Consumers CU denied with 778 FICO

[sillykitty1]

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@tray wrote:

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@core wrote:

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@sillykitty1 wrote:
For me the 3% on groceries was secondary to the increased APY on the checking account.  By having a cc and spending $1,000 or more per calendar month, APY on the rewards checking account goes from 3.09% to 5.09%

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Ooops yes I left that part out.  For anyone else following along, this is only on balances up to $10k though.  And you have to do 12 transactions (I believe) on your Visa card for a total of at least $1k for the top interest tier.  This is in addition to the 12 on your checking account debit card too, if I'm not mistaken.  So you have to buy 24 $0.50 Amazon gift cards each month, which can be a chore.

Back to your app sillykitty, you had to provide REFERENCES?  Are you kidding?  Like actual personal references, where they would get called?  There's no way in heck I'm giving out phone numbers of friends and family to be interrogated just so I can get a credit card.  I suppose I can always buy some throwaway phone numbers and disguise my voice as an old lady.  "Oh yes, he's a sweet young man, and he would never use a card just for the 3% cash back."  Bah.

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LOL.... in my personal opinion this credit union is very picky and the tatics for obtaining anything is trully out of the ordinary I personally had to go above and beyond to get in with this credit union for savings, checking and credit card only for 4K and what a joke with requesting references the ones I gave no call was never even done for any of them from what I know now this credit union is the least favorite to get in with, even with the high apy given look at all the hurdles you have to go through not worth it.....

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They made it clear to me at the time of the app that the references would not be called in order to approve the app, only to "keep on file".

Yeah, if I only got 4K ... I would definitely say not worth it!  But the 20K CL, 3% groceries and the 5.09% APY is definitely worth the hoops for me. I always worry about manual review because at the time I had a couple old 30/60 day lates on an auto loan, and my file is artifically thickened by back dated Amex's.  And those are both apparent to an underwriter vs. an auto approval.  So maybe they are not "picky" in looking for a perfect CR, but looking for highish income and spend?  

[core]

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@sillykitty1 wrote:
For me Amazon gc's didn't work for the 12 debit transactions.  I called and asked why they didn't show up in the counter and I got a vague explanation, and I didn't want to push it, so I dropped it and got the 12 debit  different way.

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Sub-dollar Amazon gift cards are still working just fine for me here.  I have an automated job that does them all on the same day each month, rapid-fire.  It doesn't get much more obvious than that, but they never said a word about it.  They are all for different amounts though.  So I don't know what happened for you?

Ohhhh I think I know what the deal is.  I got caught by it one month a long time ago now that I think back.  Amazon a while back changed their policy and suddenly (quietly!) all credit card numbers were run as debit cards when possible.  These debit card transactions do not count at CCU; it has to be run as credit.  You can opt out of this sneaky stuff on Amazon for each card separately.  After you make one Amazon purchase with the card in question, go back into your payment methods, select the card, and uncheck the box that allows them to run it as a debit card.  Should work fine after that.

[sillykitty1]

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@core wrote:

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@sillykitty1 wrote:
For me Amazon gc's didn't work for the 12 debit transactions.  I called and asked why they didn't show up in the counter and I got a vague explanation, and I didn't want to push it, so I dropped it and got the 12 debit  different way.

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Sub-dollar Amazon gift cards are still working just fine for me here.  I have an automated job that does them all on the same day each month, rapid-fire.  It doesn't get much more obvious than that, but they never said a word about it.  They are all for different amounts though.  So I don't know what happened for you?

Ohhhh I think I know what the deal is.  I got caught by it one month a long time ago now that I think back.  Amazon a while back changed their policy and suddenly (quietly!) all credit card numbers were run as debit cards when possible.  These debit card transactions do not count at CCU; it has to be run as credit.  You can opt out of this sneaky stuff on Amazon for each card separately.  After you make one Amazon purchase with the card in question, go back into your payment methods, select the card, and uncheck the box that allows them to run it as a debit card.  Should work fine after that.

