cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

tag
Royalbacon
Frequent Contributor

Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

For such a large credit union (One of the top 10 in the USA) there is just about no info here at the myfico forums or other websites. This Credit union has a federal charter and has branches in numerous states so hopefully they're not too hostile against out of state members, unlike other credit unions.

 

Looking at there select employee groups here

https://www.americafirst.com/about/membership/select-employer-group/seg-employee.html

It looks like the Utah PTA, Arizona PTA, and a handful of other PTAs make you eligible (And the PTAs cost only $10 to join, although I didn't check all the PTA websites out) As far as I can tell, anyone can join those PTA's, even if you're out of state (There wasn't anything on the website that said otherwise) There are a few Air Force Associations too, but those looked like they were $50 to join. There may be more associations/companies you can join too, but I haven't found any others yet.

 

I joined the Arizona PTA here out of state (I live in Minnesota)

http://www.azpta.org/supporting-members

 

Just from googling around, I found this saying any living person can join a PTA and that they do not discriminate based on geographic location (This is from Washington State PTA but should apply to all PTAs.) Please note Washington PTA isn't an eligible PTA for America First CU https://www.wastatepta.org/can-pta-member/

 

At the end of the credit union membership application it asked for how I was eligible since my home address and work address in Minnesota aren't within their field of membership it told me (Obviously) I typed in Arizona PTA and it did show up. It said i'll be hearing from them shortly after submitting my application, so I shall see what happens. I'll keep everyone updated too if I end up noticing a hard pull from joining/attempting to join. Also the application did not ask how I want to fund the accounts (Saving minimum opening balance is $1 and checking is $0) So I have no idea if funding with a credit card is possible or not.

 

I'm also guessing due to how the website is designed and how they don't have a nice list of Select employee groups/associations (You need to type stuff in to see if it pops up) A lot of people may not even realize this credit union is (potentially) join-able by everyone.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Filed-September 2020 Discharged-December 2020
Kohl's Credit Card $3000 Limit (Opened October 2016) Survived Bankruptcy for whatever reason
Closed Capital One Venture One $3000 Limit (Opened December 2020, Closed by me September 2022 since I wanted the SavorOne and couldn't product change to it)
Capital One Auto Loan (Opened March 2021)
Capital One Cabela's $5000 Limit (Opened December 2021)
America First Credit Union Visa $1000 Limit (Opened December 2021)
Capital One SavorOne $5000 Limit (Opened September 2022)
Sam's Club Mastercard Synchrony Bank $2500 Limit (Opened March 30 2023) (Burned Synchrony in my CH7 BK, One card with a $745 balance)
Idaho Central Credit Union ICCU Visa $10,000 Limit (Opened April 2023)
Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
AllZero
Mega Contributor

Re: Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

Good luck on your membership application. Hope you are approved without any problems. Thank you for providing the data points!

Message 2 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

Good luck! Everything about this CU screams geofenced but with these stats, I'm not so sure

 

Total Membership

1,089,451

Total Assets

$11.713 Billion

Rankings

9th largest credit union in assets in the United States
6th largest credit union in membership in the country

Number of Branches

131 Full-service branches

 

 

Message 3 of 10
Royalbacon
Frequent Contributor

Re: Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

I've been researching and teaching myself a lot the past few weeks regarding state vs federal charters for Credit unions. America First has a federal charter, they actually switched from a state charter from back around 2003-ish from what I found from Googling, since the state charter was a lot more restrictive in terms of where they could and couldn't open & operate branches and where they could and couldn't grant business loans.

 

I've noticed just from this forum that credit unions with state charters, like BECU, seem to be a lot more restrictive, or give a really hard time to out of state members. Whereas those with federal charters, like Navy FCU, PenFed, DCU, etc. don't seem to care where you live and take members from anywhere.

 

I guess we'll see if that makes a difference or not as to if this credit union gives me a hard time for joining out of state, or not.

 

Unrelated, but I found out yesterday a different credit union that i'm also a member of, Service Credit Union, is looking to switch from a state to federal charter, and that really piqued my interest in the subject as well.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/Service-Credit-Union-membership/td-p/5901669/page/...

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Filed-September 2020 Discharged-December 2020
Kohl's Credit Card $3000 Limit (Opened October 2016) Survived Bankruptcy for whatever reason
Closed Capital One Venture One $3000 Limit (Opened December 2020, Closed by me September 2022 since I wanted the SavorOne and couldn't product change to it)
Capital One Auto Loan (Opened March 2021)
Capital One Cabela's $5000 Limit (Opened December 2021)
America First Credit Union Visa $1000 Limit (Opened December 2021)
Capital One SavorOne $5000 Limit (Opened September 2022)
Sam's Club Mastercard Synchrony Bank $2500 Limit (Opened March 30 2023) (Burned Synchrony in my CH7 BK, One card with a $745 balance)
Idaho Central Credit Union ICCU Visa $10,000 Limit (Opened April 2023)
Message 4 of 10
randomguy1
Valued Contributor

Re: Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

/peeks in

 

Any SUBs available?

Message 5 of 10
Royalbacon
Frequent Contributor

Re: Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

I did get a hard pull on Experian, so I can comfirm that. I didn't hear back but reached out and emailed them asking if they needed any documentation or anything and all they said was they'll reach out to me when they process the application if they need anything else. They did respond to the email within 20 minutes which was quite fast.

