topic Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?) in Credit Cards

CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:05:08 GMT

To all those who have accounts in a credit union, how long did you wait to go from opening an account with them, to applying for their specific brand of credit card?

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

namvet — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:15:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
To all those who have accounts in a credit union, how long did you wait to go from opening an account with them, to applying for their specific brand of credit card?

You don't need to wait. In most cases (not all) you will get your credit pulled upon app for membership. So if that is the case go ahead and apply if you need the card. Your research should tell you what their score requirements are. In my case, i have applied upon membership approval and some months after for one reason or another. YMMV

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:17:43 GMT

I learn something new everyday. I did not know that credit unions pulled when you apped.

Is it a soft pull? I'm hoping so.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Itsmeagain — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:19:33 GMT

NFCU - Applied when account was opened - 2010

Pen Fed - Applied when account was opend - 2009

Alliant - Applied when account was opened - 2008

First Tech - Applied when account was opened - 2008

USAA - Applied when account was opened - 2010

All approved . . . .

Edited to add . . . . All were Hard Pulls

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:24:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
To all those who have accounts in a credit union, how long did you wait to go from opening an account with them, to applying for their specific brand of credit card?

I applied for a card the same day I opened the account. Was approved the next day.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

improvingmycredit — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:33:31 GMT

Same here. Opened an account and apped the same day. Got an auto loan and VISA with the same pull. Since then, have joined a second CU. Love them! Go for it if you think your FICO is good enough.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:36:54 GMT

@improvingmycredit wrote:
+1
Same here. Opened an account and apped the same day. Got an auto loan and VISA with the same pull. Since then, have joined a second CU. Love them! Go for it if you think your FICO is good enough.

Define "good enough".

I'm finding out my true FICO by this weekend, so I'm kinda weary right now about doing this then if it's a hard pull right off the bat.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

improvingmycredit — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:50:16 GMT

It really depends on your over all history. The starting point with a CU is the FICO score but also specifically your over all out look. I had a EQ FICO of 627 when I joined this forum and I was able to get the VISA and auto loan with that score.

It really depends on the CU and the great thing is you get to talk with a actual loan officer to explain your situation. In my case, told them I needed a VISA to consolidate all my cards and close them and get a new car with a decent rate. They saw I was making payments on time and had been for some time but just needed the chance to really prove myself with a decent limit. The high utility actually hurt me for a while until I got it paid down but I had what I needed and they gave me the chance.

They gave me a limit to cover all my open cards and pay all my Collections. (worked out PFD with the CAs) They also gave me a 7.95% APR on my auto loan.

Sorry so wordy but I'm really grateful and I hope you find a CU that will work with you like mine did. It was the start to my real recovery with credit.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:58:58 GMT

@improvingmycredit wrote:
It really depends on the CU and the great thing is you get to talk with a actual loan officer to explain your situation. In my case, told them I needed a VISA to consolidate all my cards and close them and get a new car with a decent rate. They saw I was making payments on time and had been for some time but just needed the chance to really prove myself with a decent limit. The high utility actually hurt me for a while until I got it paid down but I had what I needed and they gave me the chance.
They gave me a limit to cover all my open cards and pay all my Collections. (worked out PFD with the CAs)

I really, REALLY like this idea.

I'm going to go ahead and try out this strategy in a few weeks.

The card that they gave you, did it have a special promotion of 0% interest or anything of the sort?

Right now I just have one MBNA with a 4800 balance at 14.24 and a Freedom with a 0 balance on it. Just looking to add another credit card to the mix.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

the_jan_b — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:11:01 GMT

I apped about 9 yrs after I opened my account.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

improvingmycredit — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:33:41 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@improvingmycredit wrote:

.

The card that they gave you, did it have a special promotion of 0% interest or anything of the sort?
Right now I just have one MBNA with a 4800 balance at 14.24 and a Freedom with a 0 balance on it. Just looking to add another credit card to the mix.

Most CU don't charge a transfer fee and I got the BTs at 3% less then APR for the life of the BT.

You'll find most CUs have a lot lower rates then the larger bank cards. For example: My CU rate on my VISA is 8.9% - my BT Apr was 5.9% until paid off.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

bichonmom — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:42:30 GMT

You don't have to wait at all. I joined a local CU last year and apped for a CC about a week or so later. It depends on what your CR looks like. If you're in good shape, then there is no need to wait. If you need to do some work on it, then you can join, improve your score, and then app.

