I just opened an NFCU account with $50 and applied for one of their cards but was rejected. That seemed crazy to me since I have flawless credit, but I'm seeing lots of references in the forums to an "Internal Score" with NFCU so maybe that's it.
Can anyone tell me what that is based on?
Trying to understand why I'd be rejected, and what I could do to get approved on a recon.
My stats:
- Roughly $75k worth of credit card limits (mostly Chase Saphire Preferred and Citi Thank You Preferred)
- Hovering around %15 utilization (hence applying for a balance transfer card)
- 0 delinquencies
- 4 inquiries (we bough a house in March, and I traded in my leased car for a new one in October)
- Not sure if income matters but mine is high enough that my DTI shouldn't be a factor
Starting Score: 580I should add - my FICO is 754 today.
internal score is basically TU Fico 9 + length of membership + balance of accounts + number/quality of accounts + direct deposit yes/no
it won't surprise me if your letter states:
~250 internal score
reasons:
current utilization/debt to income, considering the home and the car and the cc's
too short length since most recent TU inquiry
too little length of membership
no direct deposit
too low balance in navy fed accounts
give it 3-4 months, make sure your employer's direct deposit gets deposited into your checking, and that's about the earliest I would give it another chance if you specifically wanted to try Navy again for the Plat card
you could also try PenFed's gold card, they have a pre-qualify tool that isn't reliable, but 15 months 0% interest w/3% fee, they pull EQ, and not TU/Exp if you have less inquires on EQ
you can always try to recon through SM and plead your case, I don't think we see a lot of recons for NFCU, but it's worth a shot, you've already used the HP and they wouldn't even give you $500 so something is going on there
@GZG wrote:internal score is basically TU Fico 9 + length of membership + balance of accounts + number/quality of accounts + direct deposit yes/no
THANK YOU @GZG this is so helpful!!! Quick questions about some of these:
1. TU FICO 9.... where can I find my TU Fico 9 specifically? (Do I have to pay for TU credit monitoring?)
2. LENGTH OF MEMBERSHIP.... how long is "long enough" for them?
3. BALANCE OF ACCOUNTS.... I'm 9 months into a 30yr mortgage and 2 months into a 36 month car lease, so % paid off is low on both. Will they hold that against me?
Just wondering how to repair these because I'm good on the other points.
[My DTI is <50%. My utilization for credit cards is ~15% and getting lower every day. I'm definitley good on the number/type/quality of accounts. I can switch my DD to NFCU pretty easily to check that box.]
Thank you!
@loviedovie wrote:
@GZG wrote:internal score is basically TU Fico 9 + length of membership + balance of navy federal accounts + number/quality of accounts of navy federal accounts + direct deposit yes/no
THANK YOU @GZG this is so helpful!!! Quick questions about some of these:
1. TU FICO 9.... where can I find my TU Fico 9 specifically? (Do I have to pay for TU credit monitoring?) myFICO offers TU FICO 9 with their paid service, I can't think of any other sources off the top of my head though.
I think WF offers Experian FICO 9 for free if you have any products with them
2. LENGTH OF MEMBERSHIP.... how long is "long enough" for them? the longer the better really, which isn't very helpful to say. The minimum I would wait to apply again is 3 months and making sure that you open a checking account and the new website design shows if NFCU has you down for direct deposit or not
3. BALANCE OF ACCOUNTS.... I'm 9 months into a 30yr mortgage and 2 months into a 36 month car lease, so % paid off is low on both. Will they hold that against me? that's seperate, the absolute value of your debt, under the DTI concerns, which most likely triggered the denial, if I had to make a guess
'balance of accounts' means that you have money in your Navy accounts, not the balance remaining on your loans.
maintaining at least $1500 in a checking, which lets you upgrade to the flagship checking product fee free, probably helps
it's not the biggest reason, and it's not required, but if you want to make every improvement you possibly can, I would do that
Just wondering how to repair these because I'm good on the other points.
[My DTI is <50%. My utilization for credit cards is ~15% and getting lower every day. I'm definitley good on the number/type/quality of accounts. I can switch my DD to NFCU pretty easily to check that box.]
Thank you!
if your chexsystems report was dirty, they could have looked at that as well
@BuckyB wrote:You have to walk before you can run with NFCU. Opening an account on Monday, throwing fifty bucks in on Tuesday and expecting a credit card approval on Wednesday ain't how you do it with Navy Fed.
LOL, kind of what I figured, but never tested the waters. In my case, I recently opened an account not because I want one of their credit cards (I already have more than I need), but because I'll be looking for a mortgage within the next few months and NFCU has some of the best rates going. Right now I have a whopping $100 sitting in a savings account with NFCU, but because the interest they pay for savings is practically zero, I have my down payment over at CapOne; do you think it would be beneficial for me to move a few thousand over into the NFCU account?