 

But at this point it remains a waiting game.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Filed-September 2020 Discharged-December 2020
Kohl's Credit Card $3000 Limit (Opened October 2016) Survived Bankruptcy for whatever reason
Closed Capital One Venture One $3000 Limit (Opened December 2020, Closed by me September 2022 since I wanted the SavorOne and couldn't product change to it)
Capital One Auto Loan (Opened March 2021)
Capital One Cabela's $5000 Limit (Opened December 2021)
America First Credit Union Visa $1000 Limit (Opened December 2021)
Capital One SavorOne $5000 Limit (Opened September 2022)
Sam's Club Mastercard Synchrony Bank $2500 Limit (Opened March 30 2023) (Burned Synchrony in my CH7 BK, One card with a $745 balance)
Idaho Central Credit Union ICCU Visa $10,000 Limit (Opened April 2023)
Message 6 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

Even though in theory, out of state people can join the CU, they want you to go in person to a branch to open membership 🙄. 

I recently applied for membership and next day got call from membership team to go to nearby branch with ID proof. I am in Minnesota, so I don't think I will drive up or fly out to open membership! I am happy with Mountain America CU, the other great decent CU!!

Message 7 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!


@Anonymous wrote:

Even though in theory, out of state people can join the CU, they want you to go in person to a branch to open membership 🙄. 

I recently applied for membership and next day got call from membership team to go to nearby branch with ID proof. I am in Minnesota, so I don't think I will drive up or fly out to open membership! I am happy with Mountain America CU, the other great decent CU!!


Being local to Utah, it's crazy you see the loyalties between these two CUs. People either love or hate them independently... But those numbers are because people in Utah LOVE their CUs. I would say 8/10 people I know are with one of these two, or University of Utah CU. With the other two being members of smaller CUs or national bank branches

Message 8 of 10
Creditfan1234
Contributor

Re: Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

Love University of Utah CU! Utah is very much a CU state. Everyone has accounts at a CU it seems like. 

Message 9 of 10
Royalbacon
Frequent Contributor

Re: Anyone join America First Credit Union out of state? I guess i'm a guinea pig pretty much!

First things first before I start, I live in Minnesota, waaaaaaaaaay outside of this credit unions geographic footprint.

 

So last year in 2020 when I first applied I never heard back, I submitted the application and it said they'd call (They never did) I reached out via email a few days later and they said they'd need to "further evaluate my request" and that I need to call them. I never did end up calling (Got cold feet and scared that they'd scrutinize and give me a hard time for trying to join out of state far away, or questioning me as to why would I join a random school PTA several states away from where I live) and I ended up getting a denial letter in the mail later on, it either said they couldn't verify me or I didn't qualify for membership (Can't remember which one) Ended up wasting both a hard pull and a ChexSystems pull for nothing, oh well.

Fast forward to today, I reapplied for membership. The application detects if your address is outside of their geographic footprint and then asks how you qualified for membership. Based on this old thread here America First CU Info for Share Secured Loan Shopp... - myFICO® Forums - 5144611 I joined the Utah PTA at http://www.utahpta.org/join-beehive-unit for $10. Same exact message as last time after I submitted my membership application, it said they'd call me.

 

So I decided to be proactive and muster up the courage to call them. I told them "I applied for a new membership online this morning and it said they would call, I was just wondering if there is anything additional needed from me" A very nice lady asked me some verification questions (I think they were from Nexus Lexis or however you spell it) asked me how long I lived at my current address, asked me how I heard about them (I said a Google search and that I read positive reviews online) and told me I qualify for both a savings and a checking and asked if I wanted both or just the savings (I wanted both) She went over the 2 different checking account products they offer for me to choose, then asked if I wanted direct deposit. And she had me add an emergency contact to my accouny.  She told me i'd receive an electronic email to sign in 5-10 minutes and asked me to complete it within 24 hours (It was a DocuSign email, which I immediately signed & completed)

 

Not once did she ask me how I qualified for membership or questioned why I was trying to join from Minnesota, or even bring up the fact that I am from Minnesota or outside of their geographic footprint.

 

I did notice on the docusign though it says "I would like to join the Nevada PTA" I'm pretty confident I selected Utah PTA on the online application and I paid $10 to join that seperately before completing the online application Smiley Frustrated I'm wondering if I should reach out and ask if they automatically joined the Nevada PTA for me and paid the membership dues, or just ignore it... (For peace of mind, I think i'll reach out and ask about it once I figure out how to get my online banking setup)

 

americafirst9000.png

 

Oh yeah, it's a hard pull on Experian to join, BUT unlike when I first applied last year, I didn't actually get hard pulled until I called them and the lady I was speaking with verified my identity.

 

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Filed-September 2020 Discharged-December 2020
Kohl's Credit Card $3000 Limit (Opened October 2016) Survived Bankruptcy for whatever reason
Closed Capital One Venture One $3000 Limit (Opened December 2020, Closed by me September 2022 since I wanted the SavorOne and couldn't product change to it)
Capital One Auto Loan (Opened March 2021)
Capital One Cabela's $5000 Limit (Opened December 2021)
America First Credit Union Visa $1000 Limit (Opened December 2021)
Capital One SavorOne $5000 Limit (Opened September 2022)
Sam's Club Mastercard Synchrony Bank $2500 Limit (Opened March 30 2023) (Burned Synchrony in my CH7 BK, One card with a $745 balance)
Idaho Central Credit Union ICCU Visa $10,000 Limit (Opened April 2023)
Message 10 of 10
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.