Well, I had no trouble getting a used-car loan from PenFed weekend before last. I think it helped that I'd been working hard on rebuilding my credit for the past year and a half or so since getting employed full-time again (I had to go through chapter 7 BK in the fall of 2014). I actually started the application online through their car-buying service but thought I might have a better chance if I applied in person, so I went to the branch closest to my work on the 24th. Got approved right away, and my Equifax was 690 - which astounded me, I'd thought it was 20 or so points lower!
Now, I originally got approved for the TrueCar price at 3.21% on a 48-month loan for the car I was originally looking at, but I found out that that vehicle had already been sold - very fortunately, they had another car that'd just come in (a 2016 Hyundai Accent sedan) that was just about as good. I had to call PenFed to rework the loan because the paperwork had the no-longer-valid VIN for the original vehicle, and they not only did it over with no hassle at all but boosted the loan amount by $520 or so to cover all taxes and title/tag fees (which weren't included for some reason in the TrueCar price), which put me in the $10,000-plus range for which I could request a 60-month term. PFCU approved me for that at 3.99%, and my monthly payment is actually about $25 lower (though, to be sure, the overall cost will be more over 60 months) than the 48-month term would have been.
I've been a PenFed member for close to 40 years since my parents set up an account for me while I was a high school student, and I made a sizeable deposit into my shares account at the same time I applied for the loan, so that may have helped too.
