What is your opinion of PenFed?

[Nords]

No comments or suggestions from anyone?

I think everyone's pretty much accepted that this year the highest legitimate CD rates, in American dollars from an American insurable institution, are at PenFed.

If you're saying that $200K is 20% of the million dollars you have stashed away in the fixed-income portion of your balanced asset allocation, then I suspect that what you're hearing is "stunned silence"...

 

[Gearhead Jim]

...
If you're saying that $200K is 20% of the million dollars you have stashed away in the fixed-income portion of your balanced asset allocation, then I suspect that what you're hearing is "stunned silence"...

Your math is correct, but I'm 62 and have only a small fixed pension, so have a greater portion in fixed-income than you lucky folks who are retired around 40 with a reasonable COLA pension.
Advanced Firecalc blesses my allocation, so I sleep well at night... except for the effects of a very interesting but stressful second career. Second retirement planned within the year!

 

[OAG]

Current highest (if you can call them that) rates for CD's are (as I write) at Navy FCU and VyStar CU. PENFED must be having some problems getting that money we sent earlier loaned out.

 

[Dawg52]

Well I have just had a negative experience with PenFed. I applied for a cash rewards visa card that had been discussed earlier here. I was just told that I would have to provide them with 2 years worth of tax returns and all the supporting documents related to my income. Apparently they do not like the fact that I am retired with no pension and that I am relying on dividends and interest to live on. I told them to shove it as I have never had to provide such detail with respect to a frigging credit card. I'm sure they requested a credit report on me and I know that checked out fine. Never been past due on anything. I'll just keep on using the one I have. Chaps me though.

I guess the moral to the story is if you want a new credit card, you better get it before retirement while you have a 'normal' income.

UPDATE: Just logged on to PenFed to see if I had any interest from cd's credited to my account. When I did, a screen popped up telling me I had been approved for 3 different credit offers, one being the credit card I had applied for as stated above. Just for the hell of it, I follow the directions and proceed with the credit card application. Just basic info already filled in on the application. I pushed the button to finalize the application and it showed I had been approved for a credit limit 3 times the amount I applied for just a couple of weeks ago. Also said my card would be mailed to me within 3 business days.

Now is that weird or what?? Just 2 weeks ago they wanted 2 years worth of tax returns. Now they act like no problem.....just tell them how much credit I need. Who knows?

 

[Nords]

Now is that weird or what?? Just 2 weeks ago they wanted 2 years worth of tax returns. Now they act like no problem.....just tell them how much credit I need. Who knows?

I guess Chertoff finally got around to reviewing this thread and told PenFed that there's nothing on you in Homeland Security's files...

 

[wildcat]

Dawg --

Are you telling me you didn't notice the guys in black suits at the golf course?

 

[jazz4cash]

Current highest (if you can call them that) rates for CD's are (as I write) at Navy FCU and VyStar CU. PENFED must be having some problems getting that money we sent earlier loaned out.

Ive been very pleased with PenFed since being introduced to them via this forum during that 6.25 CD promo. I was just about to look for an alternative to my variable rate home equity loan when PenFed offered 5.99% fixed for 20yrs....That doesn't quite cover the nut on my CD, tho!

 

[JohnEyles]

UPDATE: Just logged on to PenFed to see if I had any interest from cd's credited to my account. When I did, a screen popped up telling me I had been approved for 3 different credit offers, one being the credit card I had applied for as stated above. Just for the hell of it, I follow the directions and proceed with the credit card application. Just basic info already filled in on the application. I pushed the button to finalize the application and it showed I had been approved for a credit limit 3 times the amount I applied for just a couple of weeks ago. Also said my card would be mailed to me within 3 business days.

Now is that weird or what?? Just 2 weeks ago they wanted 2 years worth of tax returns. Now they act like no problem.....just tell them how much credit I need. Who knows?

Not sure I'm following your saga accurately, but maybe they didn't
realize how much money you had on deposit (in the CDs) when
they were being pissy. I applied for the credit card AFTER I'd
opened many $10K's of CDs, and it took about 10 minutes for
me to get approved. All they had time to do was to pull my
credit report and look at the CDs I'd funded.

 

[ESRBob]

Dawgm
I did the same thing -- had the CD first, then got the Visa card in a snap. It did take me awhile to get approval for a higher credit line, though. Here's why I needed it -- a classic case of Penfed is different":

I always pay my card off in full (well almost always -- I was leaving Citi in a huff because of their late fees for being a day late, but in principal I always pay it off)

Therefore I figured I needed a credit line of one average month plus some of the next month, plus a cushion.

Got an over-limit call from Penfed soon after getting the card. Reason? They have such a long billing cycle (i.e. extra time with free credit) that I was running up more than two full months of charges before they withdrew the money from my account to cover the bill from two months prior.

Thus, the need for a bigger credit limit. Classic Penfed... Still, no late fees (because I have them debit my account) and no finance charges, plus 1.25% cash back and two months of free credit = one happy customer...

Now with the 1.25% back we charge virtually everything in sight, so need a little more which they promptly gave.

 

[brewer12345]

No comments or suggestions from anyone?

Missed that. The last time I looked at Pen Fed's financials, they looked quite healthy, nicely profitable, and well capitalized. Credit quality is particularly good which must not be too tough when most of your borrowers have guaranteed incomes from gummint jobs.

I'd have no worries about putting my money with them up to the FDIC limit.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Thanks, brewer!

 

[Dawg52]

Dawgm
I did the same thing -- had the CD first, then got the Visa card in a snap. It did take me awhile to get approval for a higher credit line, though. Here's why I needed it -- a classic case of Penfed is different":

I always pay my card off in full (well almost always -- I was leaving Citi in a huff because of their late fees for being a day late, but in principal I always pay it off)

Therefore I figured I needed a credit line of one average month plus some of the next month, plus a cushion.

Got an over-limit call from Penfed soon after getting the card. Reason? They have such a long billing cycle (i.e. extra time with free credit) that I was running up more than two full months of charges before they withdrew the money from my account to cover the bill from two months prior.

Thus, the need for a bigger credit limit. Classic Penfed... Still, no late fees (because I have them debit my account) and no finance charges, plus 1.25% cash back and two months of free credit = one happy customer...

Now with the 1.25% back we charge virtually everything in sight, so need a little more which they promptly gave.

I originally applied for a 5k credit limit in June. Half the limit I have on my GM card so I thought it would be easy to obtained. Still not sure why they asked for all the tax return info as I acquired 100k worth of cd's in January.(if that's one of the major factors they use) I never did send them any tax return info. Maybe the person reviewing my application didn't check to see I had the cd's already established.

Oh well, at least they got it right. Wound up with a credit limit of $16,200. The cash back feature will be nice. Can't see me every needing that much but nice to have in case I take a long trip overseas one day.

 

[OAG]

BTW the Cash Back at PENFED is 5% on Gasoline and 1.25% on everything else. Cannot figure out why one would have the problems getting a VISA card from them (maybe SE Income?). Baring bad credit can't figure. I got $25K limit and just filled out the on-line application. Of course maybe because we have been members since 1975 it may have had something to do with it?

 

[Dawg52]

Cannot figure out why one would have the problems getting a VISA card from them (maybe SE Income?). Baring bad credit can't figure. I got $25K limit and just filled out the on-line application. Of course maybe because we have been members since 1975 it may have had something to do with it?

Could be. I am a brand new customer but my credit report should have been ok. My only 2 mortgages were paid off early and never late on a monthly payment.

If I had applied last year when I was still working, I would have had a nice income to report which probably would have helped the process. Early retired, with only investment income to report, could have hurt. But again, it worked out in the end.