Penfed chip card?

[mr_postman]

i requested to have my old platinum rewards card replace with the chip card this is what i got

Account Description CurrentBalance AvailableBalance CreditLimit

PenFed Defender American Express - 0583	$8,856.66	$1,043.00	$10,000.00
PenFed Platinum Rewards - 5369	$0.00	$20,500.00	$20,500.00
PenFed Platinum Rewards - 2781	$0.00	$20,500.00	$20,500.00

is this a mistake from Penfed? i already activated the chip card and my old card is still active now i have 2 platinum cards with different account numbers ? and both have 20.5k limit

[pkosheta]

The old one will remain listed during a transition period.  Eventually it will disappear.  I hope mine will.

[Sevenfeet]

I was on the phone with Penfed about this today.  A Platinum Reward Visa with an EMV chip requires an entire new number on your new card.  The process is not as smooth as they would like.  It's literally opening a new account and closing the old one.  I wish I had known that they even did EMV when I applied two weeks ago since my card is in the mail and if I wanted an EMV card now, it's going to be a fair amount of trouble.  So the "double card" thing you are seeing now is perfectly normal.

They are going to have a web application for this that will supposed to be more streamlined.  They had the web page up for a while but took the link off their main web site (you can still put in the URL directly).

I'll likely wait for the card to arrive, activate the account, do the balance transfer I planned on and then wait a few months until hopefully they get their act together with this.  If they don't have a solution by June or so, then I'll probably do this the hard way.

[bs6054]

I've had both active for over a month.  Not really a problem as it increases the total credit limit nicely!

[mr_postman]

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@Sevenfeet wrote:

I was on the phone with Penfed about this today.  A Platinum Reward Visa with an EMV chip requires an entire new number on your new card.  The process is not as smooth as they would like.  It's literally opening a new account and closing the old one.  I wish I had known that they even did EMV when I applied two weeks ago since my card is in the mail and if I wanted an EMV card now, it's going to be a fair amount of trouble.  So the "double card" thing you are seeing now is perfectly normal.

They are going to have a web application for this that will supposed to be more streamlined.  They had the web page up for a while but took the link off their main web site (you can still put in the URL directly).

I'll likely wait for the card to arrive, activate the account, do the balance transfer I planned on and then wait a few months until hopefully they get their act together with this.  If they don't have a solution by June or so, then I'll probably do this the hard way.

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thanks so eventually i loose my 8 months with the regular platinum and the chip card will report as new trade open?

[bettercreditguy1]

Not usually so. During the transition, both accounts show on the reports. After the merger, your history, etc. ties to the new account, the old account number dis-appears. Internally, your payment and other preceedint data stay in their computer attached to your file. Think of it like a lost/replaced/stolen credit card.

[Sevenfeet]

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@bettercreditguy1 wrote:

Not usually so. During the transition, both accounts show on the reports. After the merger, your history, etc. ties to the new account, the old account number dis-appears. Internally, your payment and other preceedint data stay in their computer attached to your file. Think of it like a lost/replaced/stolen credit card.

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Yes, I think this is the more accurate explanation.  Penfed is still a small outfit by credit card standards so some of these processes take some time to flesh out.  Honestly I was surprised they were doing EMV at all at this point until I remembered that their credit union does have overseas branches, which would need EMV support for their customers living nearby.  Unlike my Amex Plat and BofA Cash Rewards cards, Penfed is supposed to be supported chip&pin and well as chip&signature.

Come to think of it, the EMV chip situation screwed up two of my coworkers during a business trip to Switzerland late last year.  We were trying to get tickets for a train from Montreux back to Zurich and my coworkers tried to use their normal Amex Green business cards we all have in the kiosk machines...and they didn't work.  I suspect they were EMV only devices and we just didn't know it at the time.  I had avoided that by downloading the train company's iPhone app and buying the tickets for me online.  My friends boarded the train anyway and paid the conductor, who had a card reader capable of swipe cards for us silly Americans .

I suspect I'll wait until April or so and then ask to transition over to a EMV card if they haven't figured out a new web-based request system.