@Revelate wrote:Did buy the car (US Bank DS so no fun times there with payments) but going to play some silly FICO reindeer games if I can get away with it to try to test the payment functions at a few CU's.
Saw Penfed looks to be tested, so trying:
1) First Tech - looked to be approved, EX something for UW
2) Langley - We'll see, has SSL, EQ FICO 8 puller presumably.
3) Lake Michigan - They have a secured loan, unclear on collateral, TU puller presumably though they do an EX verification. $5 donation to ALS to join if you aren't in Michigan or parts of Florida.
If you're wondering how I came up with these 3: First Tech I have a relationship with and they're big and open to everyone, Langley not quite sure on size but appear to be open to everyone and EQ pullin, Lake Michigan just went down the list of largest CU's that had nationwide eligibility and TU pullers (there were several which apparently didn't as of a few years ago at least, namely Security Service and RBFCU both in Texas cause I personally tried, hard, several years ago haha).
Again I'm just playing reindeer games so I'm applying for outsized personal loans at least with the first two, pay back about half as soon as it funds, "borrow" the rest which I'm going to hold for about a month elsewhere and then pay the vast majority right back. It's going to look funny on the credit report but I don't think Chase is going to more than side eye it so I really don't care
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Yes but aren't you killing your scores with all the new accounts?
The ideal would be a soft pull to join and a CU that doesn't pull for an SSL (or at least only a soft pull). Of course if you are already a member...
@Revelate wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:These can be crossed off the list as they can not be payed early without having the term recalculated: Penfed, Golden1, California Credit Union, and Stanford Credit Union.
Anyone else have any luck? Really hoping someone has some luck finding a new solution soon!
To confirm, was Penfed explicitly tested? At least previously you could do it from some posts I found here from years ago, but that could've changed and I haven't tried myself.
I didn't test it, but I did investigate it and found that the payment dates would be moved up.
@Anonymous wrote:Hi Chocolate. What you asked about is really not confined to Andrews. I address it in the first post of this thread (see the Postscript). I will reproduce that in blue below and then comment further:
... as you see above, we view the ability of the borrower to pay off almost the entire loan at month 1 but still keep it open for a long time (e.g. 60 months) to be the defining feature of the SSL technique. There is one exception, however, and we welcome research into this. That's where somebody has borderline credit with no open loans and and is preparing for his first big loan (typically for a car).
In this case, the person does not need to keep his SSL open for 60 months, since once he gets his car, the auto loan will eclipse any scoring advantage from the SSL. What he wants the SSL for is the 30 point boost, typically in the next five months -- it will be like a ladder he climbs and then throws away once he gets the thing he wants (the car).
What he does care about is having a true SSL (which unlike an unsecured loan will be approved even for people with bad credit), one with no hard pull, and ideally one with a fairly low minimum loan amount. For such a person it is totally ok if the prompt paydown to 8.99% causes it to pay off at month 5 rather than month 59. If anyone can find good alternatives here that would be great too.
We haven't had many people talk about this but there are dozens of CUs and banks out there that meet these criteria. It's the additional criterion of prepayment that reduces the number from many dozens to almost none (i.e. that the bank/CU pushes the due date for the payment way into the future after the big paydown).
This is a good point. My Wife got a SSL from NFCU in October, we paid it down to 8% and she had FICO increases of 35 - 45 points. She had one secured card showing, multiple derogs but went from 530 or so to a high of 579 in her 08 scores. Her payments are pushed out a couple years but in her case, all derogs will be long gone by that time. She needed a short term boost which she could have gotten with any of these SSL's that will at least release funds as they are paid down. What happened was that her scores rose enough to get a FNBO secured with the same funds that had establised the SSL. The bottom line is that even if the loan lasted 9 months or so, she would have still gained that boost from the low 500's. The NFCU loan is perfect but others would have worked for a shorter time frame.. and she could always do it again.