NFCU Amex Rewards and nRewards Secured Auto Grad/CLI+

[Anonymous]

TLDR; Started with a 540 FAKO and a $300 kohls card/$500 NFCU secured about 7 months ago, worked my butt off, and today my initial $500 "secured" NFCU CL skyrocketed to $17000 unsecured. Superstoked and I would have never had the courage to even try for it if it wasn't for the members of this forum. So thank you! Also, I'm a lurker so this is my first post lol

Hi everybody, 

Just a little background. March of 2018 I was sitting with a 540 FAKO score going through the checkout line of Khols when the cashier asked if id like to apply for a Kohls card. Thinking my credit was absolute garbage I said no thanks I won't get approved. She convinces me to try and I get approved for $300. That's honestly where my hope began. A month later I asked NFCU for a $500 secured card which I got. Never bothered asking for a CLI around 91 days because I figured I'd have to secure it or whatever else. Its been 7 months and when I checked my accounts I was delighted to see an extra $500 in my savings account. Then I realized they graduated my nRewards card and increased my limit to $2000 automatically. WHATTTT?! Sweeeeet...

I don't know if it was the smartest thing to do but after seeing that I hit the CLI button and asked for 25k LOL. Got the dreaded 24 hr message. I decided "to hell with it, if they're gunna do a HP then I'm gunna apply for a credit card with rewards that are at least better than the nRewards. Applied for the NFCU More Rewards Amex and got instantly approved for $15,000. But they definately did a hard pull on the 25k cli request. Like I said, still haven't seen anything or heard anything about my CLI on the nRewards so Im gunna call tomorrow and see whats up.

[3se7ens]

Nice! I'm a Big fan of NFCU Congrats!! .

[Anonymous]

The Steve Miller Band said it best.  Take the money and run.

[Anonymous]

@duff90inf -

Welcome to the myFICO forum! We're thrilled that you joined us!

And from one veteran to another, Thank You for your service!!!

This is an absolutely terrific story. It's a testament to how modest limits on

two separate cards have now spawned into limits that were unimaginable

and unreachable for you 9 months ago. What a terrific way to end the year.

You have a lot to look forward to and a lot to be grateful for. Very well done!

Quick question, please: Would you mind sharing the data points

for your Amex More Rewards approval? I'm curious to learn which

file they pulled (TU or EQ) and your score when you were approved.

Thanks so much for sharing!!!

[CS11]

Wow! Congrats that’s awesome

[Anonymous]

Yea definitely AllThings! And hey thanks for your service too!

Im gunna have to say it was a TU hard pull for me. Also I pay for 1B plan to get the Experian report. So I dont have the exact TU #'s But I know my FICO 8 is 618, my FICO 9 is 627. Im looking at my past credit card applications and I dont see the CLI request. I'm thinking that since they just auto increased me I was just instantly denied due to the time requirements. So basically I tricked myself into applying for a new card. Then after seeing the $15,000 approval (16.99%) I called NFCU to refinance my motorcycle (financed through Harley). My original loan was pretty bad sitting @ 23%APR for $7000. They approved me for the refinance at 11% so I'm officially in love with this bank. Saved me $2k right there. And although Im gunna take a few pts for the HP my overall credit utilization and debt decreased significately. 

[19eighty5]

Congratulations on your approval!

[Anonymous]

Congrats! I really want that AMEX card now haha

[Anonymous]

Thanks again everyone! And for those that want to know my profile: I've made 100% payments last 2 years (but 2 accounts in past 5 years have 60 and 90 day late payments and 1 was written off, the other was sent to collections. They will be falling off in Mar/Nov 2019) Plus I had 3 utilities collections, 2 of which I paid off and the other Im disputing due to it being fraud. So I have a fraud tag on my profile as well but It doesn't prevent me applying or getting credit. But it is a red flag. 

Utilization was 20% when I applied, its ~2% now. My AAoA (avg age of accounts) is 5 1/2 years (newest was 3 months old, oldest was 9 years), and I have had a decent amount of different credit types (4 revolving accounts, 8 installment loans which were mostly small, short term personal loans under $2k, and 2 Bank-issued credit cards.)

By no means is my report even close to perfect or clean and I still scored a pretty good card and refinanced my MC loan. If there's anything to take away from my experience its that NFCU very heavily rewards loyalty and to get ANY card your eligible for from NFCU (it was secured for me).

If you use it pay it off. I didn't do anything special and more often than not my utilization was pretty high because I was dumb and didn't know when they reported my balance to the bureau's. Even though the info was right in my face (It's on or immediately after your statement date.)

Even if my reports showed a high utilization NFCU knew that I was paying them most if not the full balance every month. I just wasn't paying them at the right time lol