PenFed

[World Traveler]

Looking at banking with Penfed. Does anyone bank there? .55% savings?2% cashback CC?

 

[braumeister]

Plenty of people here do, or have in the past.
Use the search function to see many threads on PenFed.

 

[pb4uski]

We don't really bank there so I can't be of much help.

I have an account with them as a result of them offering a 3% 5-year CD special in 2013, but the CD matured and their renewal rates were unattractive and I move the tIRA money out of PenFed. I have kept the share savings account in case their CD rates ever become attractive again and I want to return.

I use Discover Bank for online savings (0.5%) and CitiBank DoubleCash for credit card (1% when charged and 1% when paid but we are on autopay so it is like 2% on everything.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I was also with Penfed when they were offering great rates in 2013. I keep a small balance there waiting for the next promo offer to show up but have not seen one in a while.
You might want to check out Navy Federal if you can qualify, they are great to do business with and allow you to add to your existing IRA CD's between January and April even if they are not add on CD's. They also offer add on CD's in their certificate line which is great when rates drop. I'm currently in processing of transferring money from a matured Roth certificate held at another institution over to them to deposit in my add on Roth IRA which has a 2.96 rate

 

[G-Man]

We don't really bank there so I can't be of much help.

I have an account with them as a result of them offering a 3% 5-year CD special in 2013, but the CD matured and their renewal rates were unattractive and I move the tIRA money out of PenFed. I have kept the share savings account in case their CD rates ever become attractive again and I want to return.

I use Discover Bank for online savings (0.5%) and CitiBank DoubleCash for credit card (1% when charged and 1% when paid but we are on autopay so it is like 2% on everything.

Is your checking account with Discover Bank as well? I assume all your monthly expenses is paid out of your checking account.

 

[audreyh1]

I gave up on them a few years ago. Like the poster above I bought some great 5 year CDs in 2013, and used their 5% cash back rewards gas credit card. But since then they changed their early withdrawal penalties on their CDs to be rather unattractive and they didn’t offer great rates anymore. After doing nothing for several years except the credit card I finally closed out my account just to have fewer accounts and credit cards to deal with.

I have used Andrews FCU since. They had some great rates a few years ago and I have found them easier to deal with once I got my account set up.


Otherwise have used Ally Bank and Synchrony Bank for CDs.

Other than the no penalty short-term CDs at Ally, I don’t expect CD rates to become attractive until after the Fed actually raises their funds rate.

Last time we went through this cycle, US Treasuries were more attractive then CDs for about a year and then CDs finally caught up.

 

[pb4uski]

Is your checking account with Discover Bank as well? I assume all your monthly expenses is paid out of your checking account.

No, our checking account is with a local credit union and the two accounts are linked. I have an automatic transfer from Discover Bank to our credit union checking account each month and occasionally need to do special transfers for lumpy expenses.

We had the local credit union account as a result of a 3.5% CD special that they offered in 2019 and decided to just use that when we moved to Florida in 2020 rather than create another checking account.

 

[pb4uski]

... Last time we went through this cycle, US Treasuries were more attractive then CDs for about a year and then CDs finally caught up.

Yes, I was looking at a CD/UST ladder a while ago and the UST were slightly better yields on the short end but CDs were slightly better yields on the long end.

 

[jim584672]

PenFed had some good rates years ago but that is long gone. LiveOakBank has 0.60% savings right now.

 

[RunningBum]

I use them. Checking account, 2% cash back credit card, and online savings account for near term money. No complaints.

 

[Al18]

PenFed is now offering a 5 year 1.80% CD - which is now higher than most other banks/ credit unions

 

[jim584672]

PenFed is now offering a 5 year 1.80% CD - which is now higher than most other banks/ credit unions

Bloomberg is showing a 5 year Treasury @ 2.07% right now. No state taxes on Treasuries.

 

[travelover]

When I sold my house I put the proceeds in a CD there until I bought a new house. They were a real PITA to deal with and didn't send me a tax form for the CD interest earned in that calendar year. I thought no tax was owed until the CD matured, so I had to file an amended return.


YMMV, but I wouldn't give them any preference unless they have an exceptionally good rate.

 

[jazz4cash]

I really love their hi yield savings and 5% cashback on gas Visa. Otherwise they have generally declined in attractiveness over the last many years. For me the CD rates are nothing special and they closed my nearby brick and mortar branch. They cut back on locations that are off-base. I stumbled onto an out of the way branch using google but it does not show up on their own branch locator! Their online functionality is pretty good.

 

[mrfeh]

We don't really bank there so I can't be of much help.

I have an account with them as a result of them offering a 3% 5-year CD special in 2013, but the CD matured and their renewal rates were unattractive and I move the tIRA money out of PenFed. I have kept the share savings account in case their CD rates ever become attractive again and I want to return.

Ditto. Had a CD with them many years ago, but haven't used them since.

 

[target2019]

Looking at banking with Penfed. Does anyone bank there? .55% savings?2% cashback CC?

We had a small CD, but nothing else saved there.

We continue to use the old Penfed CC which gives us 5% back on fuel.

