NFCU approval questions?

[shojus]

I have been with NFCU for about 8 months and have all my banking through them, as well as my direct deposit.  I have a few lower funded CD's and a basic checking and savings account.  My current FICO8 scores are around 675-695 with great current payment history and fairly low DTI, but I have (1) $4500 charge-off from 6 years ago.  My question is, I am a 100% disabled veteran and my yearly income is about $65k.  I know some banks aren't keen on approving apps that show unemployed or "other".  I just don't know what to put down...?  I have been told by another person to put retired, but I just don't wanna mess this up.  I have (3) inquiries on my TransUnion file and the latest inquiry has been about 6 months ago.  Just looking for any advice on if my score and income is good enough for a decent credit limit or should I wait?  Also, the whole employment question is making me wonder what to put down.  Thanks for any advice!

[GZG]

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@shojus wrote:

I have been with NFCU for about 8 months and have all my banking through them, as well as my direct deposit.  I have a few lower funded CD's and a basic checking and savings account.  My current FICO8 scores are around 675-695 with great current payment history and fairly low DTI, but I have (1) $4500 charge-off from 6 years ago.  My question is, I am a 100% disabled veteran and my yearly income is about $65k.  I know some banks aren't keen on approving apps that show unemployed or "other".  I just don't know what to put down...?  I have been told by another person to put retired, but I just don't wanna mess this up.  I have (3) inquiries on my TransUnion file and the latest inquiry has been about 6 months ago.  Just looking for any advice on if my score and income is good enough for a decent credit limit or should I wait?  Also, the whole employment question is making me wonder what to put down.  Thanks for any advice!

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you have two choices, apply now and start building history with them

or wait until your file is clean and apply 

my EQ FICO 9 has been around ~720 with a major derog within the past 18 months and that hasn't stopped my nrewards from graduating in 6 months, or getting 3x CLIs on both of my cards with less reported income than you

considering nfcu probably is aware of your millitary status, I wouldn't be worried about putting retired even a little bit

if you knew your TU fico 9, that might be a tad more helpful for knowing odds of getting a higher limit

if you want the highest chance at the highest limit, bump up your checking to the flagship checking for the miniscule internal score boost I'd assume it provides

I'd apply now imo (in my opinion), so by time your file is clean, you can apply again for something else after a year of not applying for anything after this point

[SUPERSQUID]

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@shojus wrote:

I have been with NFCU for about 8 months and have all my banking through them, as well as my direct deposit.  I have a few lower funded CD's and a basic checking and savings account.  My current FICO8 scores are around 675-695 with great current payment history and fairly low DTI, but I have (1) $4500 charge-off from 6 years ago.  My question is, I am a 100% disabled veteran and my yearly income is about $65k.  I know some banks aren't keen on approving apps that show unemployed or "other".  I just don't know what to put down...?  I have been told by another person to put retired, but I just don't wanna mess this up.  I have (3) inquiries on my TransUnion file and the latest inquiry has been about 6 months ago.  Just looking for any advice on if my score and income is good enough for a decent credit limit or should I wait?  Also, the whole employment question is making me wonder what to put down.  Thanks for any advice!

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If I was in your shoes I would use retired. I was forced to retire in 2017 when I became disabled. I had a very small checking and savings at NFCU for 7 months. Then I applied in dec/2021 for the cash rewards cc and was approved for 3700, now that cards limit is 21,700.

Then 4 months later I applied for the platinum cc but was approved for a low 1k sl, that cc is now 9k.

My income is much lower than yours at 39k and I have a bk7 from 12/2019.

I have managed to get some pretty nice cards and 101k in limits, and I entered retired on alll of them, ymmv.

[shojus]

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it a lot!

