My guess is you'll get $5K-$10K on the CLOC.
May the magic of Hogwarts be with you on your CLOC quest.
May the magic of Hogwarts be with you on your CLOC quest.
@SunriseEarth wrote:
TL;dr - Wescom CU's Visa has excellent BT offers, but stifling UW, a burdensome application process, and lackluster rewards make their product unworthy of the efforts.
How good are those BT offers SE?
Just going to add my experiences here though not sure I'm adding too much (if any that is new).
DCU: I picked up my membership here when I was working at Lycos in 2000; I used them as my primary bank for a while (DD) but didn't do anything with them as I was too F'n ignorant about credit and simply paid cash for everything including cars. They do have an inactivity fee if your account is idle for EXTENDED periods, when I went out to San Diego in 2002, and somewhere during 2002 -> 2012 they charged me $4 per month on the account. Bleck, but since I'd forgotten about it and at the time I was looking for any port in the storm with my credit issues, I wasn't going to complain. They let me reactivate, and I used them for a secured card ($2000 though I cut it back to $500 last year) which I will likely keep forever if they let me as one of my oldest tradelines, and for their most excellent auto loan which we're all aware of, and I did my HELOC through them and they're really good at this: 3.25% (variable, but it's still there as of yesterday) only 80% LTV but you can do a fixed rate advance at +0.25% (currently 3.5%) for the life of the loan if you so choose.... a VERY handy thing with a rising interest rate environment, 675 is their highest tier for that 3.25% qualification; "fortunately" I've been stuck at 693 for a couple years on that score haha. Free EQ FICO 5 (Beacon 5.0 for us purists) monthly, Equifax puller for everything, happy joy joy.
Penfed: I joined them when I first started building figuring I'd just leave some money there and then when my credit was better go and do something with them. Pretty much exactly how it played out, though I had some wierdass funky hold which I had to go back and forth with them on via email (couldn't transfer money at all inside Penfed let alone outside of it) but they did approve me for a 20K PLOC after my mortgage closed.... of which I've done absolutely nothing with other than a trial $100 transfer so I don't know how to play that one. I may just do something silly every six months so they don't just go close it, but after I qualified for the HELOC 10-11% on the PLOC just makes no sense except as a near last resort solution.
SDFCU: I was a member here, likewise when started building. I swear it! But maybe something went wrong, my account disappeared, and when I reapplied ithe application was cancelled effectively. I never went back, not sure there's anything to recommend them now these days other than a good secured card.
Logix: grrrrr. Decent jumbo product and I danced with them during my mortgage process, but I left the membership established figuring I might use it at some point. I just left $550 in the account.... and you know where this is going unfortunately, $5 fee for balances less than $750. I will be calling to close them today, screw that. I'd picked them up as I wanted a local CU for future purposes but that's just insiduous in my book, zero warning of it, no email, no snail mail, as bad as BOFA in that regard and I kicked them to the curb, these folks don't deserve better when they pull the same shennigans; BOFA at least had the courtesy to refund me, and it was only $3 there, these clowns, gah.
Tried to sneak into some of the Texas-based CU's, but got shot down on all. Never went back (RBFCU / SSFCU)
Future plans:
NFCU: Balance transfer awesomeness, nuff said.
First Tech: I'm going for a final interview today in what should just be a formality assuming I figure out the dress code for the interview: I looked through some of their corporate social media type posts, apparently if you tuck in your shirt you're doing it wrong... but there is a heavy international travel component, and as near as I can tell First Tech is the only game in town (other than those who still have Diners Club cards) for getting a PIN priority chip card. Boggle, a CU that does something better than literally any other lender in the US apparently. It's a niche use case to be sure but there's undoubtably a European travel component so here we go. EX puller, couple entries on the credit pulls database, know nothing else at this point. Tax lien just came off EX, I got an extra couple of points because apparently my new scorecard is more sensitive to revolving accounts with balances, and I still have a 90% utilized tradeline there which should update soon: stars appear to be aligning for me on that bureau just as I need it, might get to 770 FICO 8 as soon as Discover reports and I know I'll gain points on FICO 2 / FICO 3 / associated industry options since they're all complaining about the Disco utilization in the reason codes. Have to get the CSR app in first but only at 3 scoreable inquiries on EX today so hoping this won't be a big deal.
Unify: I've looked at them off and on over the years, Western wasn't a great CU from local reviews but things change and I'm not nearly as picky as some other folks. Also there's something to be said for the fact they have locations all over the westside (I literally drive past 6 to Santa Monica, 4 to LAX, and 2 to where I often referee soccer matches... hard to find a more local CU than that) but while I'm not sure I'm going to pickup any products with them beyond a share account and just dump some cash in there, these cats do a complicated mish mash of everything. Cash advance style loans, 0 credit check for $500? I know there's a couple billion dollar lending companies within my driving radius (and therefore within their radius) playing in the deep subprime space, maybe this is why they're going so far afield but this ain't your Daddy's CU apparently. That and if I could actually get a ~5% card for 740 FICO 2... I don't know that I'd do enough to develop it and the HELOC has changed some of my opinions on balance carrying.
@Revelate wrote:Just going to add my experiences here though not sure I'm adding too much (if any that is new).
... <edited for space>
I think my NFCU Cash Rewards card is PIN priority, too. I haven't used it on the last couple overseas trips, but when I was in Ireland & Scotland, it had me using my PIN. They let you change it as well, which is better than SDFCU who (at least when I had the card a few years back) assigned you a PIN you were stuck with.
(