@armywifelong03 wrote:I just wanted to see if anyone had NFCU's NAVCHEK and what the thoughts are? Any experiences out there? We just closed on a house and would like to have that LOC to do stuff we want to the house and buy some furniture, too. We have their Cash Rewards Visa. Any advice would be great. Thanks!
I have had Navchek for the past year and have used it several times. It's a nice thing to have for me. Basically it's a line of credit that is meant to cover overdrafts on your checking account. You can request checks that you can use that will pull funds directly from your Navchek account without having to go through your checking account first. It has definitely come in handy. I have used to the Navchek checks for several unexpected expenses. Remember that they are checks and you don't get a card to swipe to access those funds. If buying furniture they may ask you to wait on delivery until the check clears. I initially started with 3K about a year ago and just recently had it increased to 15K, which is the max amount.
@ChallyMan wrote:
@armywifelong03 wrote:I just wanted to see if anyone had NFCU's NAVCHEK and what the thoughts are? Any experiences out there? We just closed on a house and would like to have that LOC to do stuff we want to the house and buy some furniture, too. We have their Cash Rewards Visa. Any advice would be great. Thanks!
I have had Navchek for the past year and have used it several times. It's a nice thing to have for me. Basically it's a line of credit that is meant to cover overdrafts on your checking account. You can request checks that you can use that will pull funds directly from your Navchek account without having to go through your checking account first. It has definitely come in handy. I have used to the Navchek checks for several unexpected expenses. Remember that they are checks and you don't get a card to swipe to access those funds. If buying furniture they may ask you to wait on delivery until the check clears. I initially started with 3K about a year ago and just recently had it increased to 15K, which is the max amount.
Forgot to mention that it is a revolving LOC like a credit card so you will always have access to those funds once paid. You may want to consider a personal loan for the purchases you want to make. Interest rates are usually higher with the Navcheck than with a personal loan.
If you have the credit available on the cash rewards, you'd want to use that for the lower rate. The only reason you'd want to use the LOC is if you need to write a check to cover something and you don't have the convenience checks for your cash rewards.
FYI, an NFCU convenience check uses the purchase APR of the card, not the cash advance APR. You just won't get rewards points for using it.
If you don't plan on carrying a balance I suppose it doesn't matter.
@soccer5 wrote:I have been given a $10k NavChek line of credit as well. NFCU is awesome. You said that there are checks for using the NavChek? Are they supplied automatically after signing the promissory note or do I have to request them from NFCU?
You'll get your Navcheks automatically, a whole book of them, not just the couple convenience checks they send out with their cards. They say "Line of credit" on them.
But in the big scheme of things, the LOC might be NFCU's worst credit product. Just use it for utilization (and not getting hit with overdraft fees obviously, which is its main purpose) unless you have no other options, and with Navy you have lots of other options.
(Oh, another use, bragging to people about your "line of credit with the bank." It sounds more suave than saying you have a credit card. 
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