[shojus]

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@SUPERSQUID wrote:

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@shojus wrote:

I have been with NFCU for about 8 months and have all my banking through them, as well as my direct deposit.  I have a few lower funded CD's and a basic checking and savings account.  My current FICO8 scores are around 675-695 with great current payment history and fairly low DTI, but I have (1) $4500 charge-off from 6 years ago.  My question is, I am a 100% disabled veteran and my yearly income is about $65k.  I know some banks aren't keen on approving apps that show unemployed or "other".  I just don't know what to put down...?  I have been told by another person to put retired, but I just don't wanna mess this up.  I have (3) inquiries on my TransUnion file and the latest inquiry has been about 6 months ago.  Just looking for any advice on if my score and income is good enough for a decent credit limit or should I wait?  Also, the whole employment question is making me wonder what to put down.  Thanks for any advice!

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If I was in your shoes I would use retired. I was forced to retire in 2017 when I became disabled. I had a very small checking and savings at NFCU for 7 months. Then I applied in dec/2021 for the cash rewards cc and was approved for 3700, now that cards limit is 21,700.

Then 4 months later I applied for the platinum cc but was approved for a low 1k sl, that cc is now 9k.

My income is much lower than yours at 39k and I have a bk7 from 12/2019.

I have managed to get some pretty nice cards and 101k in limits, and I entered retired on alll of them, ymmv.

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So I bit the bullet and applied for the Cash Rewards card that they have sent me direct mailers to my home for.  I got declined!?  That's very surprising because my DTI is below 20% and I make 65k/year and my FICO8 score is around 690.  I use them for ALL my banking and I heard it was a pretty easy card to get for the most part.  I figured worst case scenario I would get a low limit, but nothing...  Kind of in my feelings about this one!  

[GZG]

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@shojus wrote:

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@SUPERSQUID wrote:

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@shojus wrote:

I have been with NFCU for about 8 months and have all my banking through them, as well as my direct deposit.  I have a few lower funded CD's and a basic checking and savings account.  My current FICO8 scores are around 675-695 with great current payment history and fairly low DTI, but I have (1) $4500 charge-off from 6 years ago.  My question is, I am a 100% disabled veteran and my yearly income is about $65k.  I know some banks aren't keen on approving apps that show unemployed or "other".  I just don't know what to put down...?  I have been told by another person to put retired, but I just don't wanna mess this up.  I have (3) inquiries on my TransUnion file and the latest inquiry has been about 6 months ago.  Just looking for any advice on if my score and income is good enough for a decent credit limit or should I wait?  Also, the whole employment question is making me wonder what to put down.  Thanks for any advice!

---

If I was in your shoes I would use retired. I was forced to retire in 2017 when I became disabled. I had a very small checking and savings at NFCU for 7 months. Then I applied in dec/2021 for the cash rewards cc and was approved for 3700, now that cards limit is 21,700.

Then 4 months later I applied for the platinum cc but was approved for a low 1k sl, that cc is now 9k.

My income is much lower than yours at 39k and I have a bk7 from 12/2019.

I have managed to get some pretty nice cards and 101k in limits, and I entered retired on alll of them, ymmv.

---

So I bit the bullet and applied for the Cash Rewards card that they have sent me direct mailers to my home for.  I got declined!?  That's very surprising because my DTI is below 20% and I make 65k/year and my FICO8 score is around 690.  I use them for ALL my banking and I heard it was a pretty easy card to get for the most part.  I figured worst case scenario I would get a low limit, but nothing...  Kind of in my feelings about this one!  

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let us know what the letter says, the reasons and your internal score

I'm surprised they wouldn't even give you a $500 limit, is your old CO actively reporting every month?

once you get the letter, see if you can recon and reverse their decision 

last ditch effort, ask NFCU if they will use your same HP and apply for the nRewards secured card and hope they can use your HP from this denial and let that graduate to the cashrewards

[barrymc0904]

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@shojus wrote:

I have been with NFCU for about 8 months and have all my banking through them, as well as my direct deposit.  I have a few lower funded CD's and a basic checking and savings account.  My current FICO8 scores are around 675-695 with great current payment history and fairly low DTI, but I have (1) $4500 charge-off from 6 years ago.  My question is, I am a 100% disabled veteran and my yearly income is about $65k.  I know some banks aren't keen on approving apps that show unemployed or "other".  I just don't know what to put down...?  I have been told by another person to put retired, but I just don't wanna mess this up.  I have (3) inquiries on my TransUnion file and the latest inquiry has been about 6 months ago.  Just looking for any advice on if my score and income is good enough for a decent credit limit or should I wait?  Also, the whole employment question is making me wonder what to put down.  Thanks for any advice!

