DCU Auto Loan process? First time buyer

[toothgrind3r]

Hello all,

I am looking to buy my first new car.  (I have always lived in NYC and never needed one, but now I am in the burbs)

I was going to apply with NFCU, but I see in the loan suite when logged into DCU that "You're approved for up to $50,000.00" and it gives me an APR of 1.99% with loan terms up to 65 months.

How legit is that?  I will be looking to borrow about $35,000.  My FICO 8's are currently around 765, and FICO Auto 5,4 & 2 range from 716 - 764 depending on which pull.  

And can you tell me what the process is like?  Will I receive a check in the mail to take to the dealer?  How long is the approval good for?  I think I heard that with NFCU you can get approved and shop around for up to 90 days?  Is DCU similar?

[Anonymous]

I have purchased a few cars with DCU and refinanced a couple of other auto loans with them.

They are legit.

DCU pulls Equifax mortgage score.

I have gotten my DCU approval, gone to the dealer Monday to make a deal and had the check in my hand made out to the dealer the next day before noon.

You will need to make the deal and they need to approve it and check that the loan to value is not above 110% of book value....

All and all it's pretty easy.

The only complaint is sometimes it's hard to get a loan officer on the phone so you play a waiting game for them to call you.

Approval is good for some time I forget but I'd say somewhere between 30 and 45 days, I don't think it's good for 90 days but I don't remember but 30 days is the minimum it could be there at DCU.

If DCU does a hard pull that pull is good for any other products for a period of time probably 30 days too so it might be a good time to check on their low rate credit card or ask for a CLI.

Good luck!

[lhcole77]

Thanks @Anonymous  for those details. Very helpful!

@toothgrind3r  how long have you been with DCU? I joined Summer 2020 and am thinking of getting an auto loan in October but have no preapprovals on my account. Wondering if they might show up after the year mark.

[Anonymous]

Pre approved offers may or may not show up.

I have never received a preapproved offer from them except for a quick loan.

I have however received their best rates when applying.  They use Equifax Mortgage score so you can tell for the most part what rate you will be approved at.

[Wavester64]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have purchased a few cars with DCU and refinanced a couple of other auto loans with them.

They are legit.

DCU pulls Equifax mortgage score.

I have gotten my DCU approval, gone to the dealer Monday to make a deal and had the check in my hand made out to the dealer the next day before noon.

You will need to make the deal and they need to approve it and check that the loan to value is not above 110% of book value....

All and all it's pretty easy.

The only complaint is sometimes it's hard to get a loan officer on the phone so you play a waiting game for them to call you.

Approval is good for some time I forget but I'd say somewhere between 30 and 45 days, I don't think it's good for 90 days but I don't remember but 30 days is the minimum it could be there at DCU.

If DCU does a hard pull that pull is good for any other products for a period of time probably 30 days too so it might be a good time to check on their low rate credit card or ask for a CLI.

Good luck!

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So I might be taking advantage of DCU Offer soon:

So I am assuming since its yellow, it wont be a HP on my credit (I have had other yellow non-auto offers I did and it wasn't a HP).

So how does this work? I am looking at a Car that is say $38K. I intend to put some cash down, for the sake of this conversation, lets say I am going to put $10K cash - leaving $28K to finance. So once the deal is cut with the sales rep and I owe $28K, do I click that "accept offer" then what happens exactly?

[Harvey26]

@Wavester64 Click accept offer and then DCU will ask you how much your financing and they overnight you a paper check and you are essentially a cash buyer. So you should get everything confrimed with DCU first and then go to the dealership. 

[Wavester64]

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@Harvey26 wrote:

@Wavester64 Click accept offer and then DCU will ask you how much your financing and they overnight you a paper check and you are essentially a cash buyer. So you should get everything confrimed with DCU first and then go to the dealership. 

