Transcription
Welcome back to Success with Stephen. My name is Stephen Smith. On this channel, we discuss all things financial literacy. In today's video, we'll be discussing one of the most powerful credit unions in the United States, and it has features that even Navy Federal Credit Union does not offer. The credit union that we're going to break down today is going to be Justice Federal Credit Union. And I'm going to walk you through exactly who can join, how civilians can get access, how the membership works, which credit bureaus they actually pull from, and how you can strategically fund the account. And then we're going to go over the credit cards and how you can access limits up to $40,000 with 0% introductory offers as well as personal lines of credit, personal loans, and how to make a long-term relationship banking strategy that most people overlook. So without further ado, let's get right into the video.
Justice Federal Credit Union, also known as JFCU, is a member-owned financial cooperative that was founded in 1935. and it serves the US justice, law enforcement, and public safety communities, including employees of Department of Justice, DHS, and their families, providing typical banking services like checking accounts, saving accounts, loans, credit cards, personal loans, and lines of credit, among other products.
At first glance, Justice Federal Credit Union looks like it's exclusively for law enforcement and government agencies. Historically, this credit union was created to serve organizations like the FBI, the DEA, and other justice-related organizations. However, membership is open to civilians with no military requirement and no law enforcement employment required. Civilians can join through an affiliated nonprofit organization, most commonly as a donor or member of Concerns of Police Survivors, COPS. Now, Justice Federal will donate $5 to Concerns of Police Survivors and will share your name, your address, your contact number, and your email with COPS. And again, that is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and the leading peer support organization for law enforcement across the country. When you apply for membership, you simply select that affiliated organization and Justice Federal Credit Union will donate the membership fee on your behalf. In this case, it's going to be $5. You'll then be required to open a shared savings account with a minimum deposit of $5 or a max deposit of $2,500. That $5 membership is what unlocks one of the strongest personal credit ecosystems available to everyday consumers in the United States.
Now, this is one of the biggest reasons that Justice Federal Credit Union is such a hidden gem. People assume it's restricted, so they never even look. Meanwhile, people who know how to use relationship banking are quietly building six-figure credit portfolios through institutions like this. One of the most important things to understand is that there's no hard inquiry to become a member of Justice Federal Credit Union. Membership itself is approved with a soft pull, which means your credit score is not impacted just to open an account. They will, however, review ChexSystems. So, if you have any unresolved account closures with other banks, I do have a video that shows you how to remove that information from ChexSystems. I'm going to link the video right here.
Once again, a share savings account is required for membership, but I recommend that you open a savings account and a checking account. We'll cover the checking and savings accounts in one moment. When it comes to actual credit applications, Justice Federal Credit Union pulls your Equifax credit report. This is extremely important for your approval strategy because Equifax pulls are valid internally for approximately 60 days. I have also heard that it could be 90 days, but let's just say 60 because I'd rather go with the shorter one just to be safe. This means that you can apply for multiple products within a short window without triggering additional credit inquiries. This is a great way to get approved for multiple credit cards, a personal loan, a line of credit without taking any hard inquiries unnecessarily.
Now, before we take a look at the checking and savings accounts, let's talk about one of the most underrated features of this credit union. And this is something that most people never realize. Justice Federal Credit Union allows you to fund your account with up to $2,500 using a credit card. And it's not coded as a cash advance. Now, I want to put an asterisk by this because every institution, the receiving bank or the credit card issuer, codes the transactions differently. So, by some chance, if this were to be seen as a cash advance, here is what I would suggest. Call your credit card issuer and have the cash advance limit on your card reduced to zero or as low as it can possibly allow, assuming that you don't plan to use that feature in the future. That way, if your limit is set to zero or it's reduced and you try to fund this account for $2,500, it will hopefully decline instead of charging you a fee. Now, again, as far as I can tell, this does not actually code as a cash advance, but you know, things might change and I just want to make sure that everyone is aware that it can be a possibility.
Now, this means you can effectively liquidate a credit card and move that money into your checking or savings relationship without paying a cash advance fee. Now, if you do this with a 0% introductory card, you can temporarily access capital with no interest and no fees. And it's even better if you use a business credit card that doesn't report to your personal credit. That way, you can move money without impacting your personal utilization whatsoever. In addition to that, you can also fund the account via external transfers or wire transfers with limits that can go as high as $25,000. This allows you to intentionally build relationship depth with this credit union by holding a great deposit, running transactions, and showing activity over time. Banks and credit unions absolutely care about this even if they don't openly advertise it. Relationship banking matters.
