Do credit unions verify/prove your eligibility when you join via roommates?

[Anonymous]

Lol... You're really turning logic on his head. Your sister's boyfriend might be a Wisconsin naive but he's not a Wisconsin resident if he has established residence out of state.

Also you are not legally related to him.

Finally living is the same house as someone else doesn't mean you qualify. You will need to demonstrate you contribute to the household by means of showing your name on the lease, a utility bill, or a shared bank account where you both make deposits to meet household expenses.

But I guess you'll find out eventually. Btw I'm a Wisconsin resident and very familiar with this credit union.

[Royalbacon]

My sister's boyfriend still has family living in Wisconsin that has attended college at some point in their life, so therefore my sister's boyfriend is eligible. Hence the option "Are you an immediate family member of any person eligible to be a member?"

And then the option "Persons of the same residence maintaining a single economic unit" So yes, living the same household does qualify you for membership. The "maintaining a single economic unit" means you contribute in someway to the expensves, (rent, utilities, etc.) I am already aware of that. We're all on the lease, and the utility bills are in all our names, so that isn't an issue verifying that.

The part about being a Wisconsin resident applies to the first option and the second one of living within 5 miles of a branch. The other 3 options it doesn't matter where you reside. It doesn't say "Are you an immediate family member of any person eligible to be a member and a Wisconsin resident?"

[Royalbacon]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Royalbacon wrote:

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It is not my intention to fraudulently join or lie about my eligibility. I wouldn't of applied if I wasn't eligible.

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How you reconcile the quoted statement with the credit union's qualification of "As a Wisconsin resident?"  Is your sister's boyfriend a Wisconsin resident?  Is his name on the lease of the house where you currently reside?  

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Being a Wisconsin resident only applies to the first 2 options. The other 3 it doesn't matter if you currently live in Wisconsin or moved out of state, whether it be Minnesota, Texas or Florida. If you're an alumni of one of the colleges they list and end up moving out of state later, you're still eligible to join. If they only strictly allowed Wisconsin residents regardless of the eligibility option that applies to you, then why would they even take applications from other states and have them listed as options on the application when filling your address out, let alone instantly approve them like they did with mine?

[Anonymous]

To avoid saying too much I'll just wish you good luck and hope your application sticks.

[Anonymous]

If you believe at all that your eligibility is up in the air, I would be really cautious about doing anything important with that credit union. It’s not just NFCU that takes eligibility seriously. Credit unions have to fight to keep their not for profit status and part of that is maintaining enforcement of their field of membership as stated.

[Royalbacon]

I wasn't wondering whether my eligibility was up in the air as I am eligible. I just wasn't expecting my application to be instantly approved and my accounts funded instantly, thought it would be manually reviewed since I chose the "Immediate relative or household member of any eligible person" option on the application and it didn't ask for any other info at all.

It seems odd that a credit union with strict eligibility would just automatically approve you and wouldn't manually review your eligibility or anything.

If you were to say sign up for USAA (for example) and they didn't even ask you how you're eligible to join (let alone check or verify to make sure you fall within their field of membership) and just immediately went ahead and opened the account for you with no questions asked, wouldn't you find that odd?

[Anonymous]

No because a lot of CUs don’t bother with verification until it’s audit time.

I can tell you right now that regardless of the verbiage, you’re definitely stretching the rules of eligibility with that CU.

Also USAA is a bank, not a credit union, so they aren’t actually forced to audit their membership as it’s a self-imposed restriction and NFCU doesn’t ask for documentation up front but if they get audited, they’ll freeze your accounts immediately until you send them the documentation they need. A lot of CUs don’t verify eligibility up front and take your word for it.

[Royalbacon]

I'll contact UWCU Monday and make sure my eligibility is good to go and make sure everything is in the clear. As I said, It is not my intention to fraudulently join or lie about my eligibility. I wouldn't of applied if I wasn't eligible. So they'll actually be able to tell me the answer and tell me what documentation along with anything else I need to provide, if I need to do any of that at all.

As far as stretching the eligibility, seems pretty clear as day. I live in the same house with someone that is eligible for membership, we are all on the lease and we all pay our own portion of the rent & utilities.

Are you an immediate family member of any person eligible to be a member?

• Spouse
• Parent
• Child
• Stepchild
• Stepparent
• Grandparent
• Grandchild
• Sibling
• Adoptive Parent or Child
• Persons of the same residence maintaining a single economic unit

[Anonymous]

It’s been my experience with CUs that when they take members based on someone else’s eligibility who isn’t a member that they tend to be stricter with their geo-fencing requirements.

If I were you, I would have your sister’s boyfriend join the CU which would then make you directly eligible instead of relying on his eligibility based on the eligibility of his family.

Best of luck! Maybe you’ll call and they’ll say everything is good to go.

[Royalbacon]

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@Anonymous wrote:
It’s been my experience with CUs that when they take members based on someone else’s eligibility who isn’t a member that they tend to be stricter with their geo-fencing requirements.

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Yeah, thank you!!

That's precisely what I was thinking too and what prompted me to create this thread asking others if they knew more then I do.