965 replies to this topic

[lilyflower]

I mentioned this on another thread about favorite credit unions and it snowballed. Apparently, I found a CU a lot of people didn't know about. I'm a VERY satisifed member of ELFCU http://www.elfcu.org

Why they rock:

1) Think Big checking - maintain $50 daily balance and earn 4% APY on your account up to $1K and .25% over 1K. No fees if you sign up for e-statements and free Visa Debit Card

2) High rates on CDs/Savings - good rates on loans, etc

3) Personal service - Can not stress this enough. You call and speak to a friendly rep, the account managers personally e-mail you from time to time to ask if there's anything they can assist you with. They've followed up on questions with me and I've gotten a SAME DAY RESPONSE. Fabulous service.

4) No hard INQ for membership - they didn't pull for me and from what others have posted here they didn't pull for them either.

5) Free to join if you work for a participating employer or you can pay $5 to join Tru Direction that promotes financial literacy

6) Lots of great financial info on their site and they run series to educate people - right now they have something ongoing with Pete the Planner and keep posting updates on it to their facebook page

7) Will be offering their OWN credit cards starting May 20. Two Visas - neither with an AF, one with rewards, another no rewards lower interest rate. Possibly a secured card as well based on what a rep told me.

8) They look VERY favorably on your history with them. Get in with them while you rebuild and they'll work with you in the future (even if you still have baddies on your CRs)

[Repairerer]

[lilyflower]

Here's the only thing they've published on their upcoming credit cards yet:

ELFCU Credit Card Changes

Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union is committed to supporting our members’ financial success with comprehensive products and services. ELFCU is excited to announce that we have purchased ownership of your credit card business from FIA Card Services and will assume the servicing of your account in May 2012. We are eager to serve our members directly in this capacity and to offer you well-rounded and competitive credit card choices backed by our personalized service.

Members will be able to apply for the cards after May 20th. I'm expecting they'll have a large announcement of what the new cards are before then.

[rtj11]

I just joined. I didn't see a hard pull on any of my reports. They did ask some funny Lexis Nexis questions about streets I live near. Which honestly I could've easily stumbled on but googled them to make sure. This is only my second credit union after I joined Navy. Looking to join Penfed and become a full USAA member in October after I come back from Parris Island. ELFCU should be a good addition even if I only keep $1000 in my checking and use it as savings.Hopefully the credit card offerings are pretty good I would apply in a year or so unless they have pre approvals like penfed.

Edited by rtj11, 14 April 2012 - 11:49 AM.

[lilyflower]

Yup, I've been using the checking as a savings myself too. For those interested in applying for loan products, they pull EQ (or did for me at least)

Edited by lilyflower, 14 April 2012 - 11:50 AM.

[Occam]

They called it paradise
I don't know why
Call someplace paradise
Kiss it goodbye

From "The Last Resort", the Eagles

[lilyflower]

Adding some more info from my experience with rebuilding for the rebuilders out there...

Rebuilding product: Credit Builder Savings Loan - 6 months - 12 month term, $600 - $1000. This is a secured loan but works differently than some of the other CUs. You call and apply (and you have to call them you can't apply online for this.) They pull EQ to determine the rate. They then fund by placing the amount in a Credit Builder Savings account which earns the standard money market interest rate monthly, but you're not able to access the funds. As you pay on it monthly, the funds slowly free up and you can transfer it to the higher yield Think Big account usually the next day. Reports to all three as a secured loan (doesn't help overall score much - maybe 10 points max) but it's a positive account and you build the relationship with them and you're still getting a positive TL from it.

I'm currently doing this for the max amounts (12 months / $1K) and post my experience when the term is up. I figure in a year my scores will be much higher from current on-time payments and cleaning up old baddies - but I may go for the CC before then depending on what they offer.

[xxRONNIExx]

Adding some more info from my experience with rebuilding for the rebuilders out there...

Rebuilding product: Credit Builder Savings Loan - 6 months - 12 month term, $600 - $1000. This is a secured loan but works differently than some of the other CUs. You call and apply (and you have to call them you can't apply online for this.) They pull EQ to determine the rate. They then fund by placing the amount in a Credit Builder Savings account which earns the standard money market interest rate monthly, but you're not able to access the funds. As you pay on it monthly, the funds slowly free up and you can transfer it to the higher yield Think Big account usually the next day. Reports to all three as a secured loan (doesn't help overall score much - maybe 10 points max) but it's a positive account and you build the relationship with them and you're still getting a positive TL from it.

I'm currently doing this for the max amounts (12 months / $1K) and post my experience when the term is up. I figure in a year my scores will be much higher from current on-time payments and cleaning up old baddies - but I may go for the CC before then depending on what they offer.

Thank you for all your info...just applied myself very fast and easy

[Abubacus]

Adding some more info from my experience with rebuilding for the rebuilders out there...

Rebuilding product: Credit Builder Savings Loan - 6 months - 12 month term, $600 - $1000. This is a secured loan but works differently than some of the other CUs. You call and apply (and you have to call them you can't apply online for this.) They pull EQ to determine the rate. They then fund by placing the amount in a Credit Builder Savings account which earns the standard money market interest rate monthly, but you're not able to access the funds. As you pay on it monthly, the funds slowly free up and you can transfer it to the higher yield Think Big account usually the next day. Reports to all three as a secured loan (doesn't help overall score much - maybe 10 points max) but it's a positive account and you build the relationship with them and you're still getting a positive TL from it.

I'm currently doing this for the max amounts (12 months / $1K) and post my experience when the term is up. I figure in a year my scores will be much higher from current on-time payments and cleaning up old baddies - but I may go for the CC before then depending on what they offer.

