The Quest for an SSL alternative to Alliant

[M_Smart007]

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@michaelsmith wrote:

(Sorry If I'm posting this twice but I can't find my post from yesterday)

I got an SSL through NASA FCU in the last 2 weeks.

Works perfectly:
60 month term

As you pay it the loan, the savings becomes partially available

3% + savings account rate for the loan

1 Hard Pull from Equifax

Min $25/month, so for 60 month term you'll want a $1,500 loan (but since you're paying $1,000+ back straight away it shouldn't bother anyone).

A few oddities:

* Max $500 payment (so you'll need to do a 3 initial payments to get the loan mostly paid)

* Max $100 initial deposit into savings account via ACH (But I think Credit Card was $500, but it's not a cash advance so you can earn points!)
* Entire process online except loan application (which I did online by applying for a personal loan and asking them to correct)
* They sent a check for the loan (not sure why they don't just put it in your savings account with them, but oh well

If people have more questions feel free to ask.

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@michaelsmith  ,

Welcome to the forum & Congrats on your NASA SSL !!!

Hopefully this can help someone out.

[michaelsmith]

TLDR; With NASA it would appear you need to be careful with large repayments. I recommend just paying the amount due each month (maybe plus a few cents/dollars or what you feel to cover interest)

Full Explanation:

I've noticed with NASA is whilst the first $100 repayment effectively made nearly 4 monthly repayments and pushed the next due date to 4 months time, it didn't work the same with the next $500 payment (it moved it about a month), but my 3rd payment was the amount due for the following month (e.g. $20) and that worked.

NASA must have some kind of rule where if you pay above a certain amount it doesn't hit forward payments. Given the 3rd payment worked though it appears to be a rule limited to individual payments.

[Birdman7]

@michaelsmith Yes, welcome and thanks for the dps. Interesting. Keep us posted please.

[jamespplplay]

My CU offers a credit-builder loan where they deposit the approved loan proceeds in a particular type of account (at their CU) and you pay monthly, and have access to the funds only as you pay. Is this the same as an SSL for the purposes of the SSL technique? (assuming that otherwise the prepayment policy also works for the SSL technique).

[coldfusion]

Yes, but the ability to pre-pay while having the original payment dates for the outstanding portion of the loan remain intact is a big YMMV.

Much of the scoring benefit is derived from having the loan report as open for an extended period of time with utilization of under 8.9%.

[CassieCard]

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@jamespplplay wrote:

My CU offers a credit-builder loan where they deposit the approved loan proceeds in a particular type of account (at their CU) and you pay monthly, and have access to the funds only as you pay. Is this the same as an SSL for the purposes of the SSL technique? (assuming that otherwise the prepayment policy also works for the SSL technique).

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Yes it is. I used the same product from a credit union when I started my credit file 3 years ago. I had a larger than usual score jump (+62 points) on a clean file because I let it age to 1 year before applying for my first credit card.

HOWTO: Get a +62 point FICO 8 jump on a clean file (with chart)

Pay attention to what the_old_curmudgeon wrote above. The trick is keeping it in the 0-9% range for as long as you can hold it open. Closing that credit builder loan cost me around -30 points!

But it served it's purpose in the final month with 750/728/748 EQ/TU/EX 8 scores (1 loan, 0 cards). That's what Citi saw when they double-pulled EQ/EX and approved me at $6500 on a Citi Costco Visa Anywhere Signature card. No chance of starting from scratch and getting that.