Which CC is easier to get, NFCU Platinum of PenFed Promise?

[FA21]

I was approved for NFCU Platinum with a CL of $1700.  My Fico score is in the low 600.  I was tempted to apply for the Promise since Im also a PenFed Member.  Thoughts?

[CreditCuriosity]

Penfed is harder than NFCU.. With scores you mentioned it might be hard to get an approval.  Are you a gambler?  As it is a HP on EQ to join, but that HP is good for many credit products whether they are approved or denied only PenFed knows that, but they use a different scoring system and usually is lower than your EQ 08 score so I would say it would be a tuff appproval currenty.. Just my 2 cents.. Congrats on the NFCU card though!

[Anonymous]

Probably would be extremely difficult to get through Penfed with those scores.   There is a database out there  on this site that might help you decide if you should go for it

[Anonymous]

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@CreditCuriousity wrote:

Penfed is harder than NFCU.. With scores you mentioned it might be hard to get an approval.  Are you a gambler?  As it is a HP on EQ to join, but that HP is good for many credit products whether they are approved or denied only PenFed knows that, but they use a different scoring system and usually is lower than your EQ 08 score so I would say it would be a tuff appproval currenty.. Just my 2 cents.. Congrats on the NFCU card though!

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The strange thing is that my EQ FICO NextGen 2 score - which is what Penfed uses - is actually the highest of all my FICO scores currently, as you can see from my sig (690 NG 2 as opposed to 659 FICO 8, whereas EX is 662 and TU is 627). That score is from February 28, though, several days after I got my car loan from them, so I don't know what it'll be like at the next quarterly update. If it stays the same, though, I'm kinda-sorta cautiously optimistic that I'll get a Visa from Penfed (with whom I've had a financial relationship for close to 40 years!) in the fall. Then again, I might always just yield to the tide of public opinion and sign up with NFCU through the Navy League in San Diego...

[K-in-Boston]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@CreditCuriousity wrote:

Penfed is harder than NFCU.. With scores you mentioned it might be hard to get an approval.  Are you a gambler?  As it is a HP on EQ to join, but that HP is good for many credit products whether they are approved or denied only PenFed knows that, but they use a different scoring system and usually is lower than your EQ 08 score so I would say it would be a tuff appproval currenty.. Just my 2 cents.. Congrats on the NFCU card though!

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The strange thing is that my EQ FICO NextGen 2 score - which is what Penfed uses - is actually the highest of all my FICO scores currently, as you can see from my sig (690 NG 2 as opposed to 659 FICO 8, whereas EX is 662 and TU is 627). That score is from February 28, though, several days after I got my car loan from them, so I don't know what it'll be like at the next quarterly update. If it stays the same, though, I'm kinda-sorta cautiously optimistic that I'll get a Visa from Penfed (with whom I've had a financial relationship for close to 40 years!) in the fall. Then again, I might always just yield to the tide of public opinion and sign up with NFCU through the Navy League in San Diego...

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I agree that NFCU seems to be more generous and I mentioned in another PenFed recently (just going to copy and paste) my current February 28th score on the PenFed site:

Looking at my spreadsheets, my EQ 08 was 739 the day they pulled a EQ NG2 of 772. My CLI and later a new app were done with a EQ NG2 of 750 and my EQ 08 was 731.

I just hit a lifetime high of EQ 08 745 this week so I'd bet my NG2 is something like a 790 right now (remember the scale is 150-950 rather than 300-850).  So it seems like for some of us it's higher and for others it is lower.  OP, do you know you current EQ NG2 score by chance?  How long have you been a PenFed member?  I would say it's iffy, but if you either joined in the past 90 days (in which case you already have the NG2 score they will use) or are OK with an EQ HP, go for it.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the NFCU. I don't think Penfed is likely to approve you with low 600's.  I would hold off, work the CLI on your NFCU card and then apply for another NFCU card and CLOC in a few months while waiting for your scores to grow to upper 600's before you apply for Penfed.  If you end up applying for another Penfed product then go for it then because they use the same HP for at least 60 days.  I have scores in the upper 600's but cannot get any love from them but they approved my wife with similar scores to  mine for their platinum reserve card at $5,400 SL.  They don't seem to like see many new accounts or HP's so put some time between any app sprees and an application for a Penfed card.

[Anonymous]

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@FA21 wrote:

I was approved for NFCU Platinum with a CL of $1700.  My Fico score is in the low 600.  I was tempted to apply for the Promise since Im also a PenFed Member.  Thoughts?

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NFCU is definitely easier and more forgiving than PenFed... For what it's worth, had a conversation with a Call Center Director in early March regarding a HP CLI Request that was denied.  

PenFed is and I am quoting her

"Completely & TOTALLY redoing their underwriting guidelines, the first stage was alrerady effective which is new accounts in the last 12 months."

Truthfully, I can't remember what the number was, but I think it was similar to Chase's (5/24) maybe 3/12 ....anyways it's definitely going to be a sticking point if not flat out auto denial if you're over a certain number of new accounts in the last 12 months.

[Anonymous]

I didn't know that about Penfed possibly imposing a limit similar to Chase's 5/24 (which, on top of what I've read just now about their harshness in completely shutting down people if they even suspect something's off, is another reason why I'm getting turned off Chase, but that's a different subject entirely). If that turns out to be the case, maybe when I get ready to look for a Visa in the fall I should think about NFCU after all, or perhaps one of the other regional/local CU's - Justice (as a US DOJ employee) or Apple (as a Northern VA resident) - instead; I've heard both of those CU's are fairly generous and fairly rebuilder-friendly.