topic Re: Joint or Individual on SSL? (Navy Federal) in General Credit Topics

Joint or Individual on SSL? (Navy Federal)

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 02:19:14 GMT

I'm going to apply for a SSL on Navy Federal as mentioned in multiple threads. My wife will also do this, so we can both get the boost.

Does it matter if we open the account as a joint account or do we need to do it individually? Thanks.

Re: Joint or Individual on SSL? (Navy Federal)

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 02:58:54 GMT

Alliant used to do a hard pull when it was a joint account but a soft pull when it was not. Not sure what Navy does. I see no advantage in a joint account regardless, however, so my advice would be to do an individual for your wife, then when the loan is paid down and the money unlocked, use that money to secure your loan (and then pay it down).

I believe a $3100 loan is sufficient to get the full 60 month term.

Should I open an SSL with Navy Fed after paying off school loans?

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 05:51:57 GMT

My school loans just came off my report (discharged). My scores bumped a little bit (7 points on one and 19 points on the other)....this is probably becaues the balance was higher than the original loan amount (so annoying....they changed the original amount every month...so then once it went in to deferment, it was always over the original amount...but it is ok now).

I have three credit cards that I transfered balances to last year....CapOne, Citi, Chase (I paid off a USAA account....$3k this month that hasn't hit my report yet). All three of the credit cards have 0% APR and I'll pay them off the month before the interest rate kicks in. Two of these cards were over 90% (like 92%) so I paid them down to under 89%.

No other loans or cards. No mortgage or car payment. No derrogatories.

My current FICO 8 scores are in the high 600s (from around 670 to 690). My mortgage scores are in the low 700s.

The student loans are off my open accounts but on my closed accounts now. I reopened my Navy Fed account a couple weeks ago, so I can do an SSL now if it is a benefit. Would I benefit from doing an SSL with Navy Federal? I think the answer is yes, because I don't have an open installment loan at this point, but just want to check in with the pros first (the only reason I can think that it wouldn't help is because the student loans are still on my report on the closed section).

Additionally, I will do the SSL for my wife as she has no recent installment history (I'm sure it would help her score...although her scores for FICO 8 are around 730-750...she has one 30 days late, rest is good). I asked in another post if I could do this as a joint account so we both get the benefits, and the response I got was confusing...they said I should do it separate for each of us (but it wasn't explained why). If I can kill two birds with one stone with the SSL, might as well, so asking again.

Re: Joint or Individual on SSL? (Navy Federal)

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 14:06:41 GMT

@Anonymous

I merged another thread from January into this one and deleted a second one from last night. We only need one thread on the subject so if you have further questions please post them here. Please do not cross post in different forums. It is confusing to other members trying to assist you and is against forum rules. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Re: Joint or Individual on SSL? (Navy Federal)

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 15:37:37 GMT

So if I do a joint account, will it not have the same benefit?

Re: Joint or Individual on SSL? (Navy Federal)

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 15:40:29 GMT

The benefits of the joint account would be small, but they would be:

1. It's easier...only have to sit with customer service etc... one time.

2. Only tie up $250 or so rather than $500 (or whatever I do actual leave in there...times 2)

3. Don't have to worry about explaining to the people (if they ask) why my wife opened a loan a month ago and paid it off and now I'm doing the same thing.

Not huge issues...but enough that I'd prefer to do a joint account if possible.

Re: Should I open an SSL with Navy Fed after paying off school loans?

SouthJamaica — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 15:59:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My school loans just came off my report (discharged). My scores bumped a little bit (7 points on one and 19 points on the other)....this is probably becaues the balance was higher than the original loan amount (so annoying....they changed the original amount every month...so then once it went in to deferment, it was always over the original amount...but it is ok now).

I have three credit cards that I transfered balances to last year....CapOne, Citi, Chase (I paid off a USAA account....$3k this month that hasn't hit my report yet). All three of the credit cards have 0% APR and I'll pay them off the month before the interest rate kicks in. Two of these cards were over 90% (like 92%) so I paid them down to under 89%.

