topic Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it? in Credit Card Approvals

PenFed PCR CLI +$24,200 Confirmed!!

PullingMeSoftly — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 19:27:01 GMT

UPDATE 10/8/20:

After multiple calls, got a super awesome CSR who helped get this done and applied to my account! Limit now officially $36,200. Thanks to @Aim_High you rock!

Original Post:

Been a PenFed member for 8 months, and opened a PCR and Plat Rewards at the time of opening the membership. The 8th statement cut last month, and just received an offer a couple days ago.

Had to dive a little deeper into the nuances of PenFed CLI's, and received some great feedback as discussed here.

Choosing between a CLI or a new account, I opted for an increase to my PCR, which is a $24,200 bump:

So the new credit line is $36,200, but the jury's still out on this one. My understanding is PenFed has a 25k cap on any individual card, and knowing another member was approved for a total over 40k, then seeing that reduced to 25k, I'm wondering if this will stick! (@Aim_High please verify!) Thanks to everyone who helped me to make this decision in the other thread, cheers!

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

Credit4Growth — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 18:18:14 GMT

Congratulations on this CLI!

That's is huge!

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

AllZero — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 18:22:37 GMT

Congratulations on your PCLI!

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

ccquest — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 18:47:13 GMT

Congrats!

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

MyFault — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 19:01:09 GMT

Congrats on your CLI!

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

blindambition — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 20:16:00 GMT

Congrats on that CLI man!! Some nice growth, without much effort.

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

M_Smart007 — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 21:20:59 GMT

@PullingMeSoftly, Congratulations on your CLI ..

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

CreditAggie — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 22:00:14 GMT

Congratulations on your PenFed CLI!

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

gdale6 — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 22:08:33 GMT

Grats on your CLI

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

cashorcharge — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 00:18:48 GMT

That's terrific and congratulations on your approval and decision!

With them being rather generous lately...perhaps the $25K max per card is a thing of the past? Or something they're moving away from...never know....they could be trying to keep up with NFCU!

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

Meanmchine — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 03:26:38 GMT

Wowzer

Congrats !

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

Meanmchine — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 03:28:10 GMT

My PCR just got bumped to $33,200 and its been there for months now

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

cashorcharge — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 03:41:12 GMT

That's great news @Meanmchine

Thanks for sharing that! Perhaps that $25K thing is no longer a thing?!

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

Aim_High — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 00:47:26 GMT

@PullingMeSoftly wrote:
Been a PenFed member for 8 months, and opened a PCR and Plat Rewards at the time of opening the membership. The 8th statement cut last month, and just received an offer a couple days ago.
Had to dive a little deeper into the nuances of PenFed CLI's, and received some great feedback as discussed here.
Choosing between a CLI or a new account, I opted for an increase to my PCR, which is a $24,200 bump:

So the new credit line is $36,200, but the jury's still out on this one. My understanding is PenFed has a 25k cap on any individual card, and knowing another member was approved for a total over 40k, then seeing that reduced to 25k, I'm wondering if this will stick! (@Aim_High please verify!) Thanks to everyone who helped me to make this decision in the other thread, cheers!

@PullingMeSoftly, sorry I've been busy and away from the forums the past week to provide you feedback and answer your questions.* Unfortunately, I'm not the bearer of good news.

(*This thread and also:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/PenFed-Offers-CLI-New-Card-Hmmm/td-p/6150852).

I have held off updating the forums until I had final resolution with PenFed. Unfortunately, they've been absolutely horrible returning my calls or following through, even when I elevated to Supervisors or Managers. I called again today with the contacts and call history and spoke with a Manager again, so hopefully will have more details soon. As of now, here is where it stands.

5/19/2020: Approved for requested $10K CLI with a HP on Power Cash Rewards after six months card history. SL was $15K so new limit was $25K.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Thanks-PenFed-for-the-extra-10K/td-p/6026635

6/06/2020: PenFed "OFFER" in my account login for additional $16.7K in credit on either a new Power Cash Rewards card, a new and different type of PenFed card, (OR) an increase to my exisiting Power Cash Rewards. I chose to increase my $25K PCR to $41.7K.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Surprise-Auto-CLI-from-PenFed-Woooo-Hooooo/td-p/6045251

Like you, I got the approval page like the screenshot you posted above. (See my link.) But the limit in my online account access never updated to the $41.7K limit; it stayed at $25K for weeks. I was puzzled. I just thought it would take some time to update, so I waited. My statement came at the end of the June with no update there either. My "Applications" tab for the new approval just showed "BOOKED" 06/06/20.

