When I log into my NFCU account, under my offers is an offer for a checking line of credit. I was hoping someone could enlighten me on the benefits of applying for this. Which credit report will they pull? How do I utlilize it? Any negatives? Does it report on my credit reports and if so, how?
Good morning all and TIA for any information you can provide.
***Gardening 3/29/2018 until 9/25/2018***
@Anonymous wrote:*It helps bring your UTL down if you have high balances on other cards.
*It does report
*They usually pull FICO 9, TU for membership and EQ for credit cards
*No negatives
*Basically, if you have $0 on your checking account and you write a check or pull money from an ATM, the money will come from that line of credit, which you then have to pay back. So basically It protects you from overdrafts and from having transactions denied for non-sufficient funds.
Thanks! You mentioned they pull TU for membership and EQ for credit cards, where where does this fall as a line of credit? Does that mean they will pull EQ?
@Appleman wrote:Also, you basically cannot access the line until you have a $0 balance in your associated checking account. I hate to see zero in any of my personal checking accounts so I have never utilized my CLOC.
I do utilize my PLOC with PenFed if I need to on occasion. I can readily pull our money from my PenFed PLOC and do a short term loan to myself. I pay interest only for the days I need it and my rate at PenFed is better than NFCU.
Okay, now I'm confused. I can only use it if I have $0 in my checking account? I thought it was just a line of credit I could use if I needed it.
You can order checks (for free) and write yourself checks directly out of your CLOC. I did it just to see if it works. I mainly got it for the $15k line and overall utilization.
@Appleman wrote:It is a line of credit but only kicks in after the checking is empty.
I had a tax bill last year that I had to pay. I had the cash in various checking accounts but needed a few days to transfer into my account.
I wrote the check specifically with the NFCU CLOC check the NFCU provided and it still took money from my checking. Never touched the LOC because the checking still had enough cash in it. YMMV
Weird, I keep a few hundred in my NFCU checking and I've wrote myself 2 checks and it came directly from CLOC only. So I guess for OP only way is to try. YMMV.
@jlitnns wrote:
@Appleman wrote:It is a line of credit but only kicks in after the checking is empty.
I had a tax bill last year that I had to pay. I had the cash in various checking accounts but needed a few days to transfer into my account.
I wrote the check specifically with the NFCU CLOC check the NFCU provided and it still took money from my checking. Never touched the LOC because the checking still had enough cash in it. YMMV
Weird, I keep a few hundred in my NFCU checking and I've wrote myself 2 checks and it came directly from CLOC only. So I guess for OP only way is to try. YMMV.
There are multiple ways to access the CLOC. One is to write regular checks on your checking account for more than is in the account. Another is to use the special checks which are just linked to the CLOC.
Thanks all. I think I will wait to apply because I want to better my chances of getting the full $15K. My EQ Fico 9 is 709 according to NFCU.