PenFed vs. USAA vs. NFCU SUCCESS STORY

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

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@nitrov wrote:

Ok, apped for membership and was told I needed to send DL, SS card, and proof of address. Waiting for approval now. Hopefully it's not multiple pulls. I should app for a CC at the same time to make the most of the HP?

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They may well offer you a credit card when they approve your auto loan.  There is nothing special about their credit cards, though, and you are in with Navy and Chase and others.  I'm not sure you really need or want their card.  It's just another CU card.

They are known to have an irritating habit of doing mid-cycle updates on their credit card, which means if you put on a large charge they will suddenly update with the credit bureaus, rather than wait for a regular statement date.  (They aren't the only lender to do this but it gets called out a lot).

I would work on getting your NFCU card limits up over 20K and then maybe go for NASA FCU for a 20K-30K limit or Penfed for the same. 

DCU is the go-to place for auto loans but is "meh" for credit cards.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

Whoops, I only noticed your 5K card with Navy.  You already have the 20K card.  Good job.

I would skip DCU for credit cards and apply with NASA FCU and Penfed if you want nice high limits.

[Anonymous]

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@nitrov wrote:

Ok, apped for membership and was told I needed to send DL, SS card, and proof of address. Waiting for approval now. Hopefully it's not multiple pulls. I should app for a CC at the same time to make the most of the HP?

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if you have good income and your score is 670 EQ. you could get approve for 3.99% and if score is 675 you could get their best rate.

if you like to get DCU Credit Card you must apply at the same time and they will use same inquiry for Membership, Auto Loan and Credit Card.

make sure they will use same pull for all 3 categories because sometimes they will use 2 pulls.

I got my auto refinance declined for 3.99% because I have less income. at the PenFed did they ask for proof of infome?

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

DCU is known to always pull twice for new members.  Once for membership and once for the credit app.  You can get more than one loan with the 2nd HP, but you should full expect two HP's when you are new to DCU and looking for a loan.  If it doesn't happen it is a fluke.

[nitrov]

No one has asked me for proof of income or anything like that. I do have a pretty substantial mortgage that's only a year and a half old and have no baddies on my credit at all so I'm sure that helps too. If my CC balances were down to <10% my scores would be over 720 across the board most likely. I think I'm done with the new CCs if I can just get a better rate on the auto loan I'd be happy. Hopefully the HP for DCU is worthwhile and saves me some money.

[nitrov]

Just got an approval from DCU. They did have to do 2 HPs for membership and then the auto loan. I got 4.99% for 72 months, which is still better than 5.1% for 60 months from PenFed or 7.75% for 72 months from USAA. Would've been nice to get something in the 2-3% range, but I'll take the $50/month savings until my scores get better. Thanks, guys!

[nitrov]

Oh, DCU did ask for proof of income. None of the other 3 did but I'm happy to oblige for the extra savings.

[Anonymous]

What is your score according to PenFed and DCU?

Congratz with the new offer! Hope you will refinance soon.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

Congratulations!

One other benefit with DCU is that you get a free monthly FICO score with the EQ 04 model (used for mortgage loans).  You sign up for it on their site and they send you a secure message once a month (I think the last Friday of each month).

Ths is a great benefit because I don't know of any other place you can get a free EQ04 score.

Be sure to sign up for it and check your secured messages once a month.  If you are going for a mortgage, this wil let you keep tabs on at least one of your FICO mortgage scores.

[nitrov]

PenFed said its a 660 so I guess I dropped a few points since my last pull. I'll def look into the free credit scores! I'm hoping I can get a CLI on that PenFed card soon and I'll prob monitor my EQ score with them to possibly refi my mortgage with them in the future. I'm buying a 2nd car this month (used one) so I'll prob stick with DCU for that too but at least now I have relationships with these folks. I'm sure it'll come in handy later.