I had heard a lot of good things about PenFed on this forum over the years, so I decided to apply for a home equity line of credit (HELOC) through them. The process has taken months, has been a hassle, and it's common for whomever is communicating with me to disappear, and then have someone new show up. But that's not what my beef is about.
HELOC's are variable rate loans. It's reasonable that the borrower understand what conditions can cause the rate to adjust up or down.
The loan officer had quoted me a rate of 3.75%. Right here on PenFed's website it says that for a HELOC up to $500k, where the CLTV is less than 70%, and it's owner occupied (all of which apply to me) that the rate is Prime + .25%. And the graphic shows that equals 3.75%. But lower on the page, it says that effective in March 2020, the Prime rate dropped to 3.25%, implying that HELOC rates should have dropped to 3.5%.
I'm not overly concerned about a quarter of a point, but I am concerned about understanding when and how my rate would adjust. So two weeks ago, I emailed my loan officer, politely showed him this apparent contradiction on their website, and asked what the story was. He gave me a huffy reply that their credit union does not always lower rates immediately when Prime goes down and that customers simply don't understand this. So I sent a follow up polite email (and followed up with a polite voice mail) asking him to explain how the rate would work so I'd know how to figure out if my rate was going to adjust in the future. He didn't respond. After wasting months of my time on this loan, he literally ghosted me two weeks ago for having the audacity to ask how rates would adjust going forward given the inconsistency on their very own website. (And remember, I both emailed and left a voice message, so it's not likely that he simply missed the email.)
This is not acceptable customer service. I now believe PenFed is composed of scummy bankers whose only criteria in rate-setting is, "What do you think you can get from this borrower?" as opposed to anything that's actually consistent between borrowers of similar financial circumstances. I won't be doing business with PenFed for anything, and am sending a letter to their CEO letting him know what a PITA it's been trying to work with them. It's not worth it to me to do business of any kind with an institution that loses my trust over something so trivial.
I realize many others here have had good experiences with Pen Fed, but I wanted to share this so that potential new customers of Pen Fed can realize it's not all roses and rainbows with them, and that you may have a better experience dealing with a credit union local to where you live.
HELOC's are variable rate loans. It's reasonable that the borrower understand what conditions can cause the rate to adjust up or down.
The loan officer had quoted me a rate of 3.75%. Right here on PenFed's website it says that for a HELOC up to $500k, where the CLTV is less than 70%, and it's owner occupied (all of which apply to me) that the rate is Prime + .25%. And the graphic shows that equals 3.75%. But lower on the page, it says that effective in March 2020, the Prime rate dropped to 3.25%, implying that HELOC rates should have dropped to 3.5%.
I'm not overly concerned about a quarter of a point, but I am concerned about understanding when and how my rate would adjust. So two weeks ago, I emailed my loan officer, politely showed him this apparent contradiction on their website, and asked what the story was. He gave me a huffy reply that their credit union does not always lower rates immediately when Prime goes down and that customers simply don't understand this. So I sent a follow up polite email (and followed up with a polite voice mail) asking him to explain how the rate would work so I'd know how to figure out if my rate was going to adjust in the future. He didn't respond. After wasting months of my time on this loan, he literally ghosted me two weeks ago for having the audacity to ask how rates would adjust going forward given the inconsistency on their very own website. (And remember, I both emailed and left a voice message, so it's not likely that he simply missed the email.)
This is not acceptable customer service. I now believe PenFed is composed of scummy bankers whose only criteria in rate-setting is, "What do you think you can get from this borrower?" as opposed to anything that's actually consistent between borrowers of similar financial circumstances. I won't be doing business with PenFed for anything, and am sending a letter to their CEO letting him know what a PITA it's been trying to work with them. It's not worth it to me to do business of any kind with an institution that loses my trust over something so trivial.
I realize many others here have had good experiences with Pen Fed, but I wanted to share this so that potential new customers of Pen Fed can realize it's not all roses and rainbows with them, and that you may have a better experience dealing with a credit union local to where you live.