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Yep ... that what CCU told me!  Thanks for the info.  If I need to use Amazon gc's to make the 12, it's good to know I can.

[core]

5 months later....  Have an update and some information I have not seen posted here before.

I applied once again for the Visa Signature cash rebate card; I put down $5k for the limit desired.  I received a call 2 days later from a loan officer who discussed the app.  The first thing she said was "I see you only asked for $5k?"  Yes, that's all I want.  Well I then learned that the minimum limit for this card is $10k.  I found that odd for a cash back visa signature with no real perks except for the modest cash back.  Had I known that was the min limit, I would have increased a few of my limits to 10k right before applying.  She changed the app to 10k for me.  But after she pulled TU and mentioned that I didn't have many 10k limit cards, I knew I was screwed.

She as a loan officer doesn't make any decisions; that's all handled by the underwriter.  And they must keep him locked up in a room... nobody's allowed to talk to him.  (Reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode about the old man in the cave who tosses notes out from underneath the door and it turns out to be a machine.)  So for the next 3-4 days, the mysterious underwriter would pass questions on to the loan officer, and she'd send me emails.  Some rather silly questions too, like what do the letters in my company name stand for. (Who cares?  She already knew what kind of business it was.) 

After days of this, she came back and said "they" only approved me for $5k and I could not get the signature card as a result.  I accepted it, hoping that in a year or two I'll be able to upgrade the card without a new tradeline.  I was asked for 3 personal references... names, addresses, and phone numbers.  I believe this was mentioned earlier in the thread.  But she assured me nobody would be contacted unless they couldn't get ahold of me.

So that's where things stand.  I'm now the proud owner of a CCU card with a practically useless cuRewards merchandise program, but having the card does boost my checking interest to 4%+ APY so it's somewhat worth the AAoA hit.  Hopefully next year I'll have better luck with a PC.

[FinStar]

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@core wrote:

5 months later....  Have an update and some information I have not seen posted here before.

I applied once again for the Visa Signature cash rebate card; I put down $5k for the limit desired.  I received a call 2 days later from a loan officer who discussed the app.  The first thing she said was "I see you only asked for $5k?"  Yes, that's all I want.  Well I then learned that the minimum limit for this card is $10k.  I found that odd for a cash back visa signature with no real perks except for the modest cash back.  Had I known that was the min limit, I would have increased a few of my limits to 10k right before applying.  She changed the app to 10k for me.  But after she pulled TU and mentioned that I didn't have many 10k limit cards, I knew I was screwed.

She as a loan officer doesn't make any decisions; that's all handled by the underwriter.  And they must keep him locked up in a room... nobody's allowed to talk to him.  (Reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode about the old man in the cave who tosses notes out from underneath the door and it turns out to be a machine.)  So for the next 3-4 days, the mysterious underwriter would pass questions on to the loan officer, and she'd send me emails.  Some rather silly questions too, like what do the letters in my company name stand for. (Who cares?  She already knew what kind of business it was.) 

After days of this, she came back and said "they" only approved me for $5k and I could not get the signature card as a result.  I accepted it, hoping that in a year or two I'll be able to upgrade the card without a new tradeline.  I was asked for 3 personal references... names, addresses, and phone numbers.  I believe this was mentioned earlier in the thread.  But she assured me nobody would be contacted unless they couldn't get ahold of me.

So that's where things stand.  I'm now the proud owner of a CCU card with a practically useless cuRewards merchandise program, but having the card does boost my checking interest to 4%+ APY so it's somewhat worth the AAoA hit.  Hopefully next year I'll have better luck with a PC.

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Wow OP, sorry you had to go through this rollercoaster, only to end up with a CL much less than the minimum threshold - odd for sure.  I suppose, on the upside, boosting your checking APY turned out to be a success given the approval.  Best of luck next year with trying to PC!

*Mental note* do not apply for CCU   Your experience definitely made me chuckle.

[sillykitty1]

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@core wrote:

5 months later....  Have an update and some information I have not seen posted here before.

