slyppslp: Question about Golden 1 How long ago was your experience with Golden 1? Did they pull a hard when you did your cd's? The reason I ask is, I just opened a savings account with them, and they pulled a hard!
Re: slyppslp: Question about Golden 1 ASK FIRST!!! Get it in writing that they WON'T pull a "HARD"...if they WON'T put it in writing...OR SAY THEY MUST...TAKE YOUR MONEY AND RUN!!!
Re: slyppslp: Question about Golden 1 lyttlemac, the last one I opened with golden1 was 8/02. They didn't pull a hard or charge a prepayment penalty. Also with them I've found its best to actually get the loan over the phone, because some of the people in the local branches are really clueless.
Re: slyppslp: Question about Golden 1 How hard is it to qualify to be a member at Golden 1? I don't work or live near them.
Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA TY! I am a member of San Diego Metropolitan Credit Union and will check with them. I'll report back. Slppryslp - When you do this, how long a term is the CD you open? I presume the loan is just short of that period? My thoughts are to open a $10K CD for six months. Then take a $10K secured loan. Pay it off once it posts and repeat. Will this work? I know a lot depends on the patience of the credit union people. I look forward to hearing more details! Thanks Jim
Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA Follow-Up: I made a call with the credit union yesterday. We have a savings account with them that went dormant some months ago. It has a balance of $79! LOL! My goal was a-few-fold... 1) get the account out of dormant status without a deposit, 2) get info on secured loans, and 3) find out if they check credit to start secured loans. First I visited their web-site and saw that they offer certificate secured loans. In the text discussing these loans, it said the following: "Provide a great means for establishing first-time credit -- or re-establishing credit following financial difficulty." Given the above, I figured I could be relatively honest about my intent. But first, I had to make them want to take my account out of dormant status without putting money into it. That was easy! "Our house is due to close escrow next Tuesday and we will need to park the proceeds for 2-4 months until we buy out of the area!" Account Active! Then I got a call back from a "Personal Financial Planner" who wants our money in their accounts. She quoted a rate for money markets at 1.85%... discussed purchase money mortgages and SECURED LOANS. I was blunt, in escence saying, "I want to do this to bump up my credit scores." I felt guilty, like I was a scammer and was waiting for her to cop an attitude and say something like "that's not what these are for... they're for people who need help... not fo you to play around with your credit," but there was no attitude. She understood my purpose and made no judgement. In fact she agreed with the purpose! They do not pull credit reports and do report to the CRAs. She said that we could do a 3 month CD and three month loan concurrently and that the loan automatically pays off from the CD with no payments made by me. Interest is CD rate plus 3%. She's sending me an info packet and business card. Overall, I'm very happy with the results of the call! While I have their attention (once the money is in their accounts I'm sure I will have less attention) are there any other questions I (or you) need answered? Regards, Jim
Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA The only thing I would be wary of is the statement that the cd automatically pays off the loan. Usually when something is secured, its only when someone defaults that the security is touched. I would still pay it off as usual(early too) which shouldn't be a problem as you will have already received the proceeds from the cd secured loan. I think its great because you walk in with say $5000 put it in a cd and are immediately given back $4500-$5000. So, you don't even lose the use of your money. Oh, and thats one other question you might ask-what percentage of the cd will they loan you. Usually its over 90% and sometimes is even 100%.
Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA Which CU was this? Do they wait until the end of the loan to report?
Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA i was responding to beans question and the two cd secured loans i've had they've taken their sweet time about reporting (a month or two)
Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA I just opened a Golden One account for the purpose of bumping up my score. The rep I had stated that instead of using the CD, I might want to use the share account for the same purpose. The CU will give you 100% of the loan versus 90% of the CD amount. It reports the same as the secured loan against the CD. Also, as you pay down the loan, it unfreezes the proportionate amount in your share account. She also mentioned that they report "paid satisfactorily" after 6 months. Before that time, she says it takes approx. 2 months to have it reflected it on the cr and then it reports as "too new to rate." I took out a $1000.00 loan against my shares. They told me (tho I did not check) that they have posted some of the organizations which they allow to join the CU. It looked pretty comprehensive to me. Also, they pulled a "hard" inquiry. . . .The mentioned that tho they do not pull a hard for purposes of giving you a CD loan, they pull a hard to see if they will allow you to open up a share account. In order to get a CD and CD loan, you must be a member. Therefore you end up with a hard inquiry. I rationalized that I might lose a few points with the inquiry but I should gain points and more for my FICO score that seems to be stuck. We'll soon see.. . . I'm not certain who they pull. By the way, when they pull the inquiry, they will use the same one for 60 days. So,if you plan on a car loan or whatever, do it within the 60 days to avoid getting another hard. Thanks!
slyppslp: Question about Golden 1 Thanks slppryslp! Did you payoff the loans within a week of opening them, or did you wait until they posted to your CR? Clarification: The SD Met. CU does not have to pay them off from the CD. The point was that it isn't necessary to even make payments if you don't want to. Loan will automatically payoff from concurrent CD at the end of the term. In my case, I like your tactic very much. I am looking for a quick boost. before applying for a mortgage in a month or so. Couple questions: Maybe stupid, but I'l ask! If I pay the loan off before it posts to the CR, will it still post? When paid before before posting, does first posting show that it was paid, or have you seen a lag? Do you think there would be a score bump difference between say a $5k, $10k, or even $20k loan? Is there point where you think there would be a declining benefit, i.e. score decrease? Thanks again! Jim
slyppslp: Question about Golden 1 In my experience even if you pay them off early (before even posting to your credit report) they will still report. I can't remember if the first posting is unpaid or not, I wasn't pulling my credit reports daily when I was doing my loan-a-week at the golden1(and as someone mentioned with the golden1 it is better to do the savings secured loan). I'm really not sure what the ideal amount is-there doesn't seem to be enough info on creditnet about cd secured loans and the only loans I've done were for 1000 and 10,000. You will probably be adding to our knowledge of cd secured loans. As for score decreases, so far I've never seen or heard of a score decrease because of a cd secured loan.
Re: Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA credit I have both a platinum card (@8.9%) and my auto loan (@4.5%) with my local credit union. Both are reporting to all 3 CRAs.
Re: Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA credit If you're applying for a mortgage soon after taking out the secured CU loan keep in mind that it will count against your overall debt ratio. It might be better to have it paid off before applying.
Re: Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA credit Thanks Slppryslp and Bigmon! Very helpful information! Agreed, I will make sure loan is paid before applying! Hopefully paid long enough to show up on report! Why is savings secured superior to CD secured? I would like to go for savings secured as it will allow me to take, say $30K out of the money for the down payment on the next house, take a loan against it, pay it off and never have anything tied up!... Works for me! I'll update as soon as I take out the loan. Escrow closes in two days (Hopefully)!
Re: Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA credit your welcome! the savings secured is better because you don't have to deal with a cd (early withdrawl fees, etc). you might also be able to borrow more money, but i'm not sure about that point.
Re: Re: Re: Using Credit Unions for AAA credit A long time ago I did the CD secured with a bank and they charge 6 months interest if you withdraw the money early. It was a 1k loan so it only cost me about $30, but still why give up interest if you don't need to.
