully it'll hit 5 figures by the end of the year.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

CS800 — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:13:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Woohoo! Got our cards in the mail. It feels darn good to see that $7,000 credit limit. Considering we're less than a year out of bankruptcy, I don't think we could do much better. Hopefully it'll hit 5 figures by the end of the year.

Congrats on the cards !!!

Just wondering if you could share your scores at the time of your application and what did they pull?

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:42:05 GMT

They pulled EQ and TU. Odd, because they seem to have pulled TU for her and EQ for me. All of our scores are right around 600. My EQ was 589 a week or so ago. TU was 593 last I checked. Not sure about DW but last we checked (a month or so ago) she was hovering in that same area. We've both gotten baddies removed recently and brought down our utilization.

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

CS800 — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:08:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
They pulled EQ and TU. Odd, because they seem to have pulled TU for her and EQ for me. All of our scores are right around 600. My EQ was 589 a week or so ago. TU was 593 last I checked. Not sure about DW but last we checked (a month or so ago) she was hovering in that same area. We've both gotten baddies removed recently and brought down our utilization.

Excellent, that's great with your scores and you got that kind of a credit limit. You lucky son of a gun

Re: Goodbye First Premier, HELLO NFCU!

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:25:50 GMT

If I hadnt already seen all the posts here, I wouldve been shocked. I hadn't really told DW much about the place, though, so her jaw hit the floor. I was expecting $3k-$5k based on our scores, so I was pleasantly surprised. As I said, they will have all of our business before long. Already changed our DD over.