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Thank you - sounds painless 

When things sound too easy I am always thinking something has to be wrong 

[Anonymous]

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@toothgrind3r wrote:

Hello all,

I am looking to buy my first new car.  (I have always lived in NYC and never needed one, but now I am in the burbs)

I was going to apply with NFCU, but I see in the loan suite when logged into DCU that "You're approved for up to $50,000.00" and it gives me an APR of 1.99% with loan terms up to 65 months.

How legit is that?  I will be looking to borrow about $35,000.  My FICO 8's are currently around 765, and FICO Auto 5,4 & 2 range from 716 - 764 depending on which pull.  

And can you tell me what the process is like?  Will I receive a check in the mail to take to the dealer?  How long is the approval good for?  I think I heard that with NFCU you can get approved and shop around for up to 90 days?  Is DCU similar?

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I just got approved with DCU. 2.24% (.25 discount for having direct deposit and a checking account) 65 months refinance on an 80k vehicle. It was fast. Approved over the phone. They sent the check to the previous lender in one day. Very simple process. I love them. I joined the same day I was approved for the loan. They even threw in a 10k credit card on the same hard pull. My eq5 was 700. 

[Anonymous]

The DCU process is...ok.  Currently they are horribly understaffed for taking calls pretty much for anything.  I had to call the loan department a few days ago to finish out my loan, and it was a 4 hour wait...  4 HOURS.  When they finally answered, it took them 24 hours to finish out my loan processing and send me the esign docs to sign.  Then once they were signed, it took another 24 hours for them to fedex out my check.  So it was almost a week process from application to check in my hand.  And the only way they will do the check is to put it in both your's and the dealers name.  So word to the wise, before you finish out the deal with DCU, you MUST get the exact endorsing name the dealer will use to cash the check.  The DCU check WILL BOUNCE if the dealer doesnt endorse the check correctly with the name DCU prints on the check.  You must verify what they will use when they try to cash it.  Ask me how I know this...

Aside from that, their rates are awesome and they offered me a $30k credit card to go with it...  They will pull EQ and you can app for anything they have for 45 days under that same hard pull.  Once you get someone on the phone, they are super nice and helpful.  If they could just get their phone wait times down, they would be 10/10 to deal with.  

So basically get the car you want and an out the door buyers order from the dealer.  Get the EXACT name they will be using to endorse the check with.  Submit all that to DCU then call to have them finish out the loan.  esign the docs they send and wait for the check to show up.  They will do overnight if you ask.  Hope that all helps.

[Wavester64]

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@Wavester64 wrote:

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@Harvey26 wrote:

@Wavester64 Click accept offer and then DCU will ask you how much your financing and they overnight you a paper check and you are essentially a cash buyer. So you should get everything confrimed with DCU first and then go to the dealership. 

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Thank you - sounds painless 

When things sound too easy I am always thinking something has to be wrong 

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@Harvey26 A new snag in this loan opportunity and I was wondering if you can advise. That *yellow* approval has been on my account for months for 1.99%. However, the car I am looking to get keeps getting delayed in production, so I have not been able to take advantage of the offer yet. I saw mentioned in the credit card section of the forums that tomorrow DCU shows their quarterly offerings. For the heck of it, I went to my DCU account, and I nearly choked when I saw the yellow was gone.  The offer now is lowered to 1.49%, but it is no longer yellow. Is there a chance its just getting ready for the change tomorrow and it will be yellow again for the 1.49%? My luck, I am guessing no. My EQ F05 that DCU gives has been dropping too in the last few months, but I don't really know why. The previous 2 monthly readings have the score at 791 (October) and 784 (November). I was expecting a rise again when I saw it was offered this morning, but it dropped again to 775. Could that possibly be the reason the yellow offer is gone now? I mean if I can still get the 1.49% but now its going to cost me a HP, so be it. But it's a shame the no HP/yellow approval has been sitting there for SO long and just when its getting close to when I need it, its gone. Hopefully tomorrow that changes, but I am not anticipating that will happen.