Some require a HP to open/join and others will do soft. You can ask. I joined 2 CUs last year and both were soft. But some do HP. They should be able to tell you if you ask them.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

LS2982 — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:45:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
To all those who have accounts in a credit union, how long did you wait to go from opening an account with them, to applying for their specific brand of credit card?

I don't think you need to wait, it's pretty much how your file looks like and do you need it. Me personally I'm waiting until Auguest to try PSECU 5k combo.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:32:11 GMT

@bichonmom wrote:
You don't have to wait at all. I joined a local CU last year and apped for a CC about a week or so later. It depends on what your CR looks like. If you're in good shape, then there is no need to wait. If you need to do some work on it, then you can join, improve your score, and then app.

Some require a HP to open/join and others will do soft. You can ask. I joined 2 CUs last year and both were soft. But some do HP. They should be able to tell you if you ask them.

Other than a CO that's not even supposed to be there and that I am in the midst of clearing up, which also forced my CS to take a hit, I have nothing else.

Just years and years of on-time payments, but it's the CO that's dragging my score down, so don't want to walk into a CU and get hard pulled AND denied at the same time. Definitely don't want to get blindsided. So I'll wait until I see the CO matter resolved.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

visorboy1974 — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:33:51 GMT

Same day

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:24:42 GMT

After reading this thread, I decided to take the plunge and apply for my CU's credit card. I only opened a checking account with them last week and yesterday I applied for the credit card and got approved today for $1300. Really really excited! I didn't get instant approval but I called in to verify some information such as income and etc. I will say that it seems that they look at your overall credit report. $1300 is my biggest limit so far and I'm sitting at 98% of ultilization. So I definitly wasn't expecting to get approved at all..Just need to fax in pay stubs and I'll be set.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:28:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
After reading this thread, I decided to take the plunge and apply for my CU's credit card. I only opened a checking account with them last week and yesterday I applied for the credit card and got approved today for $1300. Really really excited! I didn't get instant approval but I called in to verify some information such as income and etc. I will say that it seems that they look at your overall credit report. $1300 is my biggest limit so far and I'm sitting at 98% of ultilization. So I definitly wasn't expecting to get approved at all..Just need to fax in pay stubs and I'll be set.

Do you happen to know what your scores are at? Credit report look solid?

Thanks for the heads up on the pay stubs, I guess I should print out a few and keep them handy.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:34:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
After reading this thread, I decided to take the plunge and apply for my CU's credit card. I only opened a checking account with them last week and yesterday I applied for the credit card and got approved today for $1300. Really really excited! I didn't get instant approval but I called in to verify some information such as income and etc. I will say that it seems that they look at your overall credit report. $1300 is my biggest limit so far and I'm sitting at 98% of ultilization. So I definitly wasn't expecting to get approved at all..Just need to fax in pay stubs and I'll be set.
Do you happen to know what your scores are at? Credit report look solid?

Thanks for the heads up on the pay stubs, I guess I should print out a few and keep them handy.

I know my EQFICO was 667. Credit report is solid for the most part, just had extremely high ultilization(98%). AAOA 2 years and 9 months. 2 credit cards and 1 auto loan. 5 inquires (2 of them recent).

Also, I don't know if this matters but when I applied for the card with my CU there was a section on the application for "Purpose" and Balance Transfer was there. I chose that since they have a 0% promotional offer for 12 months. When I called in he did ask me a few questions on that and I pretty much told them that I would rather not pay interest on those cards and would love to transfer the balance over to my CU. Surprisingly, they approved me and help me setup the balance transfer that day. I'm just surprised because they gave me my largest limit yet which I think had to do a lot with the balance transfer since he asked me how much I would like to transfer. I pretty much combined the amounts of those two cards which was around $1200 and he approved me for $1300.

Re: CU's: From Chk/Sav to CC's (How long?)

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:34:58 GMT

Thank you Chris. I'm looking to head to the CU within the next week.

Just got my Equifax FICO score and it's at a nice 743 with no negatives/collections.

Super ecstatic!