@Erusidhion wrote:
A majority of banks, not only credit unions; have an internal scoring model that they use for your relationship with them. Meaning have you never bounced a check with them, missed a payment, direct deposited x amount of money, established a savings, etc. It's not necessarily a score that depends soely on your credit reports. I know this because credit score wise I've got a crappy score at Suncoast Credit Union. BUT they probably have an internal score they use because even with that low FICO score in the letters they've given me a 20k car loan, 6400 credit limit and a few other things. It's been a 3 and a half year relationship with them so far.
I started off just like you. Derogatories I worked on getting taken care of and I started with a secured credit card. I'd say 100% go for the secured credit card and make sure you make your payments on time. It'll help for your future home plans if you get a mortgage through NFCU which I'm going to do within the next 12 months using their 100% program. Build a relationship with them while you're working on your derogatories and utilization. It will help 100%.
Good luck! And don't stress about hard pulls. They're only a few points and once you get so many they actually don't take down your score that much anymore. You can see in my signature how many I have lol.
Wow, that is a lot of INQ! I won't worry about them too much. I'd just like to keep them to a minimum as much as possible. At this stage in my rebuild, they won't make too much of a difference anyway. Thank you 
I am so glad that you said something about the "cutting out the pets" comment above, since I would NOT have been as gracious as you if I would have replied. I have a menagerie of merry misfits as well in my home that consists of 1 chinchilla, 2 degus, 1 kitty, and 1 puppy. We did have 3 more degus, 2 guinea piggies, and a sugar glider until recently, but unfortunately little rodent-like furbabies do not live as long as their feline/canine counterparts. I literally would go without food or my shopping fund before i would cut out anything that has to do with out babies. They are our children, our family, our reason for maintaining sanity in an otherwise crappy world... So, I guess what i am getting at is that I truly understand.
I am in the rebuilding process myself after 2 horrid marriages/divorces to men who both liked to take their frustrations out on my good name. I had a 717 FICO across the board, give or take a couple points, and then one day I applied for credit and was DENIED! I got the letter with my score on it and it was 495!!! I have been dealing with the aftermath of identity fraud, wihch in my honest opinion punishes the victim much more than the assailant ever get punished, and here I am over 4 years later and I am down to ONE collection account, 5 fraudulent student loans, and 1 judgement that I paid off that is still sticking on my report. I have had such an issue with getting the student loans taken off that I actually included them in my recent IBR SL Consolidation since I will get most of the debt forgiven after I serve a few years in a low income area as a psychologist or mental health intake worker. It just seemed to be an easier route for me, since it was literally the only thing that was holding my scores back.
I recently had scores of 608-EQ, 644-TU, and 585-EX (FICO 8), but my 644 dropped to 515 all of a sudden when the DOE reported my loans TWICE and included 120+ day past due for the last 3 years on only ONE of the dupes. I about had a heart attack when I seen the drop. I have worked so hard only to have them make a "mistake" that will take them 60+ days to repair, if they even do it at all since my consolidation will more than likely go thru before they even attempt to fix their admitted error. Thank goodness Great Lakes was able to point out the errors while they were in the process of fixing my loans.
As soon as my consolidation goes thru and I have another month reporting of my positive payment history with my credit card with my local credit union I am pretty sure that my scores will bump up at least 75+ points. I am going to write goodwill letters to the county that is holding my judgement to see if they will remove it from my CBR's since the info is not complete AND it was PIF within 12 days of the issuance of the judgement. I will send letters to the 3 CBRs as well as a form of backup. I do have one collection left that I am having a hard time getting deleted, even though I have proved that it was NOT mine & I have had the other 3 cell accounts removed that were opened within the same 21 day period by my ex, in a state that I NEVER lived in & while I was in a safehouse with my 3 children were I was not allowed to have a cell phone, let alone 17 (the amount of phones he obtained fraudulently). I am going to ask for advice from the community here today about possible doing a settlement with them for a deletion, so we will see how that works.
Sorry for the lengthy response, but I just wanted you to know that builds take time and it can be frustrating. I love NFCU and I am going to apply the first part of July, even though I am getting the itch to apply now, but I know that I wait for my scores to increase and those baddies to be deleted I will have a better chance at approval for a limit of more than $1K.
Keep your head up and if you need advice or someone to vent at, feel free to PM me... The $18k in SL debt should count for something if I am able to help those out with an unbiased ear and decent situational advice from time to time.. LOL
<3 <3 <3 Mellissa "MJ" <3 <3 <3
I'm in the same boat as you. I just opened my chk and sv on Jun 14, my direct deposit starts on Jun 30th. I applied for cc same day and was denied. I applied for secured visa next day and was approved once I wired $500 to my savings. I recon the cc decision and provided them my paystub and a copy of recently paid down credit cards to zero balance. My utiilization was 89%, but now is 0% (not showing on my credit report yet). I kept reading the boards and thought maybe i would get approved for navcheck, so i applied and was denied.
I know NFCU is great, i think i just have to wait for better scores. Any advice will definitely help. I'm working on rebuiiding my credit and DH.
Keep us posted on your status and I'll do the same.
Thanks.