I applied once again for the Visa Signature cash rebate card; I put down $5k for the limit desired.  I received a call 2 days later from a loan officer who discussed the app.  The first thing she said was "I see you only asked for $5k?"  Yes, that's all I want.  Well I then learned that the minimum limit for this card is $10k.  I found that odd for a cash back visa signature with no real perks except for the modest cash back.  Had I known that was the min limit, I would have increased a few of my limits to 10k right before applying.  She changed the app to 10k for me.  But after she pulled TU and mentioned that I didn't have many 10k limit cards, I knew I was screwed.

She as a loan officer doesn't make any decisions; that's all handled by the underwriter.  And they must keep him locked up in a room... nobody's allowed to talk to him.  (Reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode about the old man in the cave who tosses notes out from underneath the door and it turns out to be a machine.)  So for the next 3-4 days, the mysterious underwriter would pass questions on to the loan officer, and she'd send me emails.  Some rather silly questions too, like what do the letters in my company name stand for. (Who cares?  She already knew what kind of business it was.) 

After days of this, she came back and said "they" only approved me for $5k and I could not get the signature card as a result.  I accepted it, hoping that in a year or two I'll be able to upgrade the card without a new tradeline.  I was asked for 3 personal references... names, addresses, and phone numbers.  I believe this was mentioned earlier in the thread.  But she assured me nobody would be contacted unless they couldn't get ahold of me.

So that's where things stand.  I'm now the proud owner of a CCU card with a practically useless cuRewards merchandise program, but having the card does boost my checking interest to 4%+ APY so it's somewhat worth the AAoA hit.  Hopefully next year I'll have better luck with a PC.

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That's too bad core!  I'm sorry for all the hassle you got a useless-ish card.  You can get 5.09% APY on your checking though, which is like $80/mo for me, so that's pretty great IMO.

So it seems I'm one of the few on this board with a positive CCU expereince.  From the conversations i had with the CSR, they seemed particularly interested in income, monthly cc spend, and existing limits.  It seemed they wanted all 3 to be on the high side.  They matched my then highest limit of $20,000.

[core]

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@sillykitty1 wrote:
You can get 5.09% APY on your checking though, which is like $80/mo for me, so that's pretty great IMO.

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Yes certainly, that rate is excellent.  However (as you already know), one has to spend $1k/mo on their card to get that rate.  If I'm going to spend $12k in a year on their card, what I'm going to get out of it is a silly barbeque mitt from the cuRewards Mall.  Whoop de doo.  Whereas if I put that $12k on another card I'd get $240 cash back minimum.  Let's see, do I want a BBQ mitt or $240?  Decisions, decisions.   Yes, I know the interest makes up for some of it.  But my checking balance isn't 20k like yours.  I could move some money there but I'm making 10% in other investments so I'd rather not.  I only keep enough in there for maybe 3 months of expenses.  Soon to be increasing, I guess, courtesy of CC float which I never took advantage of before.  What makes it hard to use the float is: These CUs never provide you with good ACH transfer options.   DCU, for example, charges you a freaking fee to transfer money out!!  At least I think it was DCU.   Ah, I now see that CCU does actually let you initiate external transfers from there.  That makes things much easier.

But yes, I will have to force myself to blow $1k/mo on this card, just to get my 5.09% APY and also to look favorable for the product change plea which will occur next year.

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@sillykitty1 wrote:
From the conversations i had with the CSR, they seemed particularly interested in income, monthly cc spend, and existing limits.  It seemed they wanted all 3 to be on the high side.

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Yes, I forgot to mention this.  The loan officer did seem quite interested in my annual spend on credit cards.  She didn't ask what I would put on their card, just what my total was across all cards.  That was also a new thing for me... haven't been asked that before by anyone.  Why would that matter, because obviously I would never move 5% spend over to their card.  She would have been blown away if I told her the real amount.  But she simply asked "10k?", and I said "yes, well above 10k".