 

[friar1610]

When I sold my house I put the proceeds in a CD there until I bought a new house. They were a real PITA to deal with and didn't send me a tax form for the CD interest earned in that calendar year. I thought no tax was owed until the CD matured, so I had to file an amended return.


YMMV, but I wouldn't give them any preference unless they have an exceptionally good rate.

Like so many others here, I was with them back during the days of higher CD interest rates. Like some others here, also a fan of Navy Federal, especially when they have specials.

I think your problem with the tax form was this: PenFed is almost all on-line. I think you have to “pull” tax statements from them rather than having them “push” them to you. They’re the same with credit card statements. (I still retain a cc with them that I use mainly for purchasing gifts for my wife that I don’t want her to know about.) But I have to remember to go looking for the cc statement the months that I use it as they don’t send them out (or even send an email that a new one is ready).

 

[travelover]

........I think your problem with the tax form was this: PenFed is almost all on-line. I think you have to “pull” tax statements ..........

I'm sure this is true, but it was insult to injury after all the crap they gave me when I was trying to invest there. They accused me of being a con artist and had their security department call me in the middle of the night. If you do a search here, you'll find a similar tale from Nords.

 

[Buckeye]

We don't really bank there so I can't be of much help.

I have an account with them as a result of them offering a 3% 5-year CD special in 2013, but the CD matured and their renewal rates were unattractive and I move the tIRA money out of PenFed. I have kept the share savings account in case their CD rates ever become attractive again and I want to return.

I use Discover Bank for online savings (0.5%) and CitiBank DoubleCash for credit card (1% when charged and 1% when paid but we are on autopay so it is like 2% on everything.

I opened an account with PenFed years ago also for excellent CD rates which no longer exist. All CD's have now matured but I continue to use their Visa card with 1.5% cash back. As a veteran who can afford it, I feel compelled to contribute to the PenFed Foundation that assists active duty soldiers and veterans and their families.
https://penfedfoundation.org/

 

[Nords]

I'm sure this is true, but it was insult to injury after all the crap they gave me when I was trying to invest there. They accused me of being a con artist and had their security department call me in the middle of the night. If you do a search here, you'll find a similar tale from Nords.

I got tired of the fraud triggers and the generally incompetent customer service... while their CD interest rates were dropping.

I shut down my accounts there years ago and haven't looked back.

These days we bank with NFCU and invest with Fidelity, and it's been years since we've bothered to buy a CD.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

My husband is getting ready to close his PenFed account.

Back in April, he was able to pull $10,000 out of savings to go right to checking. The other day he tried, and $10k didn’t work.

He knocked it down to a $5000 transfer, but that didn’t work, so he called and talked to someone who said the new transfer amount is $1500.

He couldn’t even get the $1500 moved.

He’s been trying for a couple of days to talk to someone again, and he just now got through to a real person.

She’s now telling him there was an email that went out last week saying that temporarily transfer amounts would be limited for 4-5 days.

She also said that she thinks he may have hit his $10,000 limit for the month.

Basically, she doesn’t know and keeps putting him on hold—and he had to sneak in through the credit card services back door to even get to someone!

At any rate, we agree with Nords that we’re letting PFCU go and just sticking with Navy Fed.

 

[braumeister]

He knocked it down to a $5000 transfer, but that didn’t work, so he called and talked to someone who said the new transfer amount is $1500.

PenFed has long been notorious for their $5K daily transfer out limitation. Sounds like it's now much worse.

The better option is to initiate a transfer from the receiving institution and let them pull from PenFed. That goes much better.

 

[Dash man]

My husband is getting ready to close his PenFed account.

Back in April, he was able to pull $10,000 out of savings to go right to checking. The other day he tried, and $10k didn’t work.

He knocked it down to a $5000 transfer, but that didn’t work, so he called and talked to someone who said the new transfer amount is $1500.

He couldn’t even get the $1500 moved.

He’s been trying for a couple of days to talk to someone again, and he just now got through to a real person.

She’s now telling him there was an email that went out last week saying that temporarily transfer amounts would be limited for 4-5 days.

She also said that she thinks he may have hit his $10,000 limit for the month.

Basically, she doesn’t know and keeps putting him on hold—and he had to sneak in through the credit card services back door to even get to someone!

At any rate, we agree with Nords that we’re letting PFCU go and just sticking with Navy Fed.

Sometimes it’s easier to pull the money from accounts with low transfer limits. USAA has a $5,000 daily limit, so if I need to move more I initiate the transfer from Schwab, Ally or Synchrony. My PenFed and Navy Federal accounts have token amounts in them in case I want to use them again.

 

[RunningBum]

Was the transfer from PF savings to PF checking? I just did a $10K transfer that way a week ago. I don't see anything that would prevent me from doing another one today, but I'm not going to do it just to find out.

I do see a $5K limit on a transfer to another bank.

I haven't seen an email from Penfed regarding transfer limits.

Not sure what's going on with your husband's account but I'm not seeing this. If I were, I'd probably be transferring my account too.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

PenFed has a branch in the same building where I work. Their employees are generally either poorly trained or incompetent, except for the simplest of tasks. They have a good deal every once in a while, but overall have been pretty bad for several years now, with uncompetitive rates. I do not recommend them to anyone.