I called NFCU today to get the "skinny" on the business products offered and the requirements to get them etc. The following are the questions I asked and the answers which I received.
1. What kind of relationship with NFCU is required to qualify for Business Loan/CC Products?
A. Just have to be a member, or qualify for a membership and be willing to join at the time of application.
2. Does NFCU pull credit (hard or soft) to get a checking and/or savings account.
A. For Personal - YES it is a Soft Pull. For Business - NO.
3. What bureau(s) does NFCU use when considering business loans, CC, etc. and is it a Hard Pull?
A. NFCU Pulls Transunion when considering applicants for business loan products, and it is a Hard Pull?
3a. Can multiple LOCs or Apps be considered from a single pull?
A. Yes
3b. Do you know what version of FICO NFCU uses for Transunion?
A. No (however, according to many others on MyFICO the general consensus seems to be Score 9 - Maybe someone can say which Score 9 it is as there's FICO Score 9, FICO Auto Score 9, and FICO Bankcard Score 9??)
4. Is there a minimum credit score to qualify for or you consider acceptible when looking at applicants for business products?
A. No, not really. Although your credit is looked at as part of the process there is a lot more that goes into deciding if you will be approved than just your score. (I know.. but when do you tell guys to "take a hike!" - "We don't really do that here..." LOL - At least he loosened up a little after that question and felt a little more comfortable, up until now it was like a freakin interrogation)
5. Do you have certain document expectations or things we will need to provide? (i.e. Proof of income...)
A. Not necessarily, I would just say that you want to be sure you include all your income, any income that should be considered, from all sources, the only thing you DON'T want to do is inflate the figures and say "I got a has that's $139k that will sell this year and include that as 'income'", but within reason include all sources of business revenue. Also, for certain products and services (not so much BLOC BCLOC or CC) more proof may be requested or required. In addition, the amount has some bearing on how much we require you to prove, but there's no set amount where we require certain documentation. (Basically be honest but optimistic, they expect you to be optimistic in your numbers, it is okay to include projections that are a little inflated for optimism purposes, but don't say you'll likely do a million in sales if you haven't even made your first $1 yet)
6. Is there a minimum and/or maximum amount you can request for business products?
A. YES - BCLOC - Min $1500 Max $15k BLOC - Min $35K Max $10 million (Seriously?! I don't need that much - "Everyone says that..." he says.) on a side note, I didn't think to ask because it sounded alright at that point - but $35k minimum seems a little high, but then again maybe for that "specific product" that's the minimum but they may have others that they do for smaller amounts.
7. Are there an annual fee with the LOC?
A. NO - (actually YES) - not an annual fee it's called an "origination fee" and a "renewal fee" every year, which is annually, and essentially would be an "annual fee" but that's not what it is called.
7a. Can you tell me how much that is?
A. No, it varies, it depends on the amount of the LOC etc. but I am fairly sure it is always <$100 for a year.
8. Do you have a max Debt to Income ratio?
A. No, not necessarily, there is no solid set in stone number, but typically 40% is a good figure to stay under if you want to get approved for something like this. It is considered as part of the approval process but there is not a hard number, more there are a lot of things that come together to determine the overall case to see if it is approved or not.
9. What is the average turn-time?
A. Turnarounds are usually 3-5 days, but depends on what you are looking for. Many times, if you get everything done and turned in all at once and they don't need anything additional from you, it's not an odd situation, or anything like that then you can have it done in
10. Are there any transaction restrictions or limits on how the LOC can be used?
A. No, you can use it just like you would cash as much or as little as you want, send to others, checking, savings, other loans, etc. Anything you want more or less.
There were a couple things I missed that I should have or would have asked but forgot to.
Trying to figure out where I want to go first to apply for business credit card (TRUE business card not that Spark garbage, which is a personal card with business painted on it IMHO) and LOC. Hoping to actually apply as soon as I have some stuff update on the personal credit report.
Where would all of you recommend trying? I "heard" that Navy Fed is practically giving away $50k lines etc. but Idk how true that is.
I am interested in looking into where else I can go through for the same type of stuff and comparing offers maybe.
Would be awesome to have places that did off a softpull, or pre approved/qualified off a soft pull, no luck finding anything so far though.
