What does a NFCU relationship look like?

[Anonymous]

Hello all, after spending time in this community for a few months, it became clear that NFCU is a great institution. My wife also had a lot of good to say about them given that she comes from a military family and grew up in Pensacola where NFCU has a large footprint. In any event, we joined, started a savings account, and, each of us being a good ways down the road on our journey towards better credit, we each applied and were approved for Cash Rewards credit cards. $500 SL for me and $700 SL for her. We are each waiting our 91/3 so we can apply for a second card with, hopefully, a far greater SL. We are each putting a fair amount of spend on the cards and then making multiple payments throughout the month. We have started putting $250 every two weeks into the savings account. My question is, are we doing enough to build a relationship with them for the future so we can get more substantial CC with them and perhaps even get a mortgage through them later this year? I see other folks on these forums who have moved their direct deposits into NFCU. Is that a good idea for us? We also have a long and good relationship with Wells Fargo (where we currently have a checking account with each of our salaries being directly deposited) and a Visa Signature with a $6500 CL. It's also more convenient for us to use WF given that there are branches in our hometown. NFCU is not local to where we live. Should we consider moving one direct deposit through NFCU and then just transfer money back to WF as needed for bills? Should we take the full leap, cut WF out of our lives, and bank full time at NFCU? How important is it really to have a local branch in the 21st century anyway? Am I overthinking / over complicating things here?

[AllZero]

Yes to all the above. Give yourself in completely to the NFCU. Of course, keep WF too. It's good to diversify.

[TheFIGuy]

---

@AllZero wrote:

Yes to all the above. Give yourself in completely to the NFCU. Of course, keep WF too. It's good to diversify.

---

100% agree with @AllZero

Give yourself to NFCU, let them breathe vicariously through you! Love them and they will love you more!

[tcbofade]

Yes to all of the above.  lol.

You ARE over thinking this a bit.  NFCU is awesome.  Their largest concern is you making your payments on time.  They don't care about utilization, how much you do or don't spend on their cards, or whether you set up direct deposit or not.  Pay your bill.  On time.  Every time.  Over time, they will hand you the keys to the kingdom. 

My wife started exactly where you did.  $500 SL on a Platinum.  Now she's got over $60k on three cards with them.  

[VPExecutive]

With that said, you should shop around for other financial instituions if they offer better rates. 

My main local credit union offers slightly lower interest rates on personal and car loans. You will want to shop around and not be set on one financial institution for a mortage... A difference of 1% in the interest rate adds up to a lot of money when you're taking out a $200,000 loan.

[Guyatthebeach]

I personally only have a portion of my direct deposit going to Navy Federal. I don't use them for my daily checking and BillPay. I don't don't want to deal with the pain from moving everything over to one CU.

I do have a great relationship with NFCU. I have 2 credit cards, a checking line of credit, and a good bit in CD's. I get my direct deposit credited a day early.  I highly recommend them for their great rates on CD's. I have a preapproval for loans, but have not taken them, just don't need them yet. I think I was a member for 2 years before I started getting preapprovwd offers.

I personally believe you get higher CL's when you use their cards. I have one card with $22k limit and my new Flagship card has a $13k limit.

Guyatthebeach

[EAJuggalo]

I started with a small checking and savings account that I used for my side business.  Then I got a CC with them, then I put my wife on my account and opened accounts for my kids.  Then we moved about 90% of our banking to them and got a second CC.  We are hopeful in a few weeks to be getting an auto loan through them.  All of this and we've never set foot inside a branch or had to send in any paperwork.  With their Android app I can do everything with them I can do in a branch with the exception of getting cash, which I can do at a large number of ATM's for free.  I feel fairly confident they will retain a large portion of my deposit business and all of my loan business for the forseeable future.