NFCU and law enforcement *** UPDATE 1/9/19

[Imhotrodcrazy]

I need some info from those of you who may have a similar situation as I have.  I am interested in joining NFCU but I am not a vet,  however, I am retired from a law enforcement agency.  While it says that I am eligible on line,  I want to be sure.  So my question is,  is their anyone out there who has recently joined NFCU who was not a vet but retired from law enforcement only.  Also, if you were able to join, were you offered a full range of products.  Thank you for your input, it's greatly appreciated.

UPDATE:  Ok guys and gals I phoned NFCU last night and had quite a long conversation with a very pleasant lady. I found out law enforcement is Not eligible for membership on it's own.  As many of you stated, or know,  you must be active duty, retired, or connected to someone in the service.  When I questioned her on why, or how, it showed that I was eligible on line she was indeed puzzled.  I asked her if she could duplicate the steps that I took on the online app to see if she would come up with an approval as I was very curious.  She said she could do just that, and admitted she was just as curious.  When she completed the steps I asked her to take she got the same " congrats you are eligible " for membership.  She was surprised and asked me if I had time to be placed on hold so that she could talk to her supervisor and I agreed because I wanted a definitive answer to my question.  After several minutes on hold she came back and told me that her supervisor went into the online app and found a " glitch " in their system.  She said that they tried several scenarios where they put in number of organizations, including " MacDonald's " and it gave them the " approval " status,  which was obviously wrong.  She apologized several times for false approval it showed and she confirmed that a person is not eligible for membership if they are in law enforcement only.  She took the time to explain again that I had to be connected somehow to a family member.  So, that is all that I found out and I hope that in some way this will help others down the line should they have these same law enforcement questions with respect to NFCU as I did.  I thank all of you who have taken the time to help me in this endeavor.  I hope this info will keep people in the future from wasting a hp and a denial. This is a great forum with fantastic people.  Keep up the great work on helping each other.  

[Sadie5150]

I didn't know that they would let LE join.  My husbands a police chief and we just recently became members.  However, we qualified through our son, who is active duty in the Army.  Once our membership was approved (via copies of DL's, and sons info) pre-approvals were immediately showing on our account page.   We even received our debit cards just two days after opening the account.   Husband applied for the flagship card and was instantly approved with $20k SL

[Imhotrodcrazy]

Thank you Sadie for responding.  I am thinking that the fact that your son is in the army was the main reason for your approval.  I am happy that you were able to gain membership and congrats on a great sl on the cc.  Congrats also to your husband for becoming police chief.  I would also like to thank your son for his service to our great nation.   I am sure you are very proud of the both of them.  Again,  I appreciate the time you took to respond to my inquiry.

[Pikaboo-icu]

Thank you for your service in Law Enforcement!

Sadie, Thank you to your husband and your son! 

You night take a peek at PenFed, it's also a military CU but if you give a small donation to their charity, you can join and yes, it's FULL member benefits.

There's also Langley and DCU, Inspirus, Alliant and many more.

Some of these are based on what state you live in etc... 

All of the above have pretty good benefits!!  I belong to NFCU, PenFed and Inspirus happy with them all thus far..

Hopefully you can find a CU that has what you need.

[Anonymous]

Did you have any relative parent, brother/sister, grand parent that served in the military?    That is pretty much the only way to get in now unless yu served.  

[Imhotrodcrazy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Did you have any relative parent, brother/sister, grand parent that served in the military?    That is pretty much the only way to get in now unless yu served.  

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Unfortunately I do not have a close relative to gain membership.  This is why I was surprised when they said I would qualify on line having retired from law enforcement.  This is why I was trying to find someone who has been accepted with law enforcement only.  Thank you for responding.

[CBartowski]

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@Pikaboo-icu wrote:

Thank you for your service in Law Enforcement!

Sadie, Thank you to your husband and your son! 

You night take a peek at PenFed, it's also a military CU but if you give a small donation to their charity, you can join and yes, it's FULL member benefits.

There's also Langley and DCU, Inspirus, Alliant and many more.

Some of these are based on what state you live in etc... 

All of the above have pretty good benefits!!  I belong to NFCU, PenFed and Inspirus happy with them all thus far..

Hopefully you can find a CU that has what you need.

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This is exactly the direction I was going to send you. I highly recommend PenFed as the military CUs go. I have USAA, NavyFed and PenFed. While the all have their merits, I believe, other than a clunky member portal, PenFed has very competitive options for banking. Frankly, while I have had positive experiences with NevyFed, the only reason I'm with them right now is because my mortgage and car loan is thru them. If rates were more favorable I would refi with a different CU.

As ^^ posted, Alliant CU has very competitive options as well.

Is there a particular reason you were looking at NavyFed?

[AverageJoesCredit]

If they say you are eligble online, my recommendation is to actually call Navy Federal and inquire . If it comes from their mouths that you can join, i would do so immediately and you can then become a huge data point for the community. Thank you for your service to our country. Law enforcement helps keep us safe just like our military so good luck , hope you much success

[CreditCuriosity]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
If they say you are eligble online, my recommendation is to actually call Navy Federal and inquire . If it comes from their mouths that you can join, i would do so immediately and you can then become a huge data point for the community. Thank you for your service to our country. Law enforcement helps keep us safe just like our military so good luck , hope you much success

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+ 1 call and ask as this is something new if this is the case.  One thing you don't want to do is join and they find out you aren't eligible their membership verification is pretty robust.  Let us know what they say if you choose to call.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Yes, i was checking Navy online and it references DoD, Department of Defense . Id imagine alot of that would be those civilians who worked or works on Military installations. Number one source recommended would always be directly from the source