USALLIANCE Financial wanted to make a change. The $1 billion, tech-savvy credit union in Rye, N.Y., needed to find a way to match consumers to loans without subjecting them to a full application process and hard inquiry credit check that would affect their credit scores.

Before the change, consumers were required to submit a full loan application when they showed interest in a line of credit—everything from auto loans to personal loans to credit cards. And if they didn’t qualify, they still had to absorb a potential negative credit score impact because of the hard inquiry. Even more, USALLIANCE Financial loan officers had to complete a lengthy manual decisioning process for each inquiry, which tied up resources.

Defined Goals

USALLIANCE Financial envisioned an online tool that ideally would:

• automatically prequalify member and non-member website visitors for USALLIANCE Financial loan products without a hard inquiry that could affect a consumer’s credit score;
• create a positive educational interaction for applicants discouraged by previous declines or who have little or no knowledge of their credit status; and
• reduce the workload of loan officers by creating efficiencies with the loan application queue.

 

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