Navy Federal CU = Love

[backtoschool]

Hi there, @Help1234 when I get my mastercard I will let you know if Navy uses another bank to service their cards.

@Calco86: Well, it all depends on what your credit looked like before you filed. My credit was pretty good before I filed. Even up to when I filed I didn't have any lates, charge offs or anything. About a week after discharge I started pulling my reports and cleaning them up. All of your accounts should say IIB and have zero balances. If they were not late or anything BEFORE you filed then they should not have any lates or charge offs reported AFTER your file date. Anything negative that was there before you filed can stay but there can be no negative reporting after your file date, except the IIB of course.

I also obtained an auto loan within a week of discharge and I still had student loans reporting positively as well. Within a few months I had obtained a Hooters MC and a Lane Bryant store account card. Following that I got an HSBC Reward Zone MC. I left my credit alone for about 4 months after that. I then joined a credit union who was bk friendly and refinanced my car. I was also able to get a capital one credit card about 6 months post bk (they were included in my bk). After that I left my credit alone again and didn't do anything till just recently when I joined NFCU (as reported in this thread). I have been charging as little as possible and then either paying things off or taking a few months to pay it off totally.

YMMV and its very dependant on what your credit looked like before you filed. I also found that when I disputed my accounts with Trans Union they actually removed the negative connotation on my accounts. So, my trans union account only has 1 negative account listed on it, so its my highest credit score of the three. Its very strange how the credit bureaus are very inconsistent with how they handle disputes. Two people could dispute the same things and get 2 different outcomes.

Anyways, I hope my little story was somewhat helpful.

I totally agree with Amy26 that how quickly you get large trade lines and good interest rates post bk depends on what your credit looked like pre bk. If you waited several years to file after stopping payments on the cards your scores will be much lower post bk than if you were current up to the time of filing. Lower scores will result in lower credit lines, etc. Also income is a factor, especially for auto loans. If you have a higher salary, in a stable profession (ie not "acting" or "musician", or "realtor" etc) you will get approved more easily for secured loans like auto loans.

As with anything ymmv.

[Amy26]

Hi there, @Help1234 when I get my mastercard I will let you know if Navy uses another bank to service their cards.

@Calco86: Well, it all depends on what your credit looked like before you filed. My credit was pretty good before I filed. Even up to when I filed I didn't have any lates, charge offs or anything. About a week after discharge I started pulling my reports and cleaning them up. All of your accounts should say IIB and have zero balances. If they were not late or anything BEFORE you filed then they should not have any lates or charge offs reported AFTER your file date. Anything negative that was there before you filed can stay but there can be no negative reporting after your file date, except the IIB of course.

I also obtained an auto loan within a week of discharge and I still had student loans reporting positively as well. Within a few months I had obtained a Hooters MC and a Lane Bryant store account card. Following that I got an HSBC Reward Zone MC. I left my credit alone for about 4 months after that. I then joined a credit union who was bk friendly and refinanced my car. I was also able to get a capital one credit card about 6 months post bk (they were included in my bk). After that I left my credit alone again and didn't do anything till just recently when I joined NFCU (as reported in this thread). I have been charging as little as possible and then either paying things off or taking a few months to pay it off totally.

YMMV and its very dependant on what your credit looked like before you filed. I also found that when I disputed my accounts with Trans Union they actually removed the negative connotation on my accounts. So, my trans union account only has 1 negative account listed on it, so its my highest credit score of the three. Its very strange how the credit bureaus are very inconsistent with how they handle disputes. Two people could dispute the same things and get 2 different outcomes.

Anyways, I hope my little story was somewhat helpful.

[calco86]

Hey,

I pulled my credit report today and I am at Equifax 434, Experian 458 TransUnion 435 ... I should be discharged next month and wondering what should I do after I am discharged. Some how I have 45 negative accounts which are slowing being changed to included in Bankruptcy. What methods would you recommend to rebuild on those scores? I see you went from a 598 to a 648,661,712 in about 7 months. I am just trying to plan ahead.

Thank you,

Calco86

[help1234]

Do any of you out there know who actually services the credit cards thru Navy Federal? For example the credit union we are currently with had their name on the credit card, but in fine print at the bottom of the card it said "Elan Financial" (which we bk). This seems to be one of the problems I am running into... both the credit union and the bank we are currently using service thru "elan financial" AND we included all of the other major CC's in the BK.

[WhoDat]

Been there, done that Amy. My "waste of money" credit monitoring service alerted me of an account that was just opened. This happened a few years ago. Long story short, one of the agencies reported a new loan. It ended up being an individual with the same first and last name, with the same middle initial that somehow got onto my report. I'm assuming this person has a different D.O.B., address, s.s. number, and yet it still ended up on one of my reports.