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In your position, I'd highly recommend doing a deep dive into sole proprietorships. Everyone is a sole prop basically. Filing for a sole prop EIN with the IRS is free and takes minutes. 

I'd start listing yourself as an employee of your sole prop. Up to the bank to do its own due dilligance regarding your pecentage of ownership in a listed employer and employer entity type etc if they chose to do so.

This also gives you exposure to both biz and personal products with the same funds. Take a step further, spend $150 to build your sole prop out as a proper business (website, landline, virtual address etc) is worth the time/effort imo.

Sure there will be 'opinions' on this, but its not that deep, LLCs didnt even become relevant until the 80s and you have many boomers with 40+ year old businesses in operation as a sole prop listing themselves as an employee of that company. 

Something generic such as a consulting company has a very low barrier and wide net of inclusions. Takes nothing to be 'consulting.' Route your deposits into sole prop checking accnt then to your personal accounts. Build history get biz products as well.

Also serves the purpose of never having to list yourself as 'unemployed' nor 'retired' etc on your apps as you are correct makes zero sense to do such and a simple rearrangment of your perspective is all it takes to change that narrative.

Regarding NFCU approval, what does your prequalification show? Theyll pull from a EQ9 score. Very profile / relationship based. Seen high scores / income get $3k and 680 scores get $25k approvals with no substantial relationship.

Direct dep/ veteran def helps. If it wont screw your AAOA completely, I'd highly recommend throwing small amount of money and taking 3 days to do a SSL paydown with them as well. Will raise internal score for sure. 

[shojus]

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@GZG wrote:

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@shojus wrote:

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@SUPERSQUID wrote:

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@shojus wrote:

I have been with NFCU for about 8 months and have all my banking through them, as well as my direct deposit.  I have a few lower funded CD's and a basic checking and savings account.  My current FICO8 scores are around 675-695 with great current payment history and fairly low DTI, but I have (1) $4500 charge-off from 6 years ago.  My question is, I am a 100% disabled veteran and my yearly income is about $65k.  I know some banks aren't keen on approving apps that show unemployed or "other".  I just don't know what to put down...?  I have been told by another person to put retired, but I just don't wanna mess this up.  I have (3) inquiries on my TransUnion file and the latest inquiry has been about 6 months ago.  Just looking for any advice on if my score and income is good enough for a decent credit limit or should I wait?  Also, the whole employment question is making me wonder what to put down.  Thanks for any advice!

---

If I was in your shoes I would use retired. I was forced to retire in 2017 when I became disabled. I had a very small checking and savings at NFCU for 7 months. Then I applied in dec/2021 for the cash rewards cc and was approved for 3700, now that cards limit is 21,700.

Then 4 months later I applied for the platinum cc but was approved for a low 1k sl, that cc is now 9k.

My income is much lower than yours at 39k and I have a bk7 from 12/2019.

I have managed to get some pretty nice cards and 101k in limits, and I entered retired on alll of them, ymmv.

---

So I bit the bullet and applied for the Cash Rewards card that they have sent me direct mailers to my home for.  I got declined!?  That's very surprising because my DTI is below 20% and I make 65k/year and my FICO8 score is around 690.  I use them for ALL my banking and I heard it was a pretty easy card to get for the most part.  I figured worst case scenario I would get a low limit, but nothing...  Kind of in my feelings about this one!  

