how stringent are Credit Unions

[Anonymous]

I am about to close on a house, and I want to apply for 2 credit cards after I am done and possibly close one of my current ones. I have a wamu (750 CL), an orchard bank (300 CL, I have had this CL for a year and havent asked for an upgrade), and a credit one (450 CL), and I want to apply for an AMEX Blue Cash (who knows, it may work) and I was looking for another card that I could apply for and use, so that I could start aging accounts that I would actually keep (credit one is gone as soon as I am able and I really dont see myself hanging on to orchard bank). I have looked at the credit cards at the two CUs that I am a member of and they have great terms, except they have MINIMUM credit lines of 5000 and 7500 respectively. I currently have a 683 (as of 3/31) on my EQ report and my household income is 63000, the cards I do have, have a util of less than 12%. Are CUs pretty lax? Last year this time, my scores were 120 pts lower and I am still in that "afraid to apply mode." Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Drachen,

I don't know if we can classify all CUs in the same boat, but me & DH got a $15K cl from NFCU with his scores 605-634 and my scores 579-618.  Pretty crappy. NFCU seems super-duper nice.

[Anonymous]

WOW! I am only asking my credit unions to be half to a third as nice (lol). Well I wasnt in the navy (or any other military branch, so it is unlikely that I can even get in there, but your story has given me a little courage to go ahead and apply (especially since I have my car loan at one of them).

[Anonymous]

really depends on the cu. lots pull eq, some pull ex, and fewer pull tu, even fewer pull all 3.

eq=jfcu, nfcu

tu=2 local ones for me, haven't found a national one yet

ex=patelco

all 3=nasa

just a few examples. i say take your cleanest report and research, post some questions about the ones you think you want to app, then make an educated app.

i will say most cu's are more likely to say what you qual for and ask if you want the product, vs wasting an inq, obtaining a low limit account, and thus compounding the score hit (app and new account).

in general though cu's are very friendly and in a lot of cases a no isn't always the final word.

[Anonymous]

ok well if anyone has any experience with security service FCU, and Firstmark FCU, your stories would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

sorry, have no experience with those.

[Anonymous]

Drachen,

From the names of the 2 CUs you gave, it sounds like you are in San Antonio.  Do you live in Bexar Co?  If so, being a resident makes you semi-eligible for USAA.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I am about to close on a house, and I want to apply for 2 credit cards after I am done and possibly close one of my current ones. I have a wamu (750 CL), an orchard bank (300 CL, I have had this CL for a year and havent asked for an upgrade), and a credit one (450 CL), and I want to apply for an AMEX Blue Cash (who knows, it may work) and I was looking for another card that I could apply for and use, so that I could start aging accounts that I would actually keep (credit one is gone as soon as I am able and I really dont see myself hanging on to orchard bank). I have looked at the credit cards at the two CUs that I am a member of and they have great terms, except they have MINIMUM credit lines of 5000 and 7500 respectively. I currently have a 683 (as of 3/31) on my EQ report and my household income is 63000, the cards I do have, have a util of less than 12%. Are CUs pretty lax? Last year this time, my scores were 120 pts lower and I am still in that "afraid to apply mode." Thank you.

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Since you're already a member of 2 CU's, I would print out all three of your FICO score reports and ask a lending officer at each to give them an eyeball. Emphasize that you're not applying at this time, and you're NOT authorizing a hard inq, but that you'd like their opinion as to whether you're in the ballpark.

I would think that an EQ of 683, semi-low util, and presumably clean recent history ought to do it. And if they make encouraging noises, I would also get CU cards before the Blue Cash. Their higher CL's might get you a better deal from AmEx.

BTW, just to be sure, are you aware that you have to run $6500 every year through Blue Cash to get the high tier rewards? And then at the end of your 365-day cycle, you have to start all over again. IMO there are better cash rewards cards out there, but if you have a bunch of young'uns, or other routine expenses, it might work out. Even then, though, if it takes six months to hit $6500, your real cash back would be the average of the base rate and the higher rate. I'm just throwing this out there for other members who weren't really familiar with how the numbers crunch for Blue Cash.

[Anonymous]

Well, that sounds like a great idea, my lowest score (EX) is 649 because of an old OLD discover card that they wont quit reporting, and that was as of the middle of last month. Will my scores go down as soon as the mortgage begins?? It would seem that the average age will go down, but my "credit mix" will go up, since I dont have and have never had a mortgage. Any ideas?? As far as the better cash back cards, what do you recommend??? Thank you for your help!!

[Anonymous]

I personally am not a fan of SSFCU.  I had an account with them that was started by my parents when I was young.  After I came of legal age I requested that my mother be taken off the account, they said ok, but they never did it.

Eventually they let a $200 unauthorized charge come through onto my account, charge tons of fees for insufficient funds since I wasn't actually using that account at the time and refused to reverse all the charges even though I hadn't made the charge/never knew where it came from etc.  They ended up taking the money from my mother's account later, even though she was supposed to have been removed from my account... We both went in, and raised a huuuuuuge but calm stink about it, and they said too bad, we have the right to do it, we'll take you off now though. 

I was only 18 or 19 so I just said whatever and paid my mother back from my BofA account.  SSFCU talked me into opening up a loan with them to pay back a total of 440 bucks in bogus fees associated with the unauthorized charge, and the charge itself, and since I didn't know what options I had, I just said whatever, I defaulted on the loan after a few payments because of stupidity and hard times, and now I have the CO'd loan on my CR's.  I have no intention of paying it off.  I'll just wait it out it should be off in 2011-2012 don't know off the top of my head.