I don't care how many years it takes, I WILL get this darn card.  Unless a different CU comes out with another 3% grocery card first.

[core]

sillykitty-  I see here on the Transfers page that it's about to let me transfer money FROM my Visa to my checking account.  I don't suppose you have ever tried this?  I'm wondering what it does.  Given that balance transfers have no fees here, I'm trying hard to convince myself not to hit the button.  I guess it would be a cash advance.  No, don't think I'll try it.  Not yet anyway.

Speaking of balance transfers, have you ever done one?  How does it work?  With no BT fees, I wonder what's to stop you from simply bouncing balances back and forth (from another fee-free card), floating it forever and earning 5.09% on what you would have had to pay.  Do you know if the site has a BT option, or do you have to call in each time?  I'm still waiting for my documents and I can't access the CC site without my full account number.

[sillykitty1]

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@core wrote:

sillykitty-  I see here on the Transfers page that it's about to let me transfer money FROM my Visa to my checking account.  I don't suppose you have ever tried this?  I'm wondering what it does.  Given that balance transfers have no fees here, I'm trying hard to convince myself not to hit the button.  I guess it would be a cash advance.  No, don't think I'll try it.  Not yet anyway.

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Hmmm ... you know that is interesting.  I've never really paid much attention to that, since I don't move money around within CCU.  My guess would be it would be a cash advance, I mean it should be a cash advance, right?  Not a bad deal even if it is a CA, no fee and currently only 1.49% interest.

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@core wrote:

Speaking of balance transfers, have you ever done one?  How does it work?  With no BT fees, I wonder what's to stop you from simply bouncing balances back and forth (from another fee-free card), floating it forever and earning 5.09% on what you would have had to pay.  Do you know if the site has a BT option, or do you have to call in each time?  I'm still waiting for my documents and I can't access the CC site without my full account number.

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Nope, haven't done a BT.  Yes, from the cc part of the site, you can initiate a BT online.  I don't think there would be anything to really stop you.  Other than there would be a cost.  The current 1.49% APR, and then would you potentially pay interest right away on your $1,000 monthly purchases?  But I just initiated my first BT ever yesterday (on another card), so I'm far from an expert.

[Anonymous]

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@core wrote:

5 months later....  Have an update and some information I have not seen posted here before.

I applied once again for the Visa Signature cash rebate card; I put down $5k for the limit desired.  I received a call 2 days later from a loan officer who discussed the app.  The first thing she said was "I see you only asked for $5k?"  Yes, that's all I want.  Well I then learned that the minimum limit for this card is $10k.  I found that odd for a cash back visa signature with no real perks except for the modest cash back.  Had I known that was the min limit, I would have increased a few of my limits to 10k right before applying.  She changed the app to 10k for me.  But after she pulled TU and mentioned that I didn't have many 10k limit cards, I knew I was screwed.

She as a loan officer doesn't make any decisions; that's all handled by the underwriter.  And they must keep him locked up in a room... nobody's allowed to talk to him.  (Reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode about the old man in the cave who tosses notes out from underneath the door and it turns out to be a machine.)  So for the next 3-4 days, the mysterious underwriter would pass questions on to the loan officer, and she'd send me emails.  Some rather silly questions too, like what do the letters in my company name stand for. (Who cares?  She already knew what kind of business it was.) 

After days of this, she came back and said "they" only approved me for $5k and I could not get the signature card as a result.  I accepted it, hoping that in a year or two I'll be able to upgrade the card without a new tradeline.  I was asked for 3 personal references... names, addresses, and phone numbers.  I believe this was mentioned earlier in the thread.  But she assured me nobody would be contacted unless they couldn't get ahold of me.

So that's where things stand.  I'm now the proud owner of a CCU card with a practically useless cuRewards merchandise program, but having the card does boost my checking interest to 4%+ APY so it's somewhat worth the AAoA hit.  Hopefully next year I'll have better luck with a PC.

Yea, what do those damm letters in your business stand for ??? We must know in order to approve your application. What a joke. 😱😱😱

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