Sorry this will be long but it may be worth the read to some! Thanks to this forum I found out about the amazing products and services offered by PenFed a few weeks back and immediately I was intrigued. I caught the bug after reading Baller's thread and decided to give it a shot. I had zero inquires in the last 6 months on EQ although I was up to about 19 new accounts in the last year (of which only 1 was recent). Based on the approvals I was seeing plus my EQ increase noted on MyFico and CCT I thought I had a fair chance of getting in with them on a CC.
On 5/21/2016, I submitted my app and was immediately approved for membership after making my donation to one of their associated charities. I made my initial deposit to the share account and decided to double down for a Platinum Rewards VISA Signature. My application immediately showed "Referred to LO" and the wait began. Immediately after the CC application I began to enter information for an auto re-finance although I stopped myself from continuing until I knew the outcome of the CC application. The next day (mind you it was a Sunday) I checked the application status late in the afternoon and sadly I found out that I was denied due to too many recent inquiries and too many new accounts. I knew it was true although I saw folks with many more getting approved and with lower FICOs. By reading through the threads I found out they went based on NG FICO and I still had no clue where that had landed. Baller and creditluv convinced me to send in a recon e-mail and so I did.
The following day I again reviewed the app status and it was changed to again "Referred to LO". After lunch I came back and found it was again denied this time only citing too many new accounts and no longer referencing the too many inquiries verbiage. I decided to call in and ask for a Supervisor (LO) although the agent assisting me stated they were all too busy and based on what he saw there was no way of overturning their decision. I pleaded with the agent to transfer me and he asked me to hold only to come back and say there were all too busy. I was flustered and decided to give up thinking it was not worth trying to again plead my case... their decision was already made. At this same time I received a new message which showed my application request with denial and my NG FICO of 697 which is 17 points higher than my EQ FICO8. I was surprised that my NG was higher than my FICO8.
On Friday I decided to again send a message to Corporate about my frustrations with not being able to speak with an LO. Yesterday morning (Sunday) I received a call from a 541 (OR) number and there was a very pleasant lady on the other side calling from PenFed. She explained that my concern had been received and she was happy to review my applications with me. She stated I do see you have several new accounts although most of them are about to hit 1 year pretty soon. She offered to personally review my applications (CC and Auto Refinances) again and see what she could offer me. I thanked her for calling and told her to call me back once she had a decision. She called me back in about 15 minutes and told me "Congratulations... You have been approved for all 3 products"! I was in shock as she was able to overturn my CC denial plus approve me for the re-financing of both of my auto loans. I am still in disbelief and shock that by simply allowing a loan officer to review my apps she was able to see things the system saw as negatives and reasons for denial.
PenFed Visa Rewards Signature = $6,500 CL @ 16.74%
Auto Refinance #1 = $37,800 @ 2.74% FROM 5.65%
Auto Refinance #2 = $34,500 @ 2.74% FROM 4.99%
I will now be saving over $175 a month on auto payments!!! 
Woo Hoo Thank You, Thank You, Thank You MyFICO Forums and PenFed!!!
AU:
