We just joined Wescom Credit Union located in Pasasena, California. Anyone who lives, works or worships in Los Angeles and 4 surrounding counties can join. About 20 million people live in these 5 counties. Great auto loan rates, secured credit cards that report, classic and gold credit cards etc. What is unusual is that they also have BT's at 5.9% for established customers. All it takes for the BT is just a credit card. A friend told my husband about the place and we plan to see next week if we can get an unsecured card even tho we have a 5 year old BK behind us. Otherwise, we will get a secured card with a $1000 deposit and get a real card in a year. One problem is that their website must be under maintenance because for some reason today, it never fully downloads. Here is the way around the problem. Homepage is www.wescom.org If you have the same trouble I do getting the homepage to dwonload, Click on 'location finder'. When that comes up look to the left and Click on 'about us'. All the info you need to join will be there. Wescom can be reached by telephone at 1-888-4wescom or 1-800-4wescom. Sorry i don't remember which.
For Orange County residents of So Cal you can join the Orange County Credit Union under the same requirements, they also have good rates. A little hard to get a auto loan they want high scores! http://www.orangecountyscu.org/main.asp Thanks for the info for LA! I live and work in both.
Our friend who recommended Wescom said the secured classic credit card he got reports as unsecured. You can't tell by looking at it that it is secured. He unsecured it at a year and got a big credit limit increase. Secured installment loans do report as secured, if it makes any difference. Some people like to take out secured installment loans to build credit. We are too far along to need that. Hard inquiries for the cards and loans just like any other bank. If you get a secured card there will be 1 hard inquiry when you get the card although noone is ever turned down. A second hard inquiry when you get unsecured and a big increase from what we were told.
Muchas Gracias for the info. Many credit unions exist here in S. CA. With such a large population, credit unions are all aver the place. Choose carefully. Few offer BT's.
I kind of like the golden1 their current lowest rate cc is 10 percent I believe with 1 percent cash back (no restrictions).
We took an early lunch today from our jobs and applied at Wescom for our visa cards. They used Experian accoording to the guy at the counter. He said we will know by Monday whether we got unsecured cards. We will defiitely get at least a secured card = to the amount we are willing to secure. The guy also told us that when we have been with the credit union for a while, their computer does a soft inquiry 3 times a year to offer an additional promotional loan. The 3 times are XMAS, Income Tax time, summer vacation. We can't apply for these loans and there is no hard inquiry. He didn't know if a BK makes any difference. It may, so we might get these offers in a few years when our BK drops off.
A BT means a balance transfer. You can transfer an amount from a higher interest card to a lower one with no fees at Wescom. We found out today that we were both approved for $1K unsecured cards. We Bk'd 5 years ago and Wescom did not hold it against us. We have other credit and our income is not that high as I am a student. So $1K each is all right for now. We expect our limits to grow with time. That darned website is still squirrely.
Another nice thing about this CU for you guys in S. CA. I paid my first bill late and found out that Wescom has a"grace period" before they assess you a late charge. The clerk wasn't sure of how long the grace period is. He thought it was 5 days. Just imagine if I had done this to Providian ??? Please don't chew my butt over being late. It was the first time since our BK in 97. Mistakes happen. Also, our hard inquiries from August were deleted using Doc's trick. I stated that we each got 5 hard's off EX on another post. The website is no longer screwed up. Check it out for all the offers from the CU.
Thanks Kerry for the info. I like the number of locations and the Saturday hours. My current CU only has ONE branch and is only open Mon-Fri. I was actually looking to change in the next year or so. Thanks again!
You are very welcome. We also joined the Orange County CU mentioned here after we found out about it. I'll apply for another credit card with them next summer when I am working again. Right now I am back in school. My husband may apply sooner as he is working. Belonging to a couple of CU's is a good deal.
