Navy Federal Credit Union: Why Did You Join?

[Repairman]

Hello all, I have an in through family, should I want to join, but I'm curious to hear from you guys out there who are already members, why did you join? What do you see as the biggest benefits of being a NFCU member and also, what do you see as it's weaknesses? I;m new to the whole CU thing, and am wondering do you see benefits in joining multiple CUs? And which would you reccommend? I'm located in the NY/NJ area, by the way.

[jaxstraw]

My guess is 95% or better Fico Forum contributors join NFCU because of the unusually high credit lines granted with their loan products.

They are very well known and documented for doing so.

Their weaknesses ? I would probably say their unusually highs credit lines also. Giving those high CL is a wonderful thing for many. It establishes a trade line in figures other lenders see and replicate, it lowers UTI, etc.........it also is a rapid jump for many who might not be able to control spending and adding such high debt unchecked.

It is one thing to establish credit and build slowly. For example a 500 CL...to a 1000 card....to a 3000 card....etc.

People tend to learn how much to charge and pay off without going nuts.

But the jump from 750 cl card to 12000.....or 2000 to 25,000 is extreme and can lead to massive debt problems for some that have lasting implications.

And I see no issue with joining multiple credit unions for different products they offer. In fact I believe it is a great financial strategy. The age of online personal finance has made this a gift to consumers that should be taken advantage of.

[LittleSal]

I joined because of their good reputation and great loan products.

[Anonymous]

For me personally it was because of their rates (better than average deposit and loan rates) and stellar customer, er, member service. 

Downside? Well I suppose if you live in an area without a NFCU branch, that could pose some issues as NFCU is not part of the shared CU service centre's system. But, how often do you need to go to a branch? Luckily there are 4 NFCU branches in Colorado; two of which are less than 20 miles away and one new one that is only 6 miles away. If you are lucky enough to live near a branch I would encourage you to visit, the people there are so professional and personable. 

As another poster above me stated, I believe the MAIN reason so many MyFico folks want in with NFCU is because historically they issue ridiculously high credit lines to people with profiles that would garner much lower credit lines from other financial institutions. My favourite are the people that go after two or three NFCU cards......

I rather feel that ever since they opened the floodgate into membership in February 2017 that its too much. I am glad that they are finally letting veterans join (that always ticked me off that a roommate could join through someone that joined through their half-sister etc but not actual veterans-if military you had to join while you were active otherwise no can do) but I believe they need to be asking for the DD214's of the family members people are joining through. I thoroughly believe some people are lying to join. But maybe they have access to some government website to properly vet new members, that I don't know. 

[Jnbmom]

I joined because of their reputation and because of how they treat veterans. My son is a two time deployed army infantry vet, vets certainly deserve this service above all!!!!

I know there are all types of people, but I would hope that no one would  intentionally lie to get in and if there are would hope its a minority

[CreditInspired]

I’ve been a Member for 11+years (lots of pros).

In the beginning:

*Customer service

*free checking

*free cashier’s check

*free ATM at 7-11 (one practically on every corner. I dont know the last time I paid an ATM fee)

*extremely low fees

Now:

*all of the above

*Monster credit limits

*no BT fees

*no FTFs

*Monster CLOCs

*no cash advance fees

*$0 down conventional mortgage

*no PMI 

*referral real estate program (.6% cash rebate)

*mobile deposit 

Only con for me is HP crazy. 

NFCU rocks!!!!

[SouthJamaica]

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@Repairman wrote:

Hello all, I have an in through family, should I want to join, but I'm curious to hear from you guys out there who are already members, why did you join? What do you see as the biggest benefits of being a NFCU member and also, what do you see as it's weaknesses? I;m new to the whole CU thing, and am wondering do you see benefits in joining multiple CUs? And which would you reccommend? I'm located in the NY/NJ area, by the way.

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They have great customer service, an excellent fast website, lots of online functionality, great products, generous underwriting standards, low or no fee credit products.

The only negative is that some other credit unions have lower credit interest rates.

In my opinion, anyone who can get into NFCU should. It's a no brainer in my book.

[Anonymous]

If our OP has no open loans of any kind, then joining NFCU is an absolute no-brainer, in my opinion.  Navy is the only CU we know if currently that has a well tested track record with the Share Secured Loan Technique.  (Our OP can do a search for that if he wants to find out more.)

[Anonymous]

Both my father and my grandfather were in the Air Force so when I found out about my eligibility for NFCU, I went ahead and joined. 

I initially joined for the credit products and that remains my main purpose of having them because I find their banking products to be inferior to some other offerings and they have more downtime on the website and app than I am used to with my current bank. 

They have excellent customer service and they do indeed issue extremely generous credit limits and in my case they gave me generous limits with their lowest APRs on a very limited income which gives me breathing room to know if I ever have an emergency expense, I have a card with less than 10% interest to put it on. 

They do have pretty decent loan rates and I have actually seen posters here on this very forum say that they set up their shares secured loan with the rep and the rep knew what they were using it for. The fact that NFCU doesn’t seem to care about us using this trick while Alliant has eliminated it is amazing because it’s quite a decent credit hack and I’ll probably set one up myself once I pay off my balance transfer I have with NFCU right now. 

I have three credit unions - SSFCU, NFCU, and DCU. I prefer to do business with CUs over banks. They tend to be a lot more focused on their members than profits and they also weather recessions much better than banks do so I feel more confident that my CUs will be there for me when the economy slows down and the big banks reduce their risk exposure. 

Bottom line is if you are eligible for NFCU, there’s no reason not to join and plenty of benefits of being a member. 

[Repairman]

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@Anonymous wrote:

They do have pretty decent loan rates and I have actually seen posters here on this very forum say that they set up their shares secured loan with the rep and the rep knew what they were using it for. The fact that NFCU doesn’t seem to care about us using this trick while Alliant has eliminated it is amazing because it’s quite a decent credit hack and I’ll probably set one up myself once I pay off my balance transfer I have with NFCU right now. 

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I'm confused as to what exactly is the hack?