Now, let's take a look at the checking account and the savings accounts. So, currently we are on jfcu.org. If you want to learn about the checking and savings, then you want to go to "Save and Spin" at the very top. And then you want to click on checking accounts. And that's going to take you to this page where you can see all of the different accounts that are right for you. Now, the first one that we're going to look at and the one that I recommend that you take a look at is the Freedom Direct. With this one, you can enjoy a checking account with no monthly fees and the freedom of not having to maintain a minimum balance. There is no requirement for the balance that you have to keep for this account. You can also earn 4% APY on Freedom Direct Savings with direct deposits to a Freedom Direct checking account. If you want to learn more about that, then you can click on that "Learn More." Now, if we scroll down here, it just confirms all the other things that we already know: no minimum balance, no monthly service fees.
Now, if we take a look at the Justice National account, this one will actually reward you for having a higher balance with dividends. Now, if we scroll down here, you can do the same thing. You earn 4% APY on Freedom Direct Savings with direct deposit to this account, but you do need to have a minimum balance of $2,500. Now, once again, if you really want to make an impact with this credit union and you do have a credit card with 0% APR, hey, you can deposit $2,500 that will meet that minimum requirement and then you can also earn dividends on this account.
If you're currently 55 years or older, then you might want to look at the Beyond the Badge account. Now, this one is specifically for people who are senior citizens. So, whether you're an active employee or you've served and are now enjoying your retirement, the Beyond the Badge account was designed for people like you. Once again, you can earn 4% APY on Freedom Direct Savings with direct deposit with this account. You also have the same minimum balance requirement. However, you do get a $5,000 welcome bonus and rewards. And you also get unlimited ATM use free of surcharges and transaction fees, as well as the free Justice Federal image checks for retired members.
And finally, there's a checking account for students. So, if you are a student and you're looking for an account that has no minimum balances and that has no monthly service fees, then this account is definitely for you.
Now, moving on to savings. You do have to have a shared savings account. This is the one that's required to open the account. This one you only have to make a deposit of $5 that is required to open and maintain this account. It has no monthly fees, tiered dividends, and direct deposit and automatic transfers are available. The Freedom Direct Savings is the account that we were looking at where you can earn 4% APY when you open a high-yield Freedom Direct Savings account with direct deposit to a checking account. There are no withdrawal fees. There are no monthly service fees. There's no minimum balance required. And direct deposit and automatic transfers are available. Now, if you definitely want to have a place to put your money where you can earn some interest, this is actually really good, especially for APY rates on high-yield savings accounts to date.
There's also an account for young savers, and it's designed especially for children to teach them the value of saving and to have money early on. This is a minimum $5 deposit that's required to open this account. You can also earn dividends and there's no monthly maintenance fee. It's easy to make transfers on this account. So, if you have kids and you want to teach them about saving, then I would highly recommend that you check this out.
Next, there's the Coverdale Education Savings Account. Now, this account was created to help parents pay for a child's education at any level. That's going to be from kindergarten through high school and even beyond that. The Coverdale Education Savings Account historically has been restricted to an annual contribution limit of $2,000. You don't get a tax deduction when you put the money into the account, but the tax-free earnings are potentially tremendous. So, if you want something where the withdrawals are tax-free as long as you use it for education, then you might want to take a look at this account. They even give a pretty good example here. If you contribute the maximum for a newborn child every year until the child is 18, you can earn an average investment rate of 6% and that account will grow to about $70,000. So you guys can run the numbers on that and see if it's worth it for you.
Then there's the Savers Club which is a term share account that lets you choose your own maturity date and the account into which the savings will be transferred upon maturity. So it's easily customizable. The dividends earn on a minimum balance of $5, no monthly fee, and direct deposit and automatic transfers are available.
And last, there's the Money Market Account. So, if you're looking for a great way to achieve higher returns, then you can actually do $2,500 as the minimum balance to earn dividends. They have competitive tiered rates and dividends earned from the day of deposit.
Now, I never went over any of the rates for these because depending on the time that you're watching this video, the rates will change. So, always come back here, look at the rates, and check if they change the minimums or the deposit requirements because that can change depending on when you're watching this. And you also want to make sure that this makes sense for you overall.