---

let us know what the letter says, the reasons and your internal score

I'm surprised they wouldn't even give you a $500 limit, is your old CO actively reporting every month?

once you get the letter, see if you can recon and reverse their decision 

last ditch effort, freeze your TU and apply for the nRewards secured card and hope they can use your HP from this denial and let that graduate to the cashrewards

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My 6 year old $4500 charge-off from an auto loan (repossession) has mysteriously stopped reporting in May of this year.  One more year and it falls off my report.  But I also got Honda's best rate for an auto loan with that same charge-off, so there's that.  I also have an American Express BCE card with a $15k limit and an Apple Card with a $5k limit that are all paid to $0 every month and all in good standing for roughly a year.  Just kills me that I wasted a hard inquiry on a denial for a card that is so basic.  When I get the letter I'll chime back in.  Maybe I should have waited to apply on a business day?  IDK...  Super frustrating 

[shojus]

@barrymc0904  This is why I was concerned with putting unemployed or retired, cause I know banks and credit unions don't like to see that.  I do have my full VA disability being direct deposited into my account.  I was thinking about starting a sole proprietorship like you mentioned, so maybe I'll go that route soon.  I buy and sell on the side to make extra income.  My pre-qualification showed I was approved for all cards NFCU offered, so that's wrong! 😆  Not sure what you mean by the whole SSL pay down but my AAOA is around 5 years?  I was in the low 500's only 3 years ago, so I've definitely come a long way.  I'm wondering if my mortgage being sold and currently reporting as closed has anything to do with this denial?  I do have a mortgage but it was transferred to another lender and they haven't started to report it yet.  I'm so irritated I don't even think I want their crappy secured card!  Lol   I'm thinking I may should have waited to apply, but too late now I suppose. Also, I use the Experian paid website to get my scores, so not sure what my FICO9 is looking like, but my FICO8's are all in the higher 680's to 700.  I'm gonna wait for that letter and see about a recon.  Thanks for your reply! 

[barrymc0904]

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@shojus wrote:

@barrymc0904  This is why I was concerned with putting unemployed or retired, cause I know banks and credit unions don't like to see that.  I do have my full VA disability being direct deposited into my account.  I was thinking about starting a sole proprietorship like you mentioned, so maybe I'll go that route soon.  I buy and sell on the side to make extra income.  My pre-qualification showed I was approved for all cards NFCU offered, so that's wrong! 😆  Not sure what you mean by the whole SSL pay down?  I was in the low 500's only 3 years ago, so I've definitely come a long way.  I'm wondering if my mortgage being sold and currently reporting as closed has anything to do with this denial?  I do have a mortgage but it was transferred to another lender and they haven't started to report it yet.  I'm so irritated I don't even think I want their crappy secured card!  Lol   I'm thinking I may should have waited to apply, but too late now I suppose. Also, I use the Experian paid website to get my scores, so not sure what my FICO8 is looking like, but my FICO8's are all in the higher 680's to 700.  I'm gonna wait for that letter and see about a recon.  Thanks for your reply! 

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yea you already are a sole prop. you just arent utilizing it properly. takes 5 min to get an EIN and choose a DBA name. then congrats, you're a president/coo/owner etc of that company. 

just search 'nfcu ssl' on this forum. its a secured loan. you get access to the funds back a day or two after paying the ssl down so zero cost. if you have no other open installment loans youll get a big boost score wise.

with nfcu's interal scoring system you'd get a boost regardless. only thing id take note of, is how the account would effect your AAOA, but if you have any other accounts the past 1yr shouldnt make big diff.

nfcu isnt inquiry sensitive& id spend the $30 to get a myfico sub to get all scores. just cancel it after if you want, but at least then youd have a general understanding how your other scores relate in comparison to your fico 8s moving forward yk.

if you're preapproved for the platinum card thats a good sign for sure imo. what APR is listed on the preapprovals.. is it a set amount or a range? likely get a big approval imo. would say nfcu has veteran baked into its underwriting models for sure.