I joined NFCU on July 4 of this year initially so my children could take advantage of their loan rates if they wanted. But, I got sucked in to their "make me rich quick" scheme pretty fast. I dumped $3,000 into their Special Easy Start CD (12 months @ 4.3%) and then I decided to get one of their fake Shares Pledge Loans (or SSL as some people here call them) to see what it did for my score.
I'll detail more about the process in my next post, but as of today, I've gotten a 31 Point bump on my Equifax FICO 8 score, 30 points on Experian, 23 point on TransUnion. I'm sitting at 831 and that should go up a bit here in a few weeks when my revolver accounts all update. I messed up last month and let too many accounts report a balance and I got dinged a bit on utilization. Easily corrected. I think I'll reach 835 at least by mid month.
Anyway, I write this post as a warning to anyone thinking of getting into bed with NFCU. They are sneaky and know what they are doing. They suck you in with sweet talk and promises in the dark and all you are left with in the morning is cold cash and higher scores. Snakes.
Joined NFCU on July 4 with a $5 share debit card payment. I also opened an Every Day Checking account because I thought the red debit card looked cool. That was a Friday and a holiday. On Monday the 7th I transfered $3,500 from my Fidelity CMA to the NFCU checking. It was there in my account by Tuesday the 8th, so I called to set up the loan.
Called at 10:08 and it lasted 11 minutes and 53 seconds. The rep asked how much I wanted and I said "$3,500" and how long of a loan I wanted and I said "60 months". She had to move the cash over to the Share Savings account and I had to listen to a short pre-recorded disclaimer and say "Yes". But that was it. A few minutes later I had an email saying I had a document to sign. I did have trouble getting the note to show up on the app, so I ended up logging in on a web browser. Took a few minutes, but by 10:22 the doc was submitted. 10:30 I received notice that the loan was approved and the loan payout was in my account at 10:31.
The actual loan account didn't show up until the next day the 9th, but I immediately paid the loan down to $150. It took a few days for the shares from the payment to be released, but I was able to transfer the $3,500 ($3,350 + $150) back to Fidelity on the 14th. So, my money was tied up with this process for exactly one week.
I set up a $2.50 per month auto-pay from my Share Savings account which should just about take me to the end of the 60 months. My next payment isn't actually due until February of 2030, but I figure a monthly auto-pay is probably a good idea.
Overall, very easy process. For those interested, the 31 point bump is due to the fact that this is my only loan. Keep that in mind.
Sounds like you really made the most out of the SSL; you boosted your score pretty quickly and without much hassle. I like that you broke down the process step by step; it gives anyone reading it a clear idea of what to expect. It’s also good that you pointed out the jump was because it’s your only loan; that gives people important context. And while you give your warning about NFCU, you also make it clear the process was easy and, if handled right, can be beneficial.
Want to hear the crazy part? All three of my VantageScore 3.0 scores dropped about 10 points when the NFCU Pledge Loan reported. How can two tools that supposedly measure the same things be so dissimilar? I'm sitting between 740 and 770 on all three VantageScore 3.0. Crazy.
