PenFed Apps

[ramblin_wreck08]

After reading about PenFed's auto loan refinance rate of 1.49% on here the other day, I decided to go for it. I currently have $15.9k on an auto loan at 7.25%, so the savings would be huge. Applied for a PenFed account on Sunday, opened yesterday, and applied for the refi. Was approved! Went down to the bank today and got a 15 day payoff letter and sent it in. Hopefully I'll hear back from them this week and everything will go through smoothly.

Since I had already taken the hard pull, I figured I might as well use it. Just applied for the Platinum Rewards card and got a "Your application is under review" message for an $8k credit limit. Is this a message of probable denial, or is it nothing to worry about?

[chnceit]

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@ramblin_wreck08 wrote:
After reading about PenFed's auto loan refinance rate of 1.49% on here the other day, I decided to go for it. I currently have $15.9k on an auto loan at 7.25%, so the savings would be huge. Applied for a PenFed account on Sunday, opened yesterday, and applied for the refi. Was approved! Went down to the bank today and got a 15 day payoff letter and sent it in. Hopefully I'll hear back from them this week and everything will go through smoothly.

Since I had already taken the hard pull, I figured I might as well use it. Just applied for the Platinum Rewards card and got a "Your application is under review" message for an $8k credit limit. Is this a message of probable denial, or is it nothing to worry about?

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Congrats on your refi approval! This should be an approval. Give it 24-48 hours then you will see status in the Apply area. Good luck! PenFed is great!

[bettercreditguy1]

Pen Fed likes to dot all I's and T's. Don't sweat too much. They are a great team. I have a cc and new car loan with them. Couldn't be happier.

[ramblin_wreck08]

Thanks for the responses!  I'm hoping I don't have to spend time to verify my income, but in the end I know it would be worth it to get 5% back on gas.  The credit limit would also mean I wouldn't have to pay my cards before the statement cuts to stay under 10% utilization most months.  The wait is getting to me though - I keep checking my status every hour. 

Woohoo!  My auto loan refinance status just changed from "conditionally approved" to "preparing to disburse"!  Guess that means everything will transfer over soon!  So excited!

[chnceit]

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@ramblin_wreck08 wrote:

Thanks for the responses!  I'm hoping I don't have to spend time to verify my income, but in the end I know it would be worth it to get 5% back on gas.  The credit limit would also mean I wouldn't have to pay my cards before the statement cuts to stay under 10% utilization most months.  The wait is getting to me though - I keep checking my status every hour. 

Woohoo!  My auto loan refinance status just changed from "conditionally approved" to "preparing to disburse"!  Guess that means everything will transfer over soon!  So excited!

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Yup once disburse everything is golden! Good luck on your CC app!

[DesertLife]

Congrats, that is all really awesome! Going from 7.25% to 1.49% is amazing! BTW, how long do you / did you have on your auto note before refi? How long is the new note for?

[bettercreditguy1]

Congrats! The neat thing about Pen Fed's 5% is that they remove/deduct it each month before you get your statement. No hassle, period.

[ramblin_wreck08]

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@DesertLife wrote:

Congrats, that is all really awesome! Going from 7.25% to 1.49% is amazing! BTW, how long do you / did you have on your auto note before refi? How long is the new note for?

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Thanks!  I financed it in July 2012 for 60 months.  Having paid a little extra each month, I had knocked it down to 52/53 months remaining despite having made just 6 months of regular payments.  The new loan is for 60 months, but I will save $2k in interest over the life of the loan vs. what I would have paid in interest over the remaining 52/53 months on my old one.  Plus the payment is over $80 less/month.

[LesWH]

I recently refinanced my Range Rover with them. The process went very smoothly. I didn't have to send them a payoff statement, which I thought was strange. They just took my word for it. Although I guess they could see the balance on my credit report. They overnighted the check and documents to me and I went right to Chase and paid them off. My vehicle is worth 16,000 more than what I owe according to their calculation, so maybe that has something to do with it. With the platinum cash rewards card, it allowed me to go through the entire process, including picking a pin for the chip/pin process and told me my limit was 20,000. I have a fraud alert on my file, so I had to verify my identity over the phone and that was it. No paystubs or verification. 

From what I have been reading lately, my situation is NOT normal when it comes to PenFed.

[ramblin_wreck08]

Update! It took a few days but I have been APPROVED!!! I am somewhat disappointed that they lowered the limit to $5k for the card, however. I'm sure this will raise nicely though as I build a relationship with PenFed.

As far as the auto loan refinance is concerned, it shows that everything has gone through, and the car loan is now listed as an account when I log in. However, nothing has changed on my old loan. Will I receive a check, or does PenFed handle everything as far as the transfer is concerned?