DCU Free Checking - no hard credit pull & free EQ mortgage FICO?

[Anonymous]

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@yourficouser wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

hi

Yes EQ FICO 5 score comes on monthly on the anniversary of your savings account opening in an email .They only display EQ Fico5 score not exactly FICO 8 scores.

its just what i have right now a savings account and a DCU visa card which when i applied for my account i was insisting only a savings account plus credit card (with lowest APR credit card & no balance transfer fee if EQ Fico5 > 700).  They will use the same pull if applying for savings/credit card. I believe their Tier2 rates are upto Fico5 of 690. Getting $2k limit is normal, getting 5k & above requires Tier1. (720+ EQ Fico 5). Paystub is required.

You can make maximum of 6 transactions in a month if you have savings account. Their 5.0% savings account is upto $1k max.

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Thanks so much for confirming that the savings account also comes with the EQ Fico5 and for highlighting the benefits of the savings account.

Just to double check - my understanding is that, currently, there is NO hard credit pull to open a savings account with DCU. Did you open your account some time ago (you mention that the hard credit pulls to open the savings account & credit card are combined)? Thank you again!

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Well, my account was opened for a auto refinancing loan but before i could apply for auto refi i had to have a savings account. So i sent in my information & they pulled ChexSys some 6-7 mos ago. Then once approved for savings, i went ahead and applied for auto refi & credit card using the same EQ Fico 05 pull. (good for last 40 days). i was anticipating a paidoff tradeline on my credit report so i waited & let my paidoff credit tradeline show on my report & then applied. It was a difference between being first tier or second tier ( < 690 Fico 5 v/s > Fico 720).

I was approved for 3.49%APR for 60 mos but i wanted 2.99% APR and i got that with Alliant Credit Union (which used my TU report).

[yourficouser]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Question for our OP:

When do you plan to buy a house?  A best guess is fine: three months from now, six months, 12 months, 24 months, etc.

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Likely in 6-9 months. However, we are waiting for a townhome in one particular complex to come on the market. If it comes on the market before 6-9 months from now, we plan to purchase immediately.

[yourficouser]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@yourficouser wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

hi

Yes EQ FICO 5 score comes on monthly on the anniversary of your savings account opening in an email .They only display EQ Fico5 score not exactly FICO 8 scores.

its just what i have right now a savings account and a DCU visa card which when i applied for my account i was insisting only a savings account plus credit card (with lowest APR credit card & no balance transfer fee if EQ Fico5 > 700).  They will use the same pull if applying for savings/credit card. I believe their Tier2 rates are upto Fico5 of 690. Getting $2k limit is normal, getting 5k & above requires Tier1. (720+ EQ Fico 5). Paystub is required.

You can make maximum of 6 transactions in a month if you have savings account. Their 5.0% savings account is upto $1k max.

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Thanks so much for confirming that the savings account also comes with the EQ Fico5 and for highlighting the benefits of the savings account.

Just to double check - my understanding is that, currently, there is NO hard credit pull to open a savings account with DCU. Did you open your account some time ago (you mention that the hard credit pulls to open the savings account & credit card are combined)? Thank you again!

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Well, my account was opened for a auto refinancing loan but before i could apply for auto refi i had to have a savings account. So i sent in my information & they pulled ChexSys some 6-7 mos ago. Then once approved for savings, i went ahead and applied for auto refi & credit card using the same EQ Fico 05 pull. (good for last 40 days). i was anticipating a paidoff tradeline on my credit report so i waited & let my paidoff credit tradeline show on my report & then applied. It was a difference between being first tier or second tier ( < 690 Fico 5 v/s > Fico 720).

I was approved for 3.49%APR for 60 mos but i wanted 2.99% APR and i got that with Alliant Credit Union (which used my TU report).

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I see. Thank you for your clarification the the savings account only resulted in a ChexSystems pull, whereas it was your auto refi & credit card applications that resulted in a single EQ pull that was used for both applications. Thank you again!

[tcbofade]

OP, in my opinion, you are too worried about ONE inquiry.

DW and I opened an account with a local CU for the express purpose of holding our down payment money shortly before we purchased a home.  After assuring us that they wouldn't pull our credit, they did. 

Yes, we had to explain that to the loan officer, but no credit was applied for or received and that inquiry was not held against us.

[Anonymous]

I see no problem with going ahead with the DCU plan.  It's free after all and free is good.  Bear in mind, however, that this only gives you only one of your three mortgage scores.