No other loans or cards. No mortgage or car payment. No derrogatories.

My current FICO 8 scores are in the high 600s (from around 670 to 690). My mortgage scores are in the low 700s.

The student loans are off my open accounts but on my closed accounts now. I reopened my Navy Fed account a couple weeks ago, so I can do an SSL now if it is a benefit. Would I benefit from doing an SSL with Navy Federal? I think the answer is yes, because I don't have an open installment loan at this point, but just want to check in with the pros first (the only reason I can think that it wouldn't help is because the student loans are still on my report on the closed section).

Additionally, I will do the SSL for my wife as she has no recent installment history (I'm sure it would help her score...although her scores for FICO 8 are around 730-750...she has one 30 days late, rest is good). I asked in another post if I could do this as a joint account so we both get the benefits, and the response I got was confusing...they said I should do it separate for each of us (but it wasn't explained why). If I can kill two birds with one stone with the SSL, might as well, so asking again.

1. I'm not one of the "pros", but yes your FICO 8 scores would get a serious boost from getting a Navy SSL and then paying it down to 9% or less. Some of your mortgage scores would receive a smaller boost.

2. But as long as you're going to keep the high utilization on the 0% interest cards your scores aren't going anywhere great. So I would wait until you've gotten that scoring monkey off your back before doing anything.

3. I don't know anything about the scoring effects of doing an SSL jointly but it sounds like a recipe for confusion, so I would stay away from that if I were you. If you want to be a guinea pig, and keep reporting to us how messed up it gets, fine. But if you want to avoid trouble, keep it simple.

4. In my experience, NFCU does not do a hard pull for an SSL.

Re: Should I open an SSL with Navy Fed after paying off school loans?

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 22:50:59 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
4. In my experience, NFCU does not do a hard pull for an SSL.

It was also true that Alliant did not do a hard pull for its SSL (back when Alliant offered the SSL product). The exception, however, was when the person decided to make his SSL a loan in the names of two different people. Then Alliant did a hard pull on each person.

What Navy will do with a joint loan I can't say, but I agree with SouthJ that two different loans is safer if the person wish to avoid a hard pull.

Re: Should I open an SSL with Navy Fed after paying off school loans?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:49:49 GMT

OH my gosh....so no one has done a joint ssl and reported here on it....I searched and searched and couldn't find anything, so I think you are right. I'd rather not be the guinea pig.

Re: Should I open an SSL with Navy Fed after paying off school loans?

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 20:53:00 GMT

My hubby and I have a joint personal loan from our credit union. Not sure if it's an SSL? Anyways, it was helpful for us. I agree with others who said getting your credit utilization down would be the first priority. ☺

Re: Should I open an SSL with Navy Fed after paying off school loans?

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 21:22:12 GMT

I have done a Navy SSL, along with three other family members, and although the CSR typically asks if it will be a joint account, when one member of my family opted to do a joint account, they were later contacted by NFCU to tell him they actually do not do joint accounts on the secured loans and he had to redo the application process.

Also, although I did a five year SSL for $3,000, when my son applied he was told the SSL has to be for OVER $3,000 to get the five year terms. He switched the amount to $3,005 and was approved for the five year loan, and the rest of my family did $3005 as well.

Hope that helps.

Re: Should I open an SSL with Navy Fed after paying off school loans?

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:22:41 GMT

Thank you so much!

Re: Should I open an SSL with Navy Fed after paying off school loans?

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 11:24:07 GMT

Thanks for the info! I'm at the place now where my remaining cc debt is on 0% APR...so my plan is to pay them off the month before they are due, and take advantage of the zero percent interest in the mean time (I had to pay 3% transfer fee I think on each one, so I'll milk it for all I can). I'm playing the double game of trying to maximize the cash at the same time as increasing my score. At this point my score is good enough to do what I need to do this year (If I get a VA loan, I'm far enough above the 620 cut off that I don't have to worry about it)...so the score is only secondary to the cash. Thanks again!