Please excuse spelling; I wrote this on my iPad while in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle (motion sickness is real) for a birthday week celebration. But, I wanted to make sure I jotted everything down here while it was fresh!
I applied for Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union (RBFCU) membership through the family eligibility and was approved today for my membership account and the RBFCU 2% Cashback Rewards, MC Credit Card. Please see below bullet points for detailed DP's for others who might want to apply in the future:
I'm going to "try" and keep this updated as I learn more on my RBFCU journey; if someone has trusted information, please reply and TAG me so I may read/edit this post for others to reference!
Updated:
- 02/02/22 - Future Day Section + Chip-and-PIN / PIN Preferred Information
Below is current as of 01/28/22
RBFCU Info.:
- Future Day:
- 02/02/22 — Speaking to a representative from card payment services (they handle everything from debit/credit card and new applications), I asked if the current RBFCU embossed cards (debit/credit) would be changing non-embossed and tap-to-pay soon. The rep replied: RBFCU is in current negotiations with VISA, and non-embossed, tap-to-pay, refresh/redesign card logo and branding, and other "exciting" features are on the upcoming roadmap. RBFCU plans to drop Mastercard and pivot to VISA by no later than 2024-2025. They could not confirm if the 2% cashback was staying, decreasing, or increasing because it's so early in negotiations. But, "Our RBFCU members and staff enjoy the 2% cashback, staff have a strong say in the benefits, and I couldn't see it going away/dropping unless something bad happened." This is a significant transition, and negotiations could go sour, so please take it with a grain of salt for now. I will add all representatives I have spoken with who seem to know what they're talking about and are skilled in RBFCU procedures and backend processes; if not, they will transfer you to someone who is!
- Current Day:
- Per the TheFIGUY
- EX Vantage (VS) 4 used—(No longer TU FICO 8) for loans/credit card applications (verified with Sr. Loan Officer)
- Chexsystems used for checking/savings application approval
- EX VS 4 740+ Will grant you the best APR% for loans/credit cards
- RBFCU total aggregate credit limit allowed between all credit cards is $50,000 (currently, it's only two available cards)
- As of now, there is no hard limit on the credit limit per card inside the total aggregate limit. (Ex. You can have one card with a $50,000 limit or two $25,000 limit cards)
- Currently, credit limit increases will be accomplished by re-applying for the same card and selecting a credit limit increase, and that will be an EX HP.
- As of current, it's recommended to wait for 6/months between credit limit increase requests.
- A loan officer will manually review almost all new credit applications. Proof of Income (POI) could be requested and should be expected.
- As of current, they typically do manual reviews for most loan/credit card applications. The manual review generally takes 2-4hrs to complete for credit cards.
- Membership applications typically are manually reviewed; they're extremely FAST and responsive! I received a follow-up email within 24hrs of application completion.
- Membership eligibility can be found on the website so that I won't go into much detail.
- RBFCU customer service has been superb, like absolutely stunning; I'm legit blown away! I would utter better than AMEX Platinum customer service pre-pandemic. The loan department even texted me confirming my credit card was ordered and shipped, asked me if I needed anything else, and thanked me for my time.
- As of current, you can fund your RBFCU savings/checking account with a Visa, Mastercard, or Discover debit/credit card up to $100.
- The card arrived, and it's embossed with NO Tap-to-Pay, but does have true Chip-and-PIN or, as they called it, "PIN Preferred" and cannot be disabled.
- Per the 800wannabe420
- Cash redemptions are in 5 dollar increments with a minimum of $5, and rewards are available soon as each transaction posts.
- Redemptions can be made to an external (non-RBFCU) account.
- Once per year (October, maybe?), any outstanding redemption amount is deposited to your RBFCU savings account.
- You can request 100% of your credit limit as a cash advance at the same rate as your purchase APR into your RBFCU checking account.
Application Process:
- The application process was pretty straightforward; I will add you should unfreeze your EX, TU (for good measure), and CHEX reports before even beginning the application. There is no official "submit" button, and you will be surprised when you press "continue," and the application is submitted! RBFCU is aware of that unclear submission issue, but they're not going to change it, lol. I accidentally submitted my application with all reports frozen. The membership application went into "review" expected I don't live officially in the membership eligibility area but qualified via family. I received an email stating membership was in review and would reach out shortly. The next day I received an email to give RMA (online membership accounts) a call to which they provided me the ext—and detailed business hours. RMA department was AWESOME; they verified me by a family member—(DOB, full name, relationship), told me my CHEX was frozen, to which I replied, "Yup, I made the mistake blah blah..." they manually pulled CHEX while I was on the phone and approved my membership and pushed the email to fund my account.
- During the membership application, you can select "pre-approved me for loan/credit cards," You can fill out some additional credit information. If you have your reports FROZEN, you WILL NOT get pre-approval offers—(DUH). But, once the application is submitted, they cannot pre-approve you anymore, and you will need to take the HP and apply for a credit product. So UNFREEZE before even starting the application, it's a sneaky application, and the "continue" button bounces you to "submitted," trust me!
Personal DP's:
- Income mid-six figures
- EX FICO 8 - 774
- TU VS 4 - 767 (Found on Synchrony, this is the closet thing I could find to my EX VS 4)
- No Derogs on EX/TU
- DTI - ~9%
- Aggregate Util% - ~6%
- Student loans debt ~ 50k
- Recent new accounts 8/months ago
Approval (Happy Pre-Birthday for me):
- RBFCU 2% Cashback Rewards MC
- Starting Limit - $5,000 (Lower than all my cards, but I know RBFCU likes relationships and starts off conservative before opening the flood gates, so I'll be requesting another CLI in ~6/months)
- APR % - 13.900 (Lowest offered)
- POI Requested - Negative
- HP - Yes, EX alerted me right after the application was submitted online
- Instant Approval - No, manual review was required and took about 2hrs for approval
DID I MENTION they have excellent customer service because if you didn't get it yet, RBFCU is exceptional!
. But it was correct, my ignorant assumption is maybe it's cheaper for RBFCU. I know VS shows more timeline, but I still think when a lender pulls they only get a "snapshot" of the score and data rather than a timeline of accounts etc.
my biggest take away from this is for all those who call Vantage scores fake lol. Living proof a lender puts more faith in that than a fico
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