All right, so currently we are back on the homepage. Now, if you wanted to join this credit union, you would click on "Join Now." Once you do that, you want to click "New Member Account." Then you want to choose the type of account that you would like to open. I would select "Personal." I'm sure most of you are just opening a personal account. Then you'll be brought to the eligibility page. It's going to say, "Let's get started." And it will let you know all of the documentation that's required to open this account, like your driver's license or state ID or a US resident card or your passport. You also need to have a physical residential mailing address. You want to have your Social Security number prepared. You also want to know your date of birth and you have a credit card or a US checking account to actually fund the required $5 shared savings account to establish membership.
Now again, when you scroll down, you'll be brought to all of these options. And if any of these are applicable to you, then you can join. However, the easiest way for most people will be "I wish to join as a donor or a member of Concerns of Police Survivors COPS" and then you can go to "Please select the statement to acknowledge." And then it's the same thing that we talked about. You understand that to meet the membership eligibility, you will donate $5 to Concerns of Police Survivors, and you'll share your name, your address, your contact number, and email with COPS, and COPS is the nonprofit. Now, once you select that, you'll want to hit the plus here. Again, this is for a share savings account. It's required for membership. Hit the plus on there, and it will show you that that product has been added and selected.
Now, if we scroll down, you can look at having a checking, uh, money market, a certificate, which we didn't go over, but there are some certificates here, like a 7-month promo one. There's also the 7-month jumbo, so on and so forth. Now, I'm not going to go over these certificates simply because, again, depending on when you're watching this, these change all the time, but if you're interested in those, I highly recommend that you check them out.
Now, if you do plan to deposit $2,500 and you know that you won't have a problem maintaining that balance, then I recommend doing the Justice National account, especially if you're trying to build a relationship and get higher credit limits because that's going to show some skin in the game. And not only that, you'll earn some dividends as well. So, you'll make some money off of that balance just sitting there.
Then, you'll be asked to verify your identity by entering your phone number. So, you'll want to do that next. When that's done, you'll be sent a verification code and then you'll want to enter that code here. Then you'll be asked to enter your zip code and you'll be asked to enter the last four of your social. All right. And once that's done, it's going to ask you to enter your full social, your first name, your last name. You'll enter your date of birth, your mother's maiden name, if you're a citizen, and then you'll enter your current physical address. You'll also enter your contact details, your identification like your driver's license number, and then it'll ask you about your employment, your gross monthly income, and if you want to upload any additional documentation, then you can do that here. You'll also select if you have any beneficiaries or this is a joint application. For most people, that'll probably be no.
The next section is going to be how to fund your account. Then you can actually put how much do you want to deposit. It can be the $5 for the share savings. Again, for the checking account, it doesn't require one. If you went with the other checking account, the national one, that's going to be $2,500. But it lets you know right here, you can fund your account with a credit card. The max is going to be $2,500. All right. Now, you can also transfer from a different financial institution. You can also do an internal transfer. Now, this is where I probably will have to end up stopping because I'm not going to be able to link my card again. Like, I already made a deposit to this account, but it's pretty straightforward from here. You're going to continue. They're probably going to ask you to verify your identity one more time. Then, it's not automatic. They're going to review, and it should take around 24 to 48 hours for you to officially become a member.
Now, let's talk about the part that everyone is really here for. Justice Federal Credit Union offers multiple personal credit cards and every single one of them has a max credit limit of $40,000. That alone would put them into elite territory. But the real value is not just the limit. It's the structure of the introductory offer. Now, as of the recording of this video, Justice Federal Credit Union offers a 12-month 0% APR introductory period. And that applies not just to purchases and balance transfers, but it also applies to cash advances. Now, that is extremely rare. For the first year, you can make purchases, you can move balances, or you can even withdraw cash without paying any interest. There's no balance transfer fee, and the cash advance fee is very minimal compared to most banks. So, just for clarification, there will be a cash advance fee, but you will not pay interest on the amount that you withdraw. Now, after your introductory period, the cash advance fee is only 2% or $10, whichever is greater. And that is far lower than what most national banks charge. There's no annual fee on any of their credit cards either. That combination alone makes these cards incredibly powerful for debt restructuring, liquidity access, and strategic leverage.
Now, I do want to point out that Justice Federal Credit Union is likely to ask you for your W2s or two paycheck stubs to verify income. That's not abnormal, or they may ask you just to link your bank account for income verification.
