Elan Max Cash Preferred Visa Approved

[Curious_George2]

I applied for Elan's Max Cash Preferred Visa, through a small, local credit union I joined a few months ago with a token amount on deposit. I answered the question about how much I have on deposit "here" with just that small amount. Received instant approval for $20k at their lowest advertised APR of 11.99%.

They pulled TU, which surprised me a little. All prior MCP apps I had seen from my state, California, resulted in an EX pull. Perhaps I should have expected TU, since that's what US Bank pulled for my Cash+ app six months ago. TU8 was 792. Util is 1%. New cards were 1/6, 1/12, 4/24. TU inquiries were 1/6, 1/12 and 3/24.

One thing about the application process surprised me. After the wheel of death spun for several seconds, up popped a screen that showed the SL and APR they were offering, and it gave me the choice of accepting or declining. I happily accepted. It wasn't apparent whether declining would have prevented the HP. 

(Edited to correct new card numbers. I was 4/24, not 2/24.)

[CreditAggie]

Congratulations on your Max Cash Preferred approval!

[Rebuild2019]

Congratulations 🎊🎈🎉 on your Max Cash Preferred approval!!!

[4sallypat]

How do you get "membership" thru another CU ?

[Curious_George2]

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@4sallypat wrote:

How do you get "membership" thru another CU ?

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The relationship between Elan and the banks, credit unions and other organizations it issues cards for is one that I struggle to explain clearly. 

What I mean, and what I did, is that I found a CU that uses Elan to issue its credit cards, then I joined that CU in the usual way, deposited a little cash, waited several months to let it all age a bit, and eventually clicked the Credit Cards link on the CU's website. That prompted a warning that I was going to a third party's site -- Elan. From there, the application and everything else was Elan's. The only vestige of a connection to the CU was their logo at the top of some pages on the Elan site. 

It's not clear that being a member of such a CU has any bearing whatsoever on the chances of getting a card approved, or the terms of the approval. This has been discussed at some length in @Aim_High's master thread, with no clear conclusions.Plenty of posters have received MCP cards bearing logos of FIs they have zero connection to. I chose to proceed in a more conventional way, partly because having an account at the "partner" FI is necessary for receiving the rewards as a deposit straight into a bank account. 

I hope that answers your question. If I missed the point of it, please let me know. 😁

[gdale6]

Grats on your Max Cash approval, excellent SL too!

[Aim_High]

Congrats on a great Max Cash Preferred approval, @Curious_George2! 

Data points are also appreciated! 

I note that Elan tends to give a little higher SLs for many of our members and you got $20K versus $10K on C+.     

I'm glad my MCP thread has been so helpful to the community. 

What's your plan for using this one along with your Cash Plus? 

[PullingMeSoftly]

Nice pickup, great that you now have the MCP/Cash+ duo!

[Aim_High]

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@Curious_George2 wrote:

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@4sallypat wrote:

How do you get "membership" thru another CU ?

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The relationship between Elan and the banks, credit unions and other organizations it issues cards for is one that I struggle to explain clearly.   What I mean, and what I did, is that I found a CU that uses Elan to issue its credit cards, then I joined that CU in the usual way, deposited a little cash, waited several months to let it all age a bit, and eventually clicked the Credit Cards link on the CU's website. That prompted a warning that I was going to a third party's site -- Elan. From there, the application and everything else was Elan's. The only vestige of a connection to the CU was their logo at the top of some pages on the Elan site. 

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@4sallypat, Elan Financial Services is an "agent" card issuer affiliated with US Bancorp (US Bank).  They are the largest "agent" card issuer in the US, as described in the original Elan Max Cash Preferred master thread.  Agent card issuers handle card accounts for many smaller banks and credit unions that choose to outsource their card services instead of processing in-house.  Another large "agent" card processor is First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) which operates the "First Bankcard" financial services.  In both cases, as @Curious_George2 described, the financial institution provides a link to the third-party agent's website which is a clue that you're dealing with an agent processor. 

Originally, we thought that an applicant might need to be within the geo-footprint of the financial institution where they applied for the Max Cash Preferred.  Consequently, I provided links in the master thread to lenders all over the country that offered Elan products.  Since then, data points I've seen appear to indicate that it's unnecessary to be in geo-footprint (OR) to have deposit accounts with a lender where one applies for the Elan cards.  It's mainly helpful in allowing a cash redemption option for rewards.  In lieu of a deposit account at the original FI, cash rewards on the MCP must be redeemed for statement credits.  And, of course, some members find it more convenient to have their credit card accounts where they do their banking.

Incidentally, I'll note that Elan appears to provide end-to-end client services including underwriting the card application.  However, some credit unions outsource a portion of their servicing, such as payment processing.  I've noted that my AOD FCU (Anniston, AL) card payments are serviced by PSCU (Payment Services for Credit Unions; St Petersburg FL) even though they personally underwrite their credit applications.   You can read more about PSCU's services on this wikipedia article.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on a nice card and great SL!