topic Credit Union of Southern California in Credit Cards

Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:48:54 GMT

We recently joined Credit Union of Southern California and they pulled Experian to open the account. They have a Visa Platinum credit card with very weak rewards however, maybe we could get a decent credit limit unsecured credit card and start moving on with our credit journey. The Experian pull is good for 30 days.

What do you think?

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Revelate — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:43:53 GMT

Heh, I've never heard of them and I live in LA and work in OC.

If they've already done the pull though, and you need another revolving credit line and it doesn't cost another inquiry, there's really no reason not to ask. It may only report to Experian though (which isn't necessarily a bad thing here in Cali) but it's something to be aware of.

Edit: philosophy on local CU's anyway: if you're going to use them for other things as well, then I'd suggest the card may have additional benefits in terms of relationship building over the long run.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:17:35 GMT

We had never heard of them either until I was searching on Google for credit union credit cards and this CU popped up. What we would like to do is get an unsecured credit card from a credit union, with a half-way decent credit limit, then--get the money back from our secured Cap One account so that we can put it in with the money we have saved to buy a car. We originally were thinking of trying to make it through this whole year before buying a car but, I am SO sick and tired of trying to depend on the bus to go everywhere. According to what the CU customer service representative told us, this CU is a shared network branch CU which means we can go to ANY other CU within the network and act like we are walking in the door of our own CU. Maybe all CUs offer this, I don't know. I'm going to look further into exactly what that means.

Also, like you said, the inquiry has already been burned to open the membership and, its good for 30 days, so--we may as well go on and try for their credit card.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

webhopper — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:56:51 GMT

CU of So Cal seems like a great place to do business just from checking out their website

Congrats and good job on finding them!

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

frogfan12 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 02:03:47 GMT

I'd say go for it. You may get a nice CL and be able to get the ball rolling on the new car deal.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:39:15 GMT

Well, I don't know if this CU is so great after all. The Chief Loan Officer (who is the supervisor in charge of all credit card decisions), told us that the hard pull inquiry done to open membership is good for 30 days ONLY with regards to opening membership -- NOT for anything else. Should we want to apply for a credit card, auto loan, etc. everything is a separate hard pull from Experian. I am not impressed with that!

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:14:58 GMT

Personally I would think being able to talk to the Big Cheese of credit decisions in person would be a great deal. Did you consider giving him an outline of your credit picture or maybe a report you pulled yourself and asking about chances for approval on a credit product? I'm sure he's going to tell you his answer is not a guarantee, however he may be able to tell you that you would not be immediately disqualified or likely to be approved.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:08:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Personally I would think being able to talk to the Big Cheese of credit decisions in person would be a great deal. Did you consider giving him an outline of your credit picture or maybe a report you pulled yourself and asking about chances for approval on a credit product? I'm sure he's going to tell you his answer is not a guarantee, however he may be able to tell you that you would not be immediately disqualified or likely to be approved.

We gave her a photocopy of our Equifax and Transunion FICO® reports that we had printed out last Saturday morning when we went to see her on Saturday to sign the final paperwork for opening our membership. We also brought photocopies of pay stubs from my husband's job as well as a photocopy of his W-2. I brought everything to her in a file folder and showed her all the paperwork. She did not pay any attention to any of it, she set the file to one side and proceeded with the paperwork she wanted us to fill out to order checks (which cost $20--they are not free). She went on with her welcome new member speech telling us that they are a shared branch networked credit union, and she bragged that if you sign up for online banking, they will cover $1,500 in non-sufficient fund checks every week, she was very intent on explaining their checking and savings but, steered us away from any talk about credit cards or auto loans.

We thought she was just a customer service representative until my husband called in to find out more about the hard pull they'd done on Experian. He found out his Experian FICO, and that the hard pull, good for 30 days, only meant you had 30 days to come in and fill out all their additional paperwork to complete membership. If you let it go 31 days, they would do another hard pull again. In the course of his conversation, the gal said: "I'm the one who opened your account last Saturday, I'm the Chief Loan Officer here." Then, she went on to tell him that every transaction, like getting a credit card, or an auto loan, etc., would each be a separate hard pull.

Now, we are wondering if we should continue our search for yet "another" local credit union. Because of the eligibility requirements, it makes it hard to find a credit union here in our area.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Revelate — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:20:02 GMT

I took a look at their website, Webhopper makes an excellent point: it's far better than many other CU's I've seen, even well known and even praised ones such as Penfed and DCU. That is a point in their favor, a good website doean't always mean a company that cares, but a poor website, well, you have to ask the question why, and it's never a good answer these days.

I don't remember your details for tradelines, but if you need an unsecured one for whatever reason, and it's a local CU (there's a lot to be said for that, and it's an extremely smart idea their partnering with other local CU's here in So Cal with the way we're spread out all over the three major counties from where we work vs live, most aren't that forward thinking), I'd take the bet personally and I'm far more conservative than most people on this forum when it comes to credit building.

If you're talking to the head dude, just ask him straight up if he thinks you'll get approved and what their typical CL might be. It's no guaruntee to be sure, but you have a clearly thought out rationale for this, see if they can work with what you want. It's going to cost you another inquiry anyway anywhere else you go for another unsecured credit card, and honestly, what you're looking to do is something I'd happily spend an inquiry on in your situation.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

webhopper — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:22:54 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
I took a look at their website, Webhopper makes an excellent point: it's far better than many other CU's I've seen, even well known and even praised ones such as Penfed and DCU. That is a point in their favor, a good website doean't always mean a company that cares, but a poor website, well, you have to ask the question why, and it's never a good answer these days.

