topic Re: NFCU Secured process? in Rebuilding Your Credit

NFCU Secured process?

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 17:26:36 GMT

Curious about some data points in regard to this card. So last month my 6th statement cut and my NFCU secured card did not graduate. At first I thought maybe it was because I do not carry a balance and PIF before the statement, but I also had a recorded EQ Fico 9 score of 579(which is most likely the culprit). This month my fico 9 score (As of 6/13/20 yesterday) is 639. That's 60 full points ahead of what last month was. My util is also 3%(Which is down 6% from last month). I know unsecuring is no guarantee, but I'm curious to know if anyone has had this card and completely PIF each month and never had a balance report, but had their card graduate normally. Is it possible? Do they want a small balance to be carried over? Should I carry a small balance? I max out this card each month and put it through heavy use, but always PIF and have a 0 balance report. If it means anything the CL is 500 on the card.

Re: NFCU Secured process?

BmoreBull — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 18:11:03 GMT

I'm not sure about the Navy secured card( I don't have one). But I would never carry a balance on any card during the rebuild process. The question I have is , what are you letting report? If it's a high balance, that's hurting you. I usually only let balances of less than 10% report on my cards. It's ok to use the card as much as you want, but pay it down before the statement cuts. If your letting a high balance report it could look like you are depending on the card.

Re: NFCU Secured process?

EverForward — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 19:23:03 GMT

@BmoreBull wrote:
I'm not sure about the Navy secured card( I don't have one). But I would never carry a balance on any card during the rebuild process. The question I have is , what are you letting report? If it's a high balance, that's hurting you. I usually only let balances of less than 10% report on my cards. It's ok to use the card as much as you want, but pay it down before the statement cuts. If your letting a high balance report it could look like you are depending on the card.

+1 I agree with @BmoreBull

BTW, @Anonymous nice improvement on your FICO 9 score, I would think that should help.

As of today, I've had my $300 nRewards for 118/4, I've reasonably utilized the card, make interim payments, as needed, and PIF'd for the 1st 3 statements. On my 4th statement, I let Navy cut with 2% and PIF immediately thereafter. I plan to continue to reporting <2.9% across all cards moving forward. I should find out in a couple months how this strategy works.

If you have other cards, I'd keep the balances down on those as well as I believe Navy looks at your overall DTI.

Good luck with your nRewards graduation, hopefully sooner than later,

Re: NFCU Secured process?

pt91978 — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 21:49:46 GMT

@Anonymousyou could try to apply for a 2nd card while waiting for your card to graduate. If you've been paying on time each month, and your score improved by 60+ points, you should see some love from NFCU.

I applied for the Go Rewards card after my 4th statement cut on the secured card and was approved for $15K SL. My score at the time was 673. GL and let us know how it goes...

Re: NFCU Secured process?

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 23:46:02 GMT

+1 to everything posted above!

I also just got my 2nd card with navy, I am 4 statements into my secured card! It may not be the high limits plenty others have gotten, but I am still rebuilding, I have 8 defaulted student loans, and a paid chargeoff.

You can call and see if you are prequalified for any of their other cards too! I would think that 6 months of treating them well should count for something in their eyes! Congrats on the score jump, and good luck with your nRewards graduation! Don't forget to request a CLI the day you graduate, been quite a few reports lately of a nice "double bump"!

Re: NFCU Secured process?

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 09:50:11 GMT

Thank you all for the replies! To answer your questions, I do not allow for high balances to report. The most I've ever allowed to report when it was both secured and unsecured was my discover card and that was 80$/500. I paid it off immediately. At most I only let a simple 10$ balance report then pay it off. The most I've ever let NFCU report was 56$/500. I was always just curious if NFCU cares about reporting 0 balances each month but heavy usage. I figure some banks would not like that they don't ever really gain money from interest but would like the person to pay in good faith. Also, I have applied for a second card. Particularly, the NFCU Go rewards. I was immediately denied but I figured this would happened as I was approved for the CLOC, and then 2 days after attempted a card app. I'm going to let the card and cloc age as people have recommended. Also going to switch my direct deposits to my checking account to further increase my relationship with nfcu. I have my fingers crossed that my card will graduate this month! One of my CO accounts reported a 0 balance (down from 1500) and my score dinged for positivity. I gained 20 points on fico 8. I can only imagine my fico 9 score went up in good faith as well. I was lucky since the CO account was reporting monthly since 2015 Jan so I gained points rather than losing points. Also improved my Util ratio. One can hope!