Alliant Credit Union TIPS - APP & FICO Survey Results

[Anonymous]

If you have applied for Alliant Credit Union (http://www.alliantcreditunion.org), please help others by posting your results here.  This way people can collectively see results to compare to their own circumstances and then post their own.  Various helpful Tips & App Info for Alliant is provided below.

Please share your results:  (UPDATED)

1.  what your EQ FICO score at time of app 

2.  what was your AAoA and age of oldest account

3.  what was your highest CL at time of app

4.  any EQ derogs at time of app

5.  what instant offers you received online

6.  what instant Credit Limit & APR did you get

7.  what credit did you receive through LO if no preapprovals

8.  what verification or docs were required

9.  Comment you think helpful

TIPS & INFO FOR ALLIANT CU:

1.  ONLY pulls your EQUIFAX credit report (to date).  UPDATE:  ACU also uses ChexSystem verify in addition to EQ.  If you have banking baddies with ChexSystems, people have been reporting this kills their apps for credit and membership.

2.  Alliant is very generous if you are credit worthy (reports of $5k with upper 600's & $7.5k with low 700's).

3.  If you qualify (FICO min 680, no recent baddies), you may receive instant preapproved online "offers" for credit cards, auto loans, home equity lines of credit, checking and other offers from your single credit pull when you open an initial Share Account (Savings) which you only have to fund $5 to (debit/credit card or checking draft).  Not everyone will be offered every item, limits will vary, interest rates will vary.  If you don't get instant online preapprovals, you may still qualify for credit by speaking with a Loan Officer and providing additional information (such as income, etc.)

4.  Alliant is a credit union and you must be a member in order to bank or be able to apply for any loans or credit.  Alliant does NOT offer secured credit cards nor credit builder loans (but claims to be working on developing a credit builder loan and possibly be available sometime by August - September 2009).  Alliant does offer savings secured personal loans at only 2% above savings rate.  This means if you put the borrowed funds back into savings you will earn more interest than you pay on the loan.

5.  In order to "join" Alliant you must be employed by, or belong to a "qualifying" organization/company.

6.  The easiest way to qualify to join Alliant is with your "local PTA" (if you all ready belong to the PTA at your kids school).  Local PTA's generally cost $8 - $15 annually.

7.  The fastest online organization to join which qualifies is the national PTA  (www.pta.org) which you can do online and only cost $25.

8.  When you select Local or National PTA as your qualifying membership organization, you will NOT be required to verify or provide any proof of membership.

9.  You do not have to maintain your membership with the "qualifying organization" (such as PTA) once you have joined Alliant.  Once you are a member of Alliant, you will always be a member from that point forward.

10.  IMPORTANT:  Make sure your EQ credit file is NOT "locked" or "frozen" otherwise you will get a message/error that your "identity could not be verified" and you will not be able to complete the online process.  If you get this error, once you have "unlocked" your EQ CR, you CAN re-apply online without calling or sending in the paper app.  However, having two applications on file (one failed and one successful) may cause confusion on credit applications or online offers.

11.  The only way to know if your EQ file is locked/frozen, is to be subscribed to EQ subscription/service.

12.  If you have EVER signed up for EQ credit services and "locked" your file (intentionally or not) you can only unlock your file "temporarily" for up to 1 year max.  If you cancel your service with EQ, many people have reported that their credit file was "locked" upon cancellation, forcing them to sign up again when they needed to apply for credit in order to unlock the file. 

13.  If you do not unlock your EQ file, then Alliant can NOT pull your file from EQ, and will not be able to approve you for credit or membership.

14.  If you are offered the auto loan, you may want to "ACCEPT" the offer even if you don't need it, and then later not use it.  If you accept the initial offer, then your CC and Auto will be on the same single EQ pull.  If you decline one of the offers, then later want to change your mind, you have to reapply and they will do another hard pull.

ANOTHER HELPFUL THREAD ON ALLIANT CU:

ALLIANT CREDIT UNION ROCKS!
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=creditcard&thread.id=152534

Message Edited by txjohn on 05-23-2009 09:42 AM

[Anonymous]

EQ FICO:  808
No Derogs
Intant Offer:  Visa Platinum Rewards Card $10K, Auto Loan 4.69%, Home Equity Line, Free No Min Checking

[Creditaddict]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey, I posted a TIPS thread for Alliant Credit Union, but we have lots of people asking what EQ FICO scores have been approved for the online "instant" offers.

So, please list (as few words as possible)

1.  what your EQ FICO score at time of app =630, the EQ score they use was 610 (they don't use fico)

2.  any EQ derogs at time of app = bk13

3.  what instant offers you received online - failed the security thing, had to call in... they could not approved credit card right now, she said she could approve car loan but it would be better to wait because it would get a lot better if I got my score up 40-50 points which she thought I could do if I paid more debt down over the next 6 months and my bk would be over 3 years old then also.

Overall one of the nicest conversations I have had with a credit underwriter anytime recently and was very happy in the end even though I didn't get the products I was hoping for.

Message Edited by txjohn on 03-25-2009 02:30 PM

Message Edited by txjohn on 03-25-2009 02:30 PM

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[Anonymous]

ME 

EQ Fico:  736

2 30 day lates (6yrs ago), 1 60 day late (6 yrs ago), 1 90 day late (6 yrs ago)
Instant Offers:  Home Equity Line, Auto Loan 5.24%, Visa Platinum Reward $5k, Free Checking

WIFE

EQ Fico:  753

1 30 day late (2 yrs ago), 2 30 day lates (6 yrs ago), 1 60 day late (6 yrs ago), 1 90 day late (6 yrs ago)
Instant Offers:  Auto Loan 5.24%, Visa Platinum Reward $10k, Free Checking

Message Edited by snibarger on 03-25-2009 02:45 PM

[Schoolbuskid]

I bit the bullet and applied nothing was instant for me nor did i receive any preapproved offers.

Equifax Score-584 (probably needs to be atleast a 630 or more) Just my opinion.

Baddies-1 unpaid Med Collection, High credit card balances.

I have not spoken with them again since the app, probably call tomorrow to see what they can do, i was only interested in a personal loan, to replace my HSBC loan.

[Anonymous]

I just applied the only special offers i received was a free checking account didn't accept it an most likely i will not fund or open the saving account this was a waste why did i do this to myself. My EQ score is 653 only baddies i have on my report is one paid collection that's a year old.

[Creditaddict]

CALL tomorrow morning and speak with a credit person. tell them you are looking to refinance your car loan. If I can get a car loan with BK and a 610, I'm sure you can!

[Woolfman]

Well i also bit the bullet and applied and they offered me a 5k visa rewards and a 15k auto loan at 5.26%

No baddies on my credit. No real credit history getting close to 1yr AAOA and 8 accounts opened in that year period  and my scores are below  I didnt take the car loan as i just got one . The rate is lower but i am going to talk to them about refi

Message Edited by Woolfman on 03-25-2009 06:16 PM

[Anonymous]

mj,

I agree, just because you didn't get an instant offer does not mean you can't get credit with them.  It just means that it will take a loan officer to review and possibly to get income verification.  Remember, their online process does not ask about income nor review your entire report.

They have pulled the report, it cost you 1 inq on EQ...so you might as well follow through and call to see if they what a loan officer will say.

[Creditaddict]

I did have to agree to another pull when talking to loan officer, she said it was a different system then when opening an account... but I would still tell you it will be worth it!