Penfed membership question

CreditCuriosity · ‎08-14-2015

Ok PenFed is coming on my radar since they seem to be very generous lately even with a bit of a tattered profile... Is it a SP or HP to join penfed? Not apply for any Credit product at this point, just membership. My EQ is clean with exception of very old lates. Temptation is starting to get to me.

GoldSorata · ‎08-14-2015

I've been looking into them a bit. You are better off applying for membership when you are ready to get credit through them. My understanding is its a HP on EQ for membership and they'll use the same HP for 90 days for any credit products.

Anonymous · ‎08-14-2015

@CreditCuriousity wrote:
Ok PenFed is coming on my radar since they seem to be very generous lately even with a bit of a tattered profile... Is it a SP or HP to join penfed? Not apply for any Credit product at this point, just membership. My EQ is clean with exception of very old lates. Temptation is starting to get to me.

It is a HP to join. The same HP is used for any products (except mortage) that you may app for within 90 days. I am looking to refinance and I was told that they have to do another HP for that fwiw.

kdm31091 · ‎08-14-2015

Probably best to wait until you are ready to apply for credit so you can get more out of the HP. Besides, if you are tempted to join, you know you'll be tempted to apply for credit once accepted!

CreditCuriosity · ‎08-14-2015

Lol hate when they move threads... Anyways, just found this again.. Ya will wait, they have just been awfully generous lately and wanted to build a relationship, but it appears they don't really need a relationship or any of my money for awhile for credit products.. Thanks for the answers all

CH-7-Mission-Accomplished · ‎08-14-2015

I'm curious about Penfed and those with BK7s. Will they give out any of those nice credit limits with a BK7 reporting? Three years post? Five? Seven? Or not until the public record falls off at 10 years?

Just making my wish list for future goals.

ddemari · ‎08-14-2015

When I joined the forums there was a big PenFed CC/ membership thing going on. I didn't know much about Credit Unions, all I knew is all the local ones near me didn't except me. So I was reading about how CU's are great for people looking to establish credit, get big lines of credit and LOW apr's. So I was thinking ok great! I can join PenFed with a 9 year old BK mid 650's FICO's and see what happens.

So I joined, Hardpull on EQ for entry. But that hard pull is good for 30 days. So once you join, you can apply for any of their products using that pull for 30 days.

They use FICO Next Gen EQ score. PenFed is STRICT on their underwriting. Its like a layered combo of US Bank and Citi underwriting criteria. They hate lots of inquiries, they hate anything negative and they will manually review your apps.

Also, I have read that joining PenFed with anything negative on your CR will create a hinderance for you to get any preapproved offers with them down the road. I have had a share account with them for a while now. They are not interested in me at all. EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE.

Revelate · ‎08-14-2015

@ddemari wrote:
When I joined the forums there was a big PenFed CC/ membership thing going on. I didn't know much about Credit Unions, all I knew is all the local ones near me didn't except me. So I was reading about how CU's are great for people looking to establish credit, get big lines of credit and LOW apr's. So I was thinking ok great! I can join PenFed with a 9 year old BK mid 650's FICO's and see what happens.

So I joined, Hardpull on EQ for entry. But that hard pull is good for 30 days. So once you join, you can apply for any of their products using that pull for 30 days.
They use FICO Next Gen EQ score. PenFed is STRICT on their underwriting. Its like a layered combo of US Bank and Citi underwriting criteria. They hate lots of inquiries, they hate anything negative and they will manually review your apps.

Also, I have read that joining PenFed with anything negative on your CR will create a hinderance for you to get any preapproved offers with them down the road. I have had a share account with them for a while now. They are not interested in me at all. EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE.

Doubt that DD; they dropped their underwriting shorts maybe at the beginning of this year or so. Also I think their preapprovals are based on AR data, and they don't do any sort of AR's with just a share account.

My dirty birdy file was approved for a 20K PLOC instantly, I damned near fell off my couch in shock.

Don't know if I necessarily buy the wait till you're ready to apply option - length of membership does count for a lot of lenders / credit unions, and it might with penfed. I know I took the HP for membership back when I started, and only just recently wound up applying for any of their products... much on the same theory as you, conservative as hell lender, but then looking at the approval data, that wasn't bearing out anymore.

They're finally starting to act like the top 5 CU by assets they are.

ddemari · ‎08-17-2015

@Revelate wrote:
@ddemari wrote:
When I joined the forums there was a big PenFed CC/ membership thing going on. I didn't know much about Credit Unions, all I knew is all the local ones near me didn't except me. So I was reading about how CU's are great for people looking to establish credit, get big lines of credit and LOW apr's. So I was thinking ok great! I can join PenFed with a 9 year old BK mid 650's FICO's and see what happens.

So I joined, Hardpull on EQ for entry. But that hard pull is good for 30 days. So once you join, you can apply for any of their products using that pull for 30 days.
They use FICO Next Gen EQ score. PenFed is STRICT on their underwriting. Its like a layered combo of US Bank and Citi underwriting criteria. They hate lots of inquiries, they hate anything negative and they will manually review your apps.

Also, I have read that joining PenFed with anything negative on your CR will create a hinderance for you to get any preapproved offers with them down the road. I have had a share account with them for a while now. They are not interested in me at all. EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE.
Doubt that DD; they dropped their underwriting shorts maybe at the beginning of this year or so. Also I think their preapprovals are based on AR data, and they don't do any sort of AR's with just a share account.

My dirty birdy file was approved for a 20K PLOC instantly, I damned near fell off my couch in shock.

Don't know if I necessarily buy the wait till you're ready to apply option - length of membership does count for a lot of lenders / credit unions, and it might with penfed. I know I took the HP for membership back when I started, and only just recently wound up applying for any of their products... much on the same theory as you, conservative as hell lender, but then looking at the approval data, that wasn't bearing out anymore.

They're finally starting to act like the top 5 CU by assets they are.

Congrats!! Good to know, I have been seeing lots of approvals and pre-approvals, I definitely have been jaded on them lol.

Anonymous · ‎08-23-2015

PF was a hard pull but they have been very generous to me in regards to credit limit. I was able to go from a 12k credit limit to 25K limit in a matter of 8 months. They did do a HP again when I asked for the increase.