Do you currently have all your cards reporting zero except one (AZEO) with the remaining card at zero?  In addition to your DCU plan, I'd work on getting your reports completely optimized for the mortgage models (as soon as possible) and then when the reports are as perfect as they can be, pull all three mortgage scores via the myFICO Ultimate tool.  You may only need to do that once, which should be either $30 or $40, after which you can cancel.

[yourficouser]

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@tcbofade wrote:

OP, in my opinion, you are too worried about ONE inquiry.

DW and I opened an account with a local CU for the express purpose of holding our down payment money shortly before we purchased a home.  After assuring us that they wouldn't pull our credit, they did. 

Yes, we had to explain that to the loan officer, but no credit was applied for or received and that inquiry was not held against us.

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Thanks so much for sharing your experience getting a mortgage with an unexpected last-minute hard credit inquiry and the result - that everything went fine.

I agree, a hard credit inquiry is not a big deal in the big scheme of things, even if getting a mortgage. However, I'd still prefer to avoid it if I am opening a credit union account for the sole (or primary) purpose of checking my EQ FICO mortgage score. Additionally, we are still deciding whether to include DW on the mortgage, but her actual (non-mortgage) EX FICO8 is such that I believe a hard inquiry could impact the score and thus the rate we could get if she is included on the loan.

[yourficouser]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I see no problem with going ahead with the DCU plan.  It's free after all and free is good.  Bear in mind, however, that this only gives you only one of your three mortgage scores.

Do you currently have all your cards reporting zero except one (AZEO) with the remaining card at zero?  In addition to your DCU plan, I'd work on getting your reports completely optimized for the mortgage models (as soon as possible) and then when the reports are as perfect as they can be, pull all three mortgage scores via the myFICO Ultimate tool.  You may only need to do that once, which should be either $30 or $40, after which you can cancel.

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Thanks so much for sharing your thought that going ahead with the DCU plan is a good idea. I'm still waiting to hear back from DCU regarding the type of credit inquiry also (I submitted a message to them on Monday), but otherwise I'll probably go ahead and open savings accounts for both me and DW.

DW has AZEO. I am mostly concerned about her score and we haven't yet decided whether or not to include her on the application (as we won't need her income to qualify). It is much easier to have her at AZEO as we don't really use her cards organically, so we just charge a nominal amount to one of them monthly and call it a day. 

My actual FICO8 is quite high. Therefore, I am less concerned with my mortgage FICO8 currently. However, if I were to see that my EQ mortgage FICO5 is significantly lower than I expect, I would probably try to do AZEO also (this would probably have to involve paying my balance before the statement posts, as I currently use at least two cards monthly for different bonus categories).

Thanks, also, for your suggestion to use the myFICO Ultimate tool to pull all 3 mortgage FICO scores. Is your recommendation then to sign up for the FICO Ultimate 3B for one month to get the scores rather than buying the one-time FICO Score 3B Report?

Thank you again!

[Subexistence]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I see no problem with going ahead with the DCU plan.  It's free after all and free is good.  Bear in mind, however, that this only gives you only one of your three mortgage scores.

Do you currently have all your cards reporting zero except one (AZEO) with the remaining card at zero?  In addition to your DCU plan, I'd work on getting your reports completely optimized for the mortgage models (as soon as possible) and then when the reports are as perfect as they can be, pull all three mortgage scores via the myFICO Ultimate tool.  You may only need to do that once, which should be either $30 or $40, after which you can cancel.

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https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Mortgage-Loans/Free-mortgage-scores/td-p/5142201

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'd sign up for the Ultimate and then cancel.  That costs either $30 or $40, contrasted with the $60 of the one-time report.  The Ultimate will get you everything that the report had. 

When one is talking about a mortgage, there's no reason not to go the whole route and implement AZEO.  A mortgage is the biggest loan you'll ever take out.  Making two CC payments per card is really not a big deal while you are preparing for the mortgage. 

I would implement AZEO first and then pull your mortgage scores.  Use a free tool like Karma to confirm that your reports are at AZEO and then pay for the Ultimate.

[Anonymous]

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@yourficouser wrote:

DW has AZEO.... It is much easier to have her at AZEO as we don't really use her cards organically, so we just charge a nominal amount to one of them monthly and call it a day.

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I hope that you use each of her cards once every six months, as a strategy to prevent them from being closed due to inactivity.