JOINED PENFED TODAY AND QUICK QUESTIOS.

[nathan]

Does penfed do a hard pull for opening a new saving acct? After joining on their website, they were immediately asking me to apply for cc or auto loan but I decided to visit the forum first before I pull the trigger. My fico eq is 659 and I understand they pull exclusively from eq. I currently have 2 cc with navyfed for $5000 (0 bal), and $15.000($190 bal). I also have hooters, 15000(0 bal) and the crappy orchard, 400(0 bal). I have one 5 yrs old unpaid collection on my eq and that is my only baddy. Do I have a shot at penfed and how much is their lowest limit. I don't want anything less than $5000, I can wait till my eq reaches 680 and up. I just refinanced my truck with navy fed two mos ago from 12% with citi to 9.25%. Penfed is advertising a 4.25 for refinance and I was wondering if I should try to see if they can beat navyfed. If they do, is it okay to refinance within two mos? How will my fico react to this. I would like to use the one pull for every thing from penfed and apply for a cc and refinance. Please those with penfed experience, I need your advice before I make any decision.

[Creditaddict]

I would say go for it and apply and for sure see about refi your auto again!

[Anonymous]

Yes they do that one hard on EQ when you join and it is good for any products you wish to apply for.

It is either good for 60 or 90 days I forget exactly what the CSR told me on the phone.

They are nervous about alot of recently opened accounts so if your INQ on EQ are low you should be fine.

[smallfry]

When I spoke to a CSR on the phone last Friday I was told there is really no guarantee the pull is good past that day. Most if not have said the pull is good for at least 60 days but I am not sure. Maybe another CSR would give you a different answer. I would go ahead and apply for the refi and go for a 5K or so CC. Thing with Penfed is they do not like a lot of new credit so if you plan on going for more credit within the next year with them, which you should most definitely do, do not apply for any other cards. Once you get your card and have established 6 months payment history ask for a healthy CLI. Keep the ut. down get the score up and you'll have a 20K card within the year. Good luck.

Message Edited by smallfry on 05-20-2008 04:48 PM

[smallfry]

BTW I think 9.25% is kinda high for a Navy refi.

[haulingthescoreup]

I joined PenFed in February and got the hard for the basic joining up. The way that all CU's work is that you have to open a share (savings) account for at least $5. With PenFed, once that inq goes through, you can go for anything else you want during that time period of 60-90 days, and it's covered.

I app'd over the phone for the gas card. I was chicken, because my 30-day late still wasn't quite one year old, and asked for $5K and immediately got it. The CSR then offered me the car loan, and I jumped on it. I don't know about the re-fi part, but I don't think that would be a problem. I had actually already bought my car, writing a check out of my HELOC, and I wanted to get that $12K out of there.

Two months later I went for a CLI to $10K on line and was approved immediately. (I'd been told that I could have gotten more than $5K initially, but like I said, I was chicken.)

Once they pulled your EQ, there's no harm in asking for anything else. At that point, they can say no, but at least it doesn't cost you more inqs. Good luck and hope that helps.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 05-20-2008 04:15 PM

[Anonymous]

Hi Nathan,

I love PenFed -  So far I've added a credit card and additional savings to my account and still only the one pull to join about 6 weeks ago.

Enjoy!

[nathan]

Thanks for all the advice. I applied for the auto refinance and a platinum cc and application is in pending status. On the auto refinance application, it already gives me my monthly payment and due date. Is this a good sign? For the cc I asked for 150000 daring them to match my highest limit with navyfed. I will update when I get the results.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@nathan wrote:

Thanks for all the advice. I applied for the auto refinance and a platinum cc and application is in pending status. On the auto refinance application, it already gives me my monthly payment and due date. Is this a good sign? For the cc I asked for 150000 daring them to match my highest limit with navyfed. I will update when I get the results.

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Sounds good on the auto loan. I do hope that you didn't ask for $150K, though. There won't be enough for the rest of us to get CLI's. (sorry, I finally have someone else to harass besides ByrdMan)

Good luck!

[nathan]

Verdict! approved for platinum visa (5% cash back on gas, 2% on groceries and 1% on anythin else). Denied (withdrwn) auto ref because value of truck is too low as compared to balance. Truck is ford exp, 2003, curent value 13800, balance 16000. just checked website today and cc is approve, but does'nt say cl or apr. I asked for 15000. If cl is generous, i will apply for a mastercard too. I would like to maximize that inq lol. I will update for cli and apr. btw what is penfed lowest cl?