Thank you for all your info...just applied myself very fast and easy

Was everyone able to sign up right away and get a membership number and accounts set up? I just tried and now my app says pending. I didnt get any ID questions. I did choose credit card (free miles!) as my funding method so maybe that had something to do with it.

[Duck Bills]

Adding some more info from my experience with rebuilding for the rebuilders out there...

Rebuilding product: Credit Builder Savings Loan - 6 months - 12 month term, $600 - $1000. This is a secured loan but works differently than some of the other CUs. You call and apply (and you have to call them you can't apply online for this.) They pull EQ to determine the rate. They then fund by placing the amount in a Credit Builder Savings account which earns the standard money market interest rate monthly, but you're not able to access the funds. As you pay on it monthly, the funds slowly free up and you can transfer it to the higher yield Think Big account usually the next day. Reports to all three as a secured loan (doesn't help overall score much - maybe 10 points max) but it's a positive account and you build the relationship with them and you're still getting a positive TL from it.

I'm currently doing this for the max amounts (12 months / $1K) and post my experience when the term is up. I figure in a year my scores will be much higher from current on-time payments and cleaning up old baddies - but I may go for the CC before then depending on what they offer.

Thank you for all your info...just applied myself very fast and easy

Was everyone able to sign up right away and get a membership number and accounts set up? I just tried and now my app says pending. I didnt get any ID questions. I did choose credit card (free miles!) as my funding method so maybe that had something to do with it.

+1

[catindebt]

I joined this morning after seeing Lily's post in the other thread. I signed up for the Think Big Checking and a savings. I got a confirmation number and an account number and the status was "Approved". I funded with a debit card.

[lilyflower]

I joined this morning after seeing Lily's post in the other thread. I signed up for the Think Big Checking and a savings. I got a confirmation number and an account number and the status was "Approved". I funded with a debit card.

I initially funded mine with a debit card too and had the same experience when I signed up. It's sad, but I know my debit card number by heart after 3 years of not having ANY credit cards.

[BobWang]

[johnnyderp]

I'm going to open checking for DH as well. That way it's 4% APY on $2000. Good place to park some savings.

Maybe I'll set up an auto transfer to an Alliant savings account for the earnings instead of letting them sit at .25%, and make Alliant our main savings account other than the $2K in ELF.

[HowsThatWorkin]

Thank you so much for this info. I joined this afternoon. My status is pending, too. Funded via debit card.

[xxRONNIExx]

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1334423556[/url]' post='4661108']
Adding some more info from my experience with rebuilding for the rebuilders out there...

Rebuilding product: Credit Builder Savings Loan - 6 months - 12 month term, $600 - $1000. This is a secured loan but works differently than some of the other CUs. You call and apply (and you have to call them you can't apply online for this.) They pull EQ to determine the rate. They then fund by placing the amount in a Credit Builder Savings account which earns the standard money market interest rate monthly, but you're not able to access the funds. As you pay on it monthly, the funds slowly free up and you can transfer it to the higher yield Think Big account usually the next day. Reports to all three as a secured loan (doesn't help overall score much - maybe 10 points max) but it's a positive account and you build the relationship with them and you're still getting a positive TL from it.

I'm currently doing this for the max amounts (12 months / $1K) and post my experience when the term is up. I figure in a year my scores will be much higher from current on-time payments and cleaning up old baddies - but I may go for the CC before then depending on what they offer.

Thank you for all your info...just applied myself very fast and easy

Was everyone able to sign up right away and get a membership number and accounts set up? I just tried and now my app says pending. I didnt get any ID questions. I did choose credit card (free miles!) as my funding method so maybe that had something to do with it.

I was told by customer service that we may get a email on Monday with our member number and pin. But we can also call on Monday and try to request it. If you signed up today expect a package next week with sign up information.

[Gaby10]

Any pulls for checking? Or just loan/credit products?

[lilyflower]

Any pulls for checking? Or just loan/credit products?

Just loan/credit as far as I know

[TXDatN]

Ugh, im a CU whore.

[Gaby10]

Just opened membership and checking. My application is pending. Plan to take savings out of Ally and move here. Thanks. Lily!!!! Errr... ELFira...

What a bizarre question they asked when verifying me... "Which of these hospitals is closest to your address?" WTH DO I KNOW?! I had to Google them all, and then guess.

Edited by Gaby10, 14 April 2012 - 05:03 PM.

[lilyflower]

Just opened membership and checking. My application is pending. Plan to take savings out of Ally and move here. Thanks. Lily!!!! Errr... ELFira...

What a bizarre question they asked when verifying me... "Which of these hospitals is closest to your address?" WTH DO I KNOW?! I had to Google them all, and then guess.

They must use L/N or some kind of similar service to verify address (along with probably Chex...) but they don't pull hard INQs for membership so that's a plus.

[Gaby10]

Oh, the application says "approved," but the email I got says the approval of my account is pending. I have account numbers for checking and savings, but no membership number.

I'm not ordering checks because I'm moving next month. I hope they let me order later. Not that I will use them anyway...

[Ron1]

Thanks lilyflower for the info.I just joined because of the good rates on Think Big Checking. I joined thru Tru Direction. I'm sure they pull either chexystem/telecheck to open the accounts.


Ron.

Edited by Ron1, 14 April 2012 - 05:47 PM.

[Ron1]

Bob,

Do you want to join for your collection?


Ron.

[BobWang]

Bob,

Do you want to join for your collection?


Ron.

I'm behaving till August when I'll be totally clean on all reports.