I don't remember your details for tradelines, but if you need an unsecured one for whatever reason, and it's a local CU (there's a lot to be said for that, and it's an extremely smart idea their partnering with other local CU's here in So Cal with the way we're spread out all over the three major counties from where we work vs live, most aren't that forward thinking), I'd take the bet personally and I'm far more conservative than most people on this forum when it comes to credit building.

If you're talking to the head dude, just ask him straight up if he thinks you'll get approved and what their typical CL might be. It's no guaruntee to be sure, but you have a clearly thought out rationale for this, see if they can work with what you want. It's going to cost you another inquiry anyway anywhere else you go for another unsecured credit card, and honestly, what you're looking to do is something I'd happily spend an inquiry on in your situation.

Its a nicer looking website than the regional bank we use.... their website is very blah .....

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:15:17 GMT

Revelate wrote:

If you're talking to the head dude, just ask him straight up if he thinks you'll get approved and what their typical CL might be.

We have been dealing with the head dudette -- the Chief Loan Officer is a girl.

My husband asked her the very question that you posed -- straight out -- and she completely ignored him and went on talking about how they are "happy to cover $1,500 worth of bad checks for us every week!" She spoke at great length about everything except credit cards and auto loans.

If we didn't have so many hard pulls on Experian, we might have considered burning yet another inquiry, but doing so would make for having 11 inquiries on Experian and we figure 10 is MORE than enough.

So, its back to gardening with our tiny toy credit cards for the rest of, what seems to be, a very long year.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Revelate — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:42:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:

If you're talking to the head dude, just ask him straight up if he thinks you'll get approved and what their typical CL might be.

We have been dealing with the head dudette -- the Chief Loan Officer is a girl.

My husband asked her the very question that you posed -- straight out -- and she completely ignored him and went on talking about how they are "happy to cover $1,500 worth of bad checks for us every week!" She spoke at great length about everything except credit cards and auto loans.

If we didn't have so many hard pulls on Experian, we might have considered burning yet another inquiry, but doing so would make for having 11 inquiries on Experian and we figure 10 is MORE than enough.

So, its back to gardening with our tiny toy credit cards for the rest of, what seems to be, a very long year.

That's too bad; I wouldn't have done the same for the reasons you did, but if someone's just going to ignore what I at least consider to be a reasonable question, I'll be happy to take my business elsewhere .

Out of curiosity what brought you to this CU anyway? I hadn't heard of it previously... about the only three I can name around here are Kinecta (run screaming), SDCCU (excellent a few years back I recall), and Western Federal which I know next to nothing about.

Edit: on a further note, if I haven't heard of them, they're probably on the smaller side of credit unions... their credit card is possibly co-branded so they might not make that much money off of it, and they may need more money in available assets (deposits) anyway. Not all credit unions are good for all folks, but you have a clear vision of what's up and I suspect your score has been continuing to increase over time, you'll be fine.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:59:48 GMT

That is too bad. I still say if you really want a good Credit Union then Navy Federal is the way to go hands down in my humble opinion.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Revelate — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:04:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That is too bad. I still say if you really want a good Credit Union then Navy Federal is the way to go hands down in my humble opinion.

If you can get access, my mother served but never opened an account there... other than that from what I've read on the forum, I completely agree with you.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:09:15 GMT

Revelate wrote:

Out of curiosity what brought you to this CU anyway?

I found out about them on this website: click here. I liked the fact that their membership requirements were do-able for us, you just have to work in a city that's on their list and, my husband does (Anaheim)! ALL their offices are considered a Credit Union Service Center, they have offices in Brea, City of Industry, Covina, Pico Rivera, El Monte and Whittier. We've been to the branch in Whittier -- it is a large stand alone building with a good sized parking lot. The Chief Loan Officer travels to all the different offices and, apparently, she is in charge of the whole shebang with regards to underwriting. She was very friendly and cute as could be but, I got the impression that this is her first job.

We will give them a chance and maybe after we get better acquainted things will be better. An interesting sidenote: the woman who worked the Information Desk seemed VERY knowledgeable about everything. I think she's been there a lot longer than the Chief Loan Officer.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:11:34 GMT

BigDaddy18 wrote:

That is too bad. I still say if you really want a good Credit Union then Navy Federal is the way to go hands down in my humble opinion.

My husband served 8 years in the Air Force but, that's not good enough for NFCU.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:23:31 GMT

Dang I had no idea it was so hard to get started at NFCU wow my bad!

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:26:13 GMT

I wish that I could be the primary on this membership since the FICO® score they pulled with Experian for me is 763 and, I have only 3 inquiries but, I am no longer able to work (health issues) so, my husband's income/employment/FICO® is what they're looking at. His Experian is 681 as I have listed in my signature. My FICO® counts for nothing though since I don't have any income so, that's why I only list my husband's scores. I am hoping if we apply for "joint" credit that maybe my FICO® will matter but, who knows how credit decisions are calculated???

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Revelate — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:45:52 GMT

If he works in Anaheim then I think you're qualified for San Deigo County CU, which I remember very fondly from last decade and I suspect they're much larger than this one from an asset perspective. Might be worth looking into them in your situation.

Re: Credit Union of Southern California

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:46:28 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
If he works in Anaheim then I think you're qualified for San Deigo County CU, which I remember very fondly from last decade and I suspect they're much larger than this one from an asset perspective. Might be worth looking into them in your situation.

But see, that's the beauty of being a member of a CU that is a "Credit Union Service Center" (as is the Credit Union of Southern California). This is the one thing that was explained to us at length. Once you become of a member of a shared branch type CU you can go into any other shared branch CU "in the network"---SO-- we are going to go to this credit union: click here, to do all our business, this one is also known as the Disney Credit Union. That "shared branch" benefit is awesome!