The Quest for an SSL alternative to Alliant

[CreditSage]

TBD. Took a hit from AaoA going down so to soon to tell. In a few months it should round out to a better overall credit worthiness.

[Bees18]

Alright I'll be doing this next week as I have never had an installment loan of any kind, and a thin profile. I've read the threads on the Alliant SS loan, so just to be sure with this one there is no automatic payment to cancel correct? Just tell them I want to do manual payments?

Also I read your other posts re the navy loan, and you said starting it at the end of the month was good, because it reported the next month?

Thanks for the help!

Wish it would at least be for 24 months instead of 12 for the $500

[Cookiegrabber]

I have a little list of credit unions that I've been looking into. Here are their advertised (or CSR-replied) minimums for SSL:

Chartway FCU: $100

DCU: $200

PenFed: $250

US Senate FCU: $250

American Heritage FCU: $300

SDFCU, Mid-Illini FCU, Southeast Financial FCU, Langley FCU, Great Lakes FCU, Chevron FCU: $500

Andrews FCU: $1,000

DCU and PenFed are known not to work with the 9% trick, and I don't know about the others. The top few are probably more open to giving you 2 years for $500 if the quick score bump isn't crucial, though. Might need to sound needy on the phone

[Anonymous]

Research on BECU, Boeing Employees Credit Union

www.becu.org

I just applied for and received a secured loan and secured Visa card last month to build my credit, so while it's fresh in my mind, here is the information I was given by my loan officer. Apologies if someone already researched this CU, I don't see them on the lists in the first three posts, so here goes.

* NOT A CANDIDATE FOR THE SSL strategy list:
At BECU, If you pay off most of the loan early on, the due date IS NOT postponed by a few years - the bank still requires monthly payments, so any pre-payment means the loan term ends sooner. 

* What is the minimum loan amount for a long loan term?  (e.g. 60 months)

A share secure loan can be from 3 months up to 48 months; the collateral amount can be from $250 - $10,000. 
My loan was for a $2000 24-month loan, taken out against a 2-year CD.  Autopay can be set up against the balance in checking or savings acccounts. Rates:

Share Secured - Variable APR - Total of pledged saving account dividend rate plus 3% margin 

CD Secured -  Total of pledged CD account interest rate plus 2% margin

So for example, my CD has a rate of 1.55% and my SSL has 3.55%.

*  Hard pull to join the CU or open the savings account?  Hard pull to apply for the loan?
There is no hard pull for joining the CU/opening the checking & savings. The online application process DID pull credit report questions as part of the steps to fill out, they told me those are not a hard pull but are random questions from Chex Systems pulled from publicly available info. BECU uses TransUnion for reporting, and they did tell me afterward I came back as no score (I was credit invisible).

The SSL has no credit pull either, as it uses the savings account (or CD) as collateral. I was asked on the phone about my approximate salary and monthly rent payment amount.  The loan collateral can be cash deposited into the member savings account, or against a CD you have previously funded with them. In both cases, the secured amount is placed on hold so it cannot be used during the loan term. As the loan payments are made, the held amount is lowered by the amount of the payment.

*  Is it difficult to join the CU?  (Challenging membership criteria, limited to people in certain states):

You have to be a resident of Washington, Oregon or Idaho (Oregon & Idaho depends on the county), or work with a business that does; or have a family member who does; or be an employee of Boeing or any credit union; or a member of University of Washington Alumni Association, NW Credit Union Foundation, and a few other cases.
The standard procedure is to set up a member savings account as the primary and they give a checking account with Mastercard debit card included.

Hope this is useful.

[Anonymous]

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@Cookiegrabber wrote:

CUs usually have a minimum monthly payment that they want to receive, and that differs by institution. Some have an advertised minimum montly payment, usually at $25+/mo. Some want even more, while some are willing to help you with less. I guess Alliant wants $85+/mo. if they told you it's $1k/year.

DCU wanted to give me a 6 mo. term for my $200, but ended up giving me 24 mos. PenFed I think is $300 for 12 mos. (SSL trick doesn't work on either of them)

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I am unsure what the initial monthly payment matters with Alliant since they permit prepayment. 

Luna and Bees also seem unwilling to take out a larger loan at Alliant (e.g. $5k) which would get them the 60-month term they'd like, again for reasons i don't fully understand.

If the lender permits prepayment, then can't you just take a loan of whatever size is needed, then pay it down to (say) $100?  That will push the next due date way out.  Then you immediately cancel the autopayment. 

Is there something I am missing?

[DCnDC]

Called NFCU and the rep said no HP for secured loan. Call back a while later to apply, different rep starts reading credit authorization verbiage and says it's a HP. I'm so confused. I just sent a secure message over to see if I can get some clarification.

[Cookiegrabber]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Cookiegrabber wrote:

CUs usually have a minimum monthly payment that they want to receive, and that differs by institution. Some have an advertised minimum montly payment, usually at $25+/mo. Some want even more, while some are willing to help you with less. I guess Alliant wants $85+/mo. if they told you it's $1k/year.

DCU wanted to give me a 6 mo. term for my $200, but ended up giving me 24 mos. PenFed I think is $300 for 12 mos. (SSL trick doesn't work on either of them)

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I am unsure what the initial monthly payment matters with Alliant since they permit prepayment. 

Luna and Bees also seem unwilling to take out a larger loan at Alliant (e.g. $5k) which would get them the 60-month term they'd like, again for reasons i don't fully understand.

If the lender permits prepayment, then can't you just take a loan of whatever size is needed, then pay it down to (say) $100?  That will push the next due date way out.  Then you immediately cancel the autopayment. 

Is there something I am missing?

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Sorry if I was confusing, I guess I just wanted to clarify why most CUs don't want to

1) give you a long loan term for little money

2) let you do the SSL trick

[Luna2]

@CreditGuyInDixie

I think I'm the one that misunderstood the process. I think it makes more sense now. So youd suggest that I take out the 5000 dollar loan with Alliant, and then because I'd be paying it off so early I'd hardly end up paying any interest, correct?

If so, then how much more difficult would it be to be approved for a 5k loan rather than a 1k loan?

Also how long should I wait until paying the loan down to under 9%? Should I do it right upon being approved or wait a few weeks or months?

I appreciate the responses.

[Anonymous]

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@Bees18 wrote:

@Anonymous 

i see you have the Amex BCE...I was hoping to app for that once I'm finished cleaning up my report (should be clean by next month) and my first cards have aged. Can I ask how much credit history you had when you were approved with them? Was your report clean?

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I started with the Capital One secured for $500. ($49 invested) which is one of the easiest and cheapest to get in with. Once I got in with them for a few months I started getting pre-qualified offers on the Amex site but from what I've researched on this forum Amex likes 6 months of history. So, I waited until my 7 month of Capital One cut and got in. After getting approved with Amex I took another hit with Discover so they're both aging about the same time.

Report isn't that clean but my crap was from 8+ years ago so I guess they didn't care anymore.

[Luna2]

@Bees18

I only had an 8 month credit history with only one credit card when I applied for the BCE, and I was approved with an SL of 1k. My file was very thin, but clean.