Once again for newbies I wanted to mention that often CD secured loans from a bank are one of the best ways to improve credit. Much better I think than(and cheaper) than getting secured credit cards. A friend of mine had a 705 credit he had two secured loans and a wireless phone account all about 1 year old-my jaw dropped at seeing that. I've heard that the best amount to borrow is over $1000. Anyways, I've recently been searching around for banks that do the best secured loans. Specifically I've been looking for secured loans that 1) Don't cause a hard inquiry(most banks do) 2) Don't charge a prepayment penalty and 3) Report to all three CRA's. So far I've found the Golden1 Credit Union (for those of us in CA) and USAA's online banking. I've used the Golden1's secured loans before and I think the best way to do it with them is to put the money in a savings account(not a CD) and do everything over the phone to their HQ in Sacramento--I've wasted a lot of time in their local branch. They only seem to report about one loan a month, so doing it more often than that is a waste of time. I also just talked to USAA's bank and they sounded even better. They will loan 100% of the cd's value(you can't do it on a savings account), no inquiries, they report and no prepayment penalty. I'm also sure they are better at reporting than the Golden 1(had a few probs with incorrect entries on the loans). Anyone else know of some banks or CU's like these for cd or savings secured loans???
I simply meant newbies to credit. I still see a lot of people posting about secured credit cards and I think they are a great waste of money and effort, especially compared to cd secured loans.
Whoa, don't knock the secured cc method. Our scores are tied to having a major credit card or two. If one can only obtain a secured cc, than one should do it. I started out with a secured Cap 1 card in 1996. It is now my oldest cc tradeline. In reading other posts, it seems prime cc want to see at least a two year payment history as part of their approval process. The secured CD-loan is a good method to enhance your score, but not at the begining of the rebuilding process. Best regards, Mirage
Yes, but no army affiliation needed, just a 2-minute toll-free call and you get a USAA member #. Saar
Saar: Please elaborate. My brother is in the military (officer) and he tried to get us a membership 2 days ago. He was told spouse of member, child of member... Both my grandfathers were military but not members... My uncle is a member but... I'm not his child. What number did you call and how did you get membership (what did you have to do)? Open a checking account? get approved for the credit card first? remember: I can't yet get prime....
They will ASK about army affiliation. Even if you don't have one, you still get a member #, which is good for ALL banking/credit products, but not for insurance products. 1-800-292-8302. Saar
Oh... you are my hero of the day We've been trying to convince my last living grandmother to get one... then my mother... oh, you get the idea... My Dad was willing to do it but his parents are dead and they weren't ever members... I would never have gotten a membership. I'm calling thank YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Call 800-531-2265 and tell them you want to open a CD account. They will open up a membership for you over the phone and send out info on the CD. Financial products are available to the general public only insurance is closed to military.
USAA fixed rate cd loan. Min 5k. Reports to all 3 bureaus. No credit run on application for the secured loan. Thanks Mel and Saar
Fixed-Rate Certificates require an initial deposit and minimum balance of $5,000. Terms available for these certificates are 91, 182, or 270 days, 7, 15, 18, or 30 months, and 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 years.
oh.. 2.25% over the cd rate is the loan rate. It can be for any length of time under the maturity date of the cd... No application fee, no prepayment penalty. Reports to all 3 bureaus. I asked what "application questions" there are... I was told "what do you want the loan for?" is the main question... No credit check. I don't know about employment checks. I was told if I applied today, they'd Fedex the loan app and I'd get it Sat... Fedex it back on on Sat and they'd process it Monday... The loan can be 100 percent of the cd value, min 5k. He also said you can do a money market loan, but it takes several weeks to process and that can only be 70 percent of the money market account value.
Thank you for this thread - slppryslp, Mel, Saar, and Marie! I was looking for this information! I am going to call USAA for a CD secure loan. Will post my results. I have a couple of questions: 1. Marie, is USAA reporting your CD secure loan as secure loan or regular unsecure loan? 2. Marie, did you pay back in bigger installments or are you sticking to 12 months or more? With a $5K loan, over 12 months the interest will be not insignificant. LOL. I believe it is still worth to have an installment loan tl on your report. 3. Has anyone found other banks/institutes giving CD/savings secure loan with no inquiries and reporting to all CRA's as unsecure loan? Thanks to you all!
<bump> for my previous message. And also wanted to add an update that I called USAA and talked to three different reps and they all were quite helpful and nice. I am getting the CD application online (printing the pdf) and mailing tonight to get my CD started right away. It will still take a few days for the check to clear etc.