Now, we're back on the Justice Federal Credit Union website. There are three credit cards that you can take a look at. The first one we're going to look at is the Visa Platinum. Now, this card is excellent if you want to earn rewards and points on every purchase. They're redeemable for travel, airfare, name-brand merchandise, and a whole lot more. Now, again, if we scroll down and take a look, it tells you that this is 0% interest until 2026 on purchases, and that's going to be 2% APR, 12-month intro rate on balance transfers and cash advances. So, again, that's pretty awesome. Even when we take a look at the APR, it's 11.90% non-variable APR after the intro rate. That is still fairly low. Once again, there's no annual fee. You can earn double the rewards at wholesale clubs. You also get advanced digital card controls. It's a contactless Visa card. So, all of these things are kind of like the basic benefits that you get from most Visa cards, but you know, still, it's good to point out.
Now, looking at the Visa Signature card, that one is good for cash back. You earn 1.5% cash back on every purchase, which is fairly normal in the credit card world. It's not groundbreaking or anything like that. And again, same thing. 0% interest until 2026 on purchases. And I think that they want to update this because, you know, we're already in 2026. So, I'm sure what they mean is until 2027. And with this one, you have 13.65% to 18% variable APR after the intro rate. So, if you want to pick the one with the lowest APR, you might want to take a look at this other card instead of this one. Now, it also comes with the contactless Visa, but this one has 24/7 concierge service as well as no foreign transaction fees. So, if you travel abroad and make transactions and you don't want to have interchange fees, then you might want to get this card.
The last option here is the Student Visa. It's for students age 17 to 23. You can earn rewards and points on every purchase. And again, 0% APR. Interest rate on this one is a little bit higher, 16.90%. And that's a non-variable APR after intro. So, unfortunately, that one is the highest. And this is probably the one card that I wouldn't look at getting even if you were a student. APR just doesn't make sense. Now, there's no annual fee. Same thing, you earn double the rewards at wholesale clubs, but other than that, I would probably avoid the student visa altogether.
So, now switching gears, let's take a look at what personal loans that you can actually get with this credit union. Now, you can borrow up to $50,000 with terms up to 84 months. And you can do a consolidation loan. You can take a vacation with this loan or just put some extra cash into your wallet. It really doesn't matter. You can get it for anything. And once again, if you get approved for the credit cards, you only have to take that one hard inquiry with Equifax and then you can apply for a personal loan. And even if you get denied, it's completely fine. You only have that one hard inquiry from the credit card. And again, that can be good for 60 days, maybe up to 90, but let's just say 60.
Now, here's one that I really like a lot, the Justice Line of Credit. I think this is better than the personal loan because with the line of credit, you don't get hit with interest right off the bat. You only use what you borrow. Now, they say this can be used to fund home improvement projects, consolidate bills, or simply as overdraft protection. to be able to borrow up to $40,000 with no collateral required and low minimum payments. Again, I think this is actually better than the personal loan. So, technically, if you were able to get approved for, let's just say, a $10,000 credit card, maybe even, you know, $40,000 here, so that's $50K. And then maybe you got the $50K for the personal loan. That is $100,000 that you can get access to with this one credit union and one hard inquiry.
You can also get a share secured loan. So if you're looking for a low-interest loan with substantial savings, then you can consider securing your loan with just as federal savings accounts or certificate. Your interest rate will be 3% above the highest dividend rate or that share account or share certificate. Now, if you're interested in that more, then you can come here because again, depending on when you're watching this, the rates may change.
And last, there is a credit builder loan. So, if you are currently in a position where maybe you're not ready to take that next step and actually apply for all of these products, however, you do want to build some relationship with this credit union, you can take a look at one, opening an account, depositing $2,500, putting a little money into the savings account, and then open up a credit builder loan. So, if you're looking to establish history, if you're looking to build your credit, the max term is 12 months. The max loan amount is $2,500, and all loan proceeds will be placed in your share savings account and pledged as collateral until the loan is repaid. So, this can work just like the Navy Federal Pledge Loan. The terms are a lot shorter, but you can go ahead and take this and build that relationship if you are currently in the process of establishing your credit.