[Amy26]

Uggg, so I might have to do these disputes all the time? So annoying... which also makes the statement "your credit will rebuild itself" seem a little incorrect... I'm not sure where I heard that...might have been a little birdy somewhere. Cause, these "deliquency dates" were not on my credit report when I did my initial clean up nor when I went for my top secret clearance... so, if I had just repaired my credit once and then just left it alone and never checked it... I would have never known they were there.

Yes, I'm very pleased with the limit even if I had high hopes of it being more. I am perfectly fine now with letting my credit "age" and just sit there now that I have ample credit but I definately need to keep an eye on it for these evil bankruptcy creditors pulling fast ones on me. They were also sneaky because depending where I pulled my report from certain fields that are displayed are not necessarily the same. So, on one report it would say there was absolutely nothing wrong the account but if I checked it somewhere else, I saw the charge offs and the delinquency dates.

[backtoschool]

Credit Card was approved for 5k... yay. Not as "generous" as I thought they would be but I apparently failed to notice some derrogatory things on my credit reports... My scores are almost in the 700's so I didn't even think to look closely at my trade lines. But I apparently have "deliquent" accounts on my reports and I looked and alot of my bankruptcy accounts snuck in "last day of deliquency" and "last date of major delinquency" dates. I see a few that are 5/2009 and I filed in June... and I know damn well that 1. those records were not there when I cleaned up my report last year and 2. that I was current on my accounts till I filed. So, I think they are just being mean and evil. Some of them are on there as 6/2009 and 8/2009 and some even say "charged off" in the comments. So, I'm going through another round of disputes... :/

This is exactly what keeps happening to me with a couple of my cards. I have to keep disputing the comments and the way the card is aged. I think 5k is an excellent credit line for this stage of rebuilding!

[WhoDat]

Thanks!

I believe you still can even if you're no longer in the navy. I was surprised by the number of ways to get in. I know a lot of people are getting in because their parents were in the military. Its worth a shot I think.

I tried several months ago. It was a 17 minute phone call of which the rep was trying every option to get me qualified. I am amazed that the cs rep spent that much time with me, being that I am not a customer. Very impressed. I might try them again.

[Amy26]

Thanks!

I believe you still can even if you're no longer in the navy. I was surprised by the number of ways to get in. I know a lot of people are getting in because their parents were in the military. Its worth a shot I think.

[WhoDat]

I should have signed up with them when I was in the Navy. I'm so jealous! Congrats. I have heard great things about NFCU.

[Amy26]

Credit Card was approved for 5k... yay. Not as "generous" as I thought they would be but I apparently failed to notice some derrogatory things on my credit reports... My scores are almost in the 700's so I didn't even think to look closely at my trade lines. But I apparently have "deliquent" accounts on my reports and I looked and alot of my bankruptcy accounts snuck in "last day of deliquency" and "last date of major delinquency" dates. I see a few that are 5/2009 and I filed in June... and I know damn well that 1. those records were not there when I cleaned up my report last year and 2. that I was current on my accounts till I filed. So, I think they are just being mean and evil. Some of them are on there as 6/2009 and 8/2009 and some even say "charged off" in the comments. So, I'm going through another round of disputes... :/

[Amy26]

Hehe, of course! I appreciate all points of view.

I went ahead and asked for a refinance of my car loan with them and that was also approved down to a 5% interest rate from my 9.7%. So far, they get my vote. I'm just annoyed having to change banks again when I just did it over the summer. But, hopefully this will be the last time.

[ValleYum]

Thanks backtoschool. Navy Fed is actually the largest credit union with like over 3 million members. I see they approved my credit card application as well... now I just wait to see what the limit will be. I pray its not 500... lol. I read on another forum a person who had just gone through bankruptcy got a card from them with a 17.5k limit.

My experience has been that they are very generous with their limits, Amy, I hope this will be the case for you too!! Woot!!

I wanted you to know, too, that I wasn't trying to be a "Debbie Downer" about NFCU. I just wanted to give you the benefits of/knowledge from my experience with them.

[Amy26]

Thanks backtoschool. Navy Fed is actually the largest credit union with like over 3 million members. I see they approved my credit card application as well... now I just wait to see what the limit will be. I pray its not 500... lol. I read on another forum a person who had just gone through bankruptcy got a card from them with a 17.5k limit.

[backtoschool]

Congratulations Amy26! I have had good luck with my local credit union too. (Affiliated with the university where I am getting my second graduate degree...) I have heard good things about Navy Federal on another forum. (one that is more credit friendly than this one LOL).

Credit unions are small and can't absorb a lot of defaults so that is why they get nasty, but you are not going to be in that position so I expect to hear lots of good news coming from your relationship with Navy Federal.