by Elisabeth Bell, York County ECU
I had one of the best, most “feel good” moments of my career in banking, and LSCI’s training with Ed Swanson helped to get me there.
A member called York County FCU and wanted to meet with me because she was in need of a new vehicle but hadn’t had a car payment in years. She wanted to purchase a Ford Escape for $14,777 and only wanted a maximum payment $200 with a credit score of 610. Unfortunately, due to her score, I was unable to get her that payment. I was very candid with her, turned my screen, and showed her that the payment would be in the $350-$400 range. She started crying, said she was desperate, and did not want to buy another clunker. I told her that I understood, and we decided to go over a budget. I broke her payment down biweekly, which made her feel more comfortable.
While we were talking, I ran her information through the HYLS platform, wrote it up, and submitted to underwriting. While we were waiting for the underwriter to respond, we reviewed her credit report together and found she was carrying 92% capacity on her 3 credit cards, two of which were small store cards, and one was a Citi card opened in 1995. I educated her on the importance of capacity and how it affects the score, and she said, “Wow, no one has EVER told me that! Can you tell me more ways to build up my score?” YES!
We discovered that she had a lot of late payments on her mortgage with a story and timeline that made sense. I explained how those late pays affected her credit, but then praised her relationship with us because she had 70 on-time payments. After cross-selling a debt consolidation loan for the cards, closing out the two store cards, and keeping her Citi card open, underwriting approved not only the card, but the consolidation loan as well. She burst out into tears and told me that no one had ever cared about her financial life like we had. She must have thanked me 17 times. With every word we exchanged, her excitement was real.
For future planning, we filled out LSCI’s “Climbing the Credit Mountain” sheet together and in 60 days we are going to re-pull credit and potentially lower her rate for her. In 6 months we are going to get her and her husband a joint credit card through the credit union. Long term, the goal is to refer her to refinance a mortgage with us. For now, her Ford Escape is fully protected and set up for auto pay on payroll.
This is how we do it. LSCI’s training sharpened my lending skills and that was exactly what led to this success. Thank you LSCI for the investment in my credit knowledge.
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