Now, there is a section for the auto loans, but instead of going there, I went right to the calculator. Once again, depending on the time that you watch this, these rates may change. But right now, if you're looking for a new car, you can finance up to 125%. So, that means even if you have some negative equity on your current vehicle and you want to roll that over, you can do that. Okay? So, that will help you if you want to get rid of an old vehicle. Now, if you want a 96-month loan, you're looking at 7.89%. That is not bad. And if we go to like the shortest term for 24 months, you're looking at a 4.69% APR. It just really depends on the vehicle that you're looking at and also how fast you'd like to pay that vehicle off. There's also separate terms for used automobiles and for new motorcycles as well as used motorcycles. And then there's also different terms for used boats and RVs. And once again, I'm not going to go over this because by the time you're watching this, these rates will probably change. I just want to give an example of what the rates were, at least at the time of recording.
Now, the last section that I'm going to review is the home equity loans and the line of credit. So, whether you're looking to update your home or make a major purchase or simplify your finances, a home equity loan or line of credit can help you with that. So, there are loans from $10,000 to $250,000. Now, for me personally, that is kind of small, especially if you have like a home that's even $750,000. There are a lot of um home equity loans and lines of credit, HELOC loans that will allow you to borrow up to 75% of the equity you have in the home. So, depending on what you're looking at, this may or may not be that great. However, they do offer it. They have fixed monthly payments or the revolving line of credit again with the HELOC loan. And the interest paid may be tax-deductible. You have to consult with a tax advisor. So, this one for me is not anything special. You can probably find better HELOC loans or home equity loans somewhere else, but just know that it is offered. So, I mean, if you're going to go through the process of getting a credit card and do something else, you already have the hard inquiry, you may want to check this out.
Before we wrap up this video, let's review the data points. Justice Federal Credit Union is not a subprime lender, okay? When it comes to credit bureau pulls, once again, they will be pulling from Equifax for all products. As far as credit score ranges go, most strong approvals for credit cards and lines of credit tend to come from members with Equifax scores in the mid to high 600s and above that. So, if you're in the low 700 range or higher, you're in a really strong position. That doesn't mean that fair credit automatically disqualifies you, but it does mean your profile needs to be clean. And when I say clean, that means no active derogatory marks, no unpaid collections, no recent charge-offs or repossessions or foreclosures or any unresolved late payments within the last 12 months. Now, Justice Federal Credit Union is much more forgiving of negative information that has been resolved or if it's fairly old. But keep in mind that utilization also matters here more than people will actually realize. Your revolving utilization should consistently be at least lower than 30% across multiple credit cards. But the real sweet spot is around 10%. Members who reported the strongest outcomes usually had their utilization right around 10% at the time of application and that includes credit cards and other products.
Now here is where Justice Federal Credit Union becomes different from many big banks. Relationship banking can significantly strengthen approval odds even if your credit score is only fair. I would even say like a 620 to 650. If you open a checking account or a savings account, you fund it properly, you run transactions, and you let that relationship age for at least 90 days, you're creating internal data that does not show up on your credit report. Internal data often carries as much weight and sometimes more weight than your external credit score. This is why you see people with similar credit scores receive completely different outcomes. One person applies immediately with no relationship and will receive a modest limit while another person waits 3 to 6 months, holds deposits, uses the account, and applies strategically within a single Equifax pool window and they receive significantly higher limits. Justice Federal Credit Union rewards patience and planning. They want members who treat the credit union as a long-term financial partner, not just a one-time credit grab.
And one of the most important things that I want to note, Justice Federal Credit Union may request proof of income when you apply for certain credit products, especially high-limit credit cards, personal lines of credit, and personal loans. Now, this isn't automatic for every application, but it is common enough that you should be prepared. In most cases, the proof of income they ask for is very straightforward. Typically, they'll request your two most recent paycheck stubs, and these are used to verify employment and to confirm consistent income. Not to dissect your spending habits or micromanage your finances. They're looking for stability, not perfection. If you are self-employed or you're a contractor or you run your own business, I have an entire video that shows you how to create your own pay stubs. I'm going to link that video here. So, just know that just because you're self-employed or you own your own business, you can still qualify for all of these products and services.
I want to thank you guys so much for watching this video. If you found value in this breakdown, then make sure that you like the video because that tells YouTube to show it to more people who need to see this information. Subscribe to the channel if you want more content like this. And drop a comment below if you want me to go over more credit unions. And if you already bank with Justice Federal Credit Union, then drop your data points in the comments below as well as your approvals. Now, if you have any questions, then ask them as well because I read the comments and I do follow-up videos based on what you say in the comments. I appreciate every single one of you guys for being here. I appreciate you so much for watching. Once again, you guys have a wonderful day.