@Anonymous wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:I'm researching Vantage West Credit Union. It looks promising. I know that they have share secured loans starting at $500 and that there's no hard pull for the loan....
The money to be used as security has to have been in the account for 30 days or more, so for me to find out how the loan behaves in terms of reporting, etc, it's going to take me a couple of months. When I find out one way or the other whether Vantage West is the answer, I'll report back.
It seems like we keep finding about yet more of Alliant's "nice to have" qualities. With Alliant a person could apply for membership on the 25th, and fifteen days later he'd have the full score boost on all three bureaus. That was a nice feature for people who had gotten themselves into a bind with a need for a score boost quickly (or for people who were just nervous or impatient).
Thanks so much SouthJ for taking the lead on a promising CU. Really appreciate this.
Perhaps the 30-day requirement is a sufficient impediment that we should cross Vantage West off of our list of Alliant SSL replacement candidates. What do you think?
@seattlecredit08 wrote:For Vantage West - do we know yet if they pull (soft) Equifax, Experian or TransUnion?
Thanks!
They don't do a hard pull for membership or the SSL. For membership they do a soft pull of Chex Systems.
@Anonymous wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:I'm researching Vantage West Credit Union. It looks promising. I know that they have share secured loans starting at $500 and that there's no hard pull for the loan....
The money to be used as security has to have been in the account for 30 days or more, so for me to find out how the loan behaves in terms of reporting, etc, it's going to take me a couple of months. When I find out one way or the other whether Vantage West is the answer, I'll report back.
It seems like we keep finding about yet more of Alliant's "nice to have" qualities. With Alliant a person could apply for membership on the 25th, and fifteen days later he'd have the full score boost on all three bureaus. That was a nice feature for people who had gotten themselves into a bind with a need for a score boost quickly (or for people who were just nervous or impatient).
Thanks so much SouthJ for taking the lead on a promising CU. Really appreciate this.
Perhaps the 30-day requirement is a sufficient impediment that we should cross Vantage West off of our list of Alliant SSL replacement candidates. What do you think?
It all depends on you. If you feel like pursuing Vantage West I think they sound fine -- particularly because we don't have a vetted list of alternatives yet. A lot of people (including people on other sites, like Doctor of Credit) are asking for a short list of verified good options, now that Alliant is no longer a possibility. The sooner we have something to tell them the sooner they will be happy.
I don't mind pursuing it at all. My experiences to date with Vantage West have been great, so I'm expecting to be with them for a long time.
@manyquestions wrote:
@Revelate wrote:There are very very few simple interest loans you cannot prepay. Really the deciding factors are length of term, minimum payment, and if you care about such things, inquiry.
DCU doesn't flunk on the minimum payment side, they flunk on the fact if you overpay them more than 3 months in advance they will reset your next payment date back to 3 months in the future. This is explicitly how they handle their installment loans (I had one so speaking from personal experience on this one heh).
I'd be very surprised if we found any that were as awkward as DCU TBH.
NASA is another one that will not let you prepay and keep the original term. They shorten the term if you prepay more than six months. I think the prepaying down to 8.9% and keeping the loan for close to 60 months to enjoy the FICO benefit for multiple years is the somewhat rare characteristic we are looking for.
Nah, trust me when I say it's not rare; lenders handle their loans the same way regardless of SSL or auto or mortgage.
Chase and MUFG, both allow prepayment, Wells Fargo does too, Penfed does as well, Federal student loans, Cashcall even did... regular payment or principal is sometimes an option, it's pretty rare to get one that only allows a principal payment and it's even rarer to get one that resets payment dates like DCU and apparently NASAFCU from your experience.
It's just not that uncommon a benefit; sure I get CGID's point it doesn't hurt to ask, but there's going to be lots of fish in the sea and I'd almost suggest finding a couple instead of latching onto Alliant like we did, for all that it lasted several years.
Vantage West is looking better and better. I applied for the loan and everything is looking good.
Turns out they don't really require that the savings account funds be there for 30 days; they just require that
it come from your own funds.
I actually spoke to them about why I'm taking out the loan, and how, if it works out, we might get them a lot of
new members. And they seem totally ok with the whole idea.
So, so far I can say of Vantage West Credit Union:
1. Great customer service... the best I've ever experienced.
2. Do have share secured loans, $500 & up, with terms of repayment for as long as 60 months.
3. No hard pull for membership.
4. No hard pull for a share secured loan.
4. Will give you a 60-month term.
So everything is in place for me to test it soon, to see how it reports to the bureaus upon early prepayment. If that piece falls into place, we have a winner.
BTW they do have some tasty credit offerings; I got their "connect" card, which is essentially a no fee platinum card with low interest, but they have a 5x rewards card which is more popular.
@SouthJamaica wrote:Vantage West is looking better and better. I applied for the loan and everything is looking good.
Turns out they don't really require that the savings account funds be there for 30 days; they just require that
it come from your own funds.
I actually spoke to them about why I'm taking out the loan, and how, if it works out, we might get them a lot of
new members. And they seem totally ok with the whole idea.
So, so far I can say of Vantage West Credit Union:
1. Great customer service... the best I've ever experienced.
2. Do have share secured loans, $500 & up, with terms of repayment for as long as 60 months.
3. No hard pull for membership.
4. No hard pull for a share secured loan.
4. Will give you a 60-month term.
So everything is in place for me to test it soon, to see how it reports to the bureaus upon early prepayment. If that piece falls into place, we have a winner.
BTW they do have some tasty credit offerings; I got their "connect" card, which is essentially a no fee platinum card with low interest, but they have a 5x rewards card which is more popular.
Thanks for the info.
Regarding the last part, the Connect Rewards card is probably the only non-business CC that allows you to pick utilities as a 5% cash back category for those that might be interested.
