Credit Union Question.

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

Question for those who know Buffalo well.

My girlfriend has bad credit from her identity getting stolen. Everything has been fixed, but her credit still sucks. She wants to take out a small personal loan of $1000 to help build credit history/use the cash (obviously).

I advised her to go to credit unions, and all of them won’t even let her apply for a loan unless she opens checking accounts with them, which she doesn’t want to do since she likes her checking through Bank of America.

Anybody know of a bank that helps people with shitty credit that you don’t have to open a new account with? If all credit unions are this way then maybe she just will have to do this, but if not let me know so I can send her that way.

2

That is how credit unions work, in a nutshell.

She opens a ckg or svgs acct with the FCU, puts $5 in it, and never touches it. When she pays off the loan she can close the account if she wants.

I have a $5 savings account @ Community Credit Union in Lockport. I’ve stepped foot in there office once, and havent been in Lockport in the last 2 years. But that $5 deposit allowed me to get a Loan for a fantastic (at the time) interest rate.

If she just wants it for sake of building credit (doesn’t necesarily NEED the cash), then go to Capital One and get a credit card (alot easier then a $1k unsecured loan generally). It’ll prolly be like a $250 limit @ 18% or something, but its a start - so long as she tends to it wisely.

3

Was waiting for you to reply (since you were in Hass’ thread)

Do they usually have minimum $$ amounts or will $5 be fine?

4

Really depends on the place.

I literally have $5 in Community.

5

Can’t add anything else beyond the mentioned above. As long as she is a member of the credit union she gets the reap the benefits. My credit union has a $15 minimum for savings accounts and $1 minimum for checking.

6

Alrighty, I’ll have her ask around about minimum balances.

7

What about taking a loan from her current bank… most will give you a Small Credit card or loan… Im sure BOA is the same, might only be 500 or so but a good start.

8

a personal loan is not a good idea. I would rather see her get a credit card (even if a bad one) and use it responsibly.

the whole idea of her “getting money to spend” sounds like more of why she is in trouble in the first place.

9

Aaron, how the fuck are you a mod, you obviously do not read whole posts.

Read Ryan’s post again, think about what he said, then respond…

10

Here is a good idea.

Invent in a CD at the credit union. Use the CD as collateral towards a loan. Be done.

11

When I applied for my loan with ESL in Rochester I was able to get a quote without an account. They gave me a non-member number which then became my member number when I signed for the loan. I was required to get an account with them, a savings with a $1 balance, so they could deposit any annual dividends.

12

She has applied for credit cards Aaron, especially the high interest + membership fee ones and has gotten turned down because she has 0 credit history other than 3 fraudulent accounts opened in Oregon that are now gone, but her score is still shit cuz of it.

She would much rather have a credit card over a loan, but nobody is willing to give her one.

She also tried getting one through her local Bank of America, and they do not do in office loans, just off of the website. She applied and got turned down (which doesn’t surprise me). Hence looking for a credit union since I’ve heard numerous times that they give out loans to anybody.

Also, she does need the money at the moment; the engine in her car just died, so my parents fronted her an engine & labor through our business and she doesn’t want to be in debt to them.

13

Try Capital One, they are pretty damned lenient. She basically needs to have a 580 or better.

Or the not “as good” options:
try Lending tree for actual loans, but dont expect too much luck.

Take out a loan with the car as collateral (unless she is already paying on it).

14

No, the car is already paid off. That’s an option I did present to her the other day, so she’s gonna see about that.

I am gonna have her check her score to see if it has been affected yet, I know last time it was low 500’s because of all the fraudulent activity which they said should be fixed in 3-4 months. So if it’s 580+ I will send her to Capital One.

15

See Sureshot!s thread about credit repair,

I assume she has some kind of letters or statements from teh defrauded letters, sttg the account were fraud, will be removed, blah blah.

If so, and the accounts are still showing her CBRs, then she should pull her reports & submit the disputes (right online). She may have to mail in COPIES of the letters, but this will force the records to be updated.
Can take 30-45 days, but can be better then waiting around for an update.

16

Nikuk, thanks for the info. She went and applied. Her credit score wasn’t as bad as I expected (596). They showed that the charges have been removed and her credit should be fixed soon, and gave her the loan too.

:tup:

17

:tup:

Just play responsibly! :slight_smile:

18

She needs to get a secured credit card.

The way it works, its like a re-loadable credit card. You pay up front for the “convenience” of owning said card.

You load it with 500 bucks or whatever, pay a fee, and use the 500 bucks.

It shows up on your credit as making payments on a real credit card.

19

I managed to get a credit card through Bank of America with a $600 limit @ 14.95%.
Can try that if you didn’t want you have her go for a loan after all.

If you remember that thread, I have 0 credit at all.
I wouldn’t even show up when they would run a credit check.

edit
By the way, I got a loan through through my credit union [moog credit union] to pay off school bills.
Since I had no credit, they gave me a 3100 loan @ 15.95%
lol :expressionless:
That’s not really low interest in my eyes ;p