USAA - Personal Loan Preapprovals

[Anonymous]

I addition to the auto loan and HELOC preapprovals that have appreared for years on my "Offers" page, this month a preapproved personal loan has appeared.

Has anybody ever had experience with USAA personal loans?

Has anybody had experience with USAA personal loan preapprovals?  At least with credit cards their preapprovals seem to be pretty much foolproof, but with a personal loan is there much of a chance to accept and then get hit with an INQ yet ultimately declined?

What would be better:

1.  A $5k personal loan at 11%; or

2.  A $5k cash advance at 8.9%.

Advantages / disadvantages of each?

[Tazman81]

I think it depends on what is more important to you?  taking a temporary hit on your credit score or paying a lower interest rate?.

If you want to pay the least amount of money as possible, then I would go with the advance from your credit card.  You just have to make sure that you pay more than the "minimum" payment from your credit card so that you can pay that $5k back in the same amount of time (or faster) than you would with the personal loan.  This may cause you to take a temporary hit to your credit score due to utilization, but you should see that come back as you pay off the credit card.

Now, if you want to preserve your credit score and don't mind paying, then go with the personal loan as installment loans tend not to have as much of an impact than utilization.

Now, of course, I am not sure how it would look to USAA for you to take a $5k cash advance from your credit card.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I addition to the auto loan and HELOC preapprovals that have appreared for years on my "Offers" page, this month a preapproved personal loan has appeared.

Has anybody ever had experience with USAA personal loans?

Has anybody had experience with USAA personal loan preapprovals?  At least with credit cards their preapprovals seem to be pretty much foolproof, but with a personal loan is there much of a chance to accept and then get hit with an INQ yet ultimately declined?

What would be better:

1.  A $5k personal loan at 11%; or

2.  A $5k cash advance at 8.9%.

Advantages / disadvantages of each?

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Well, the main difference I can see is if you have balances reporting, and your revolving util is a problem.

Moving balances to an installment loan will take them out of util calc.

OTOH, a cash advance will have you paying interest from day one.

I guess it depends on whether you're more focused on score benefits or financial benefits.

[Peach8321]

I have recieved this offer as well but don't need it at this time.

My suggestion, however, is to consider why you need it and your ability to pay it off.  If you can pay it off in less than 6 months, I think the CC might be a better way to go.  If you need longer though, you run the risk that they might increase your rate (perhaps even to above the 11%) and then you'd just end up paying more.

Additionally, what kind of limit do you have on the CC - if the $5k is less than 50% of your limit, that would be a better reason to do it, otherwise you are risking a high UTI on a revolving account...

Since, again, I haven't bitten on the preapproval, I don't know for sure about pulling and then being rejected, but when I applied for a CC, they told me I was absolutely able to get the personal loan if I wanted it so it seemed like they weren't going to be sly about it.

Finally, one tip - if you do a CA to a checking account, I was told you don't have to pay the CA interest from day one...you might want to call them and see, because if it reports as a regular charge and not a CA, that might be another reason to do that instead.

[Anonymous]

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@Peach8321 wrote:

I have recieved this offer as well but don't need it at this time.

My suggestion, however, is to consider why you need it and your ability to pay it off.  If you can pay it off in less than 6 months, I think the CC might be a better way to go.  If you need longer though, you run the risk that they might increase your rate (perhaps even to above the 11%) and then you'd just end up paying more.

Additionally, what kind of limit do you have on the CC - if the $5k is less than 50% of your limit, that would be a better reason to do it, otherwise you are risking a high UTI on a revolving account...

Since, again, I haven't bitten on the preapproval, I don't know for sure about pulling and then being rejected, but when I applied for a CC, they told me I was absolutely able to get the personal loan if I wanted it so it seemed like they weren't going to be sly about it.

Finally, one tip - if you do a CA to a checking account, I was told you don't have to pay the CA interest from day one...you might want to call them and see, because if it reports as a regular charge and not a CA, that might be another reason to do that instead.

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I heard that a transfer from your credit card does result in cash advance interest, but avoids the typical cash advance fees.

Actually I don't really need a loan, but since we are bringing the whole family extended together for the holidays I thought that getting the money from USAA rather than take it out of savings might be an option.  I hate breaking CDs or taking money out of savings!

Also, it would be another in a long line of good tradelines.  I could borrow the money now and pay it back within a month to six weeks so interest would be minimal.  I just don't want to burn an inquiry if it isn't a sure thing.  At least with credit cards, a USAA preapproval is a sure thing, but not sure about their other preapprovals.