Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a bank that is pretty popular in not just our community but in others, its ranked as the 21st largest Credit Union in the United States and has over $9.8B in assets, while employing 1667 people.

Here is the notes on membership eligibility:

You can be a member of Reach Out for Schools ($10 fee, this is what I did personally), Merrimack River Watershed Council, Inc. ($35 fee) and other select organizations. Membership is also open to those who live, work, attend school or worship in Lowell and Worcester, Massachusetts, in Cumming, Norcross, or Gainesville, Georgia and select areas of Chelmsford and Tewksbury, Massachusetts; to employees of CET Technology, Insulet Corporation, and over 500 Select Employer Groups.

Here is full list of SECs and organizations they accept (scroll down to the bottom for organizations)

DCU Datapoints

• Pulls ChexSystems for membership
• Softpull Eq for membership
• No HP on membership
• Must be member of organization or SEC to join as mentioned above
• For Credit card they pull either EQ9 or EQ Mortgage 4,5 (more on this below)
• Max Exposure on credit cards is $100,000
• Max amount of credit cards is 2
• They don’t’ seem inquiry sensitive
• DTI is important
• HP lasts 45 days, can pull loan product and credit card on same HP (aka double dip)
• They offer secured loan similar to NFCU pledge loan (more on this below)
• Membership can be a pain to get approved, heard upwards of a month to get setup (worst case)
• Expect to submit 3 months of pay stubs or W2
• If you let the account sit for 90 days you will get SP offer for $1k quick loan, if sent for 180 days, you will get SP offer for $2k quick loan

What Score Do They Pull?

Well that is up for debate now in the community as we have uncovered data supporting 2 different scores they are using so I will lay it all out for you and you can go from there.

Here are the few screenshots showing FICO 4

And insider your account, note this is from 2021 though

Here is a mashup now, claiming EQ FICO 5 Mortgage

Video: DCU Guide & Datapoints

DCU Prequalification Data

When it comes to pre-qualifications there are certain things to look for to ensure you are in fact pre-approved, a lot of times this means SP as well (9 out of 10 times).

• Login to your DCU account
• Under Loan Suite each loan type will have either a green button that says “apply” (not pre-approval) or a yellow button that says “Accept” and txt will say “Approved up to…” this means with just a SP its yours. 
• Apply button means they will hard pull and you may have to submit documents depending on loan type.

Example of that that looks like:

DCU Secured Loan (Similar to NFCU Pledge Loan)

DCU offers a secured loan that is pretty similar to the NFCU pledge loan, let me give you the intel.

• Max term for $1k loan is 36 months
• Reports as secured loan (great for rebuilding credit)
• There are no prepayment penalties
• They release the funds the same day you pay them (similar to NFCU, they release the funds back to your account after payment clears, this is huge!)
• You can set autopay up and it will auto loop
• SP
• Can have positive effect on credit score (no guarantees)

Video: DCU Secured loan & Datapoints

DCU Quick Loans Explained

These loans are offered inside your client portal and they activate after you have been a member for 90 days, and then offer a $2k offer at 180 days. I really didn’t look that much into these as I thought the rate was pretty bad, but we had someone the community who uses them regularly (featured in video above) and here is what he said

1. If you get it… Let the first one report for two months.. You can still make payments, just don’t do the 80%+ yet.
2. The first month only do the minimum.
3. The second month do the 80%.
4. The third month pay it off completely.
5. Once it reports as paid off and closed.. Then apply for another one.. This time, let it sit for some months as you express pay it down. Instead of the 12 months, pay it off 7 or 8 months. You gain their trust and they’ll open the rest of the Yellow boxes for you…
6. There’s a no payment the first month, but by you paying early.. They’ll see you’re serious in doing business with them.