After much adieu, it was explained to me that the "NEW" policy was that PenFed would only allow maximum of $25K per card. The problem was, their "old" software that made the offers didn't reflect that and was still making the offers with higher limits. So it was rescinded.

They also told me that they expected to actually lower the credit limits on all cardholders in excess of $25K to lower their risk, so it appeared no one would be grandfathered. I expected to start hearing on My Fico of members reporting CLD back to $25K maximum limits from PenFed, but that never happened!

Instead, there were other members who actually reported approvals higher than $25K. Here are a couple, but I believe I saw another one or two.

@DebtStinks (06/27/2020) $35K SL approval

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/PenFed-Power-Cash-Rewards-35-000-SL/td-p/6065764

@Meanmchine (06/03/2020) $33.2K new limit with CLI.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Penfed-monster-26-600-CLI/td-p/6041819

This is in addition to @M_Smart007's relatively recent approval for CLI to $45K on 04/01/2020.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/PenFed-PCR-Visa-11-500-CLI-Approved/td-p/5970114

I was pretty annoyed. They offered it to me and then took it away. And yet it appeared the application of the new policy was being applied inconsistently, and that was my biggest complaint. I have continued to call periodically to follow up and most recently had been waiting for the manager to call me back. Basically, I had about given up until I elevated it again today. I asked them to either give me a waiver to approve in excess of $25K or at least grant the new credit lines on the new card for which I was approved. (The problem was that I'm not excited as much about their other cards right now but I would take the soft pull approval with them for the additional credit if that is the only compromise they will make. But there was a question as to whether they could even approve the new credit line since it was 'after-the-fact.')

After I saw that they still had not fixed their software, it made me want to call again to complain. If it affects us on My Fico, it affects other people as well. It's not right to make offers to increase credit limits and then not follow through. On the other hand, if others are actually GETTING the new limits, I want mine reinstated also! It's only fair.

So @PullingMeSoftly, sorry to say that the CLI (may) not stick for you also. I will post my findings whenever (or IF-ever) I hear back from PenFed regarding this issue. And also, keep us updated to whether it is ever actually applied to your account!

Also, for additional data points, I'd be interested to hear from @Meanmchine, @M_Smart007, and @DebtStinks among others to see if their starting limits or credit limit increases that exceeded $25K are still at those levels or if they had the same experience that I did. From the response indicated above, I believe @Meanmchine indicated he still kept the higher limit that was approved in June even though I did not.

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

M_Smart007 — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 20:32:46 GMT

@Aim_High, As of today, My PCR CL is still intact.

I will update you if it changes. Given Penfed's horrible software integration,

anything could happen. Definitely always a YMMV with them

I am certainly not going to call, don't want to upset the apple cart.

Sorry you are going through this

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

DebtStinks — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 20:33:34 GMT

@Aim_High

It seems they've been a bit inconsistent. As stated in my post(s) in June 2020, mine was NOT an automated approval and yet was still given a 35k SL. I received a lovely letter last month stating they were reducing my credit limit to 25k...no reason given even when I called to customer service.

It appears they have a few kinks to work out with their new lending guidelines on credit cards.

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

wambeezy — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 21:48:37 GMT

Congrats on the huge CLI 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Very nice!!!

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

PullingMeSoftly — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 22:26:04 GMT

@Aim_High Thanks for responding and the update regarding your PCR saga! I appreciate your willingness to share the story (I considered that to be a myFICO unsolved mystery . It appears I am following the same trajectory as my application status now shows:

So whatever "booked means for PenFed, at least the application is beyond the "completed" stage. Until I see my limit changed online/in app, I'm not cosidering this a done deal.

@M_Smart007 , @Meanmchine, and @DebtStinks Thank you for your sharing your feedback as well and glad to know you've maintained your lines. For a larger credit union like this, it seems negligent for them to have a software issue like this. As a side note, when I called in while trying to understand the parameters of what I could/couldn't do with my offer, the CSR said he didn't see the 24k offer on his end, but instead saw 8k. So I was like, okee dokee bye, and proceeded with the online interface.

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

Aim_High — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 00:57:08 GMT

@DebtStinks wrote:
@Aim_High
It seems they've been a bit inconsistent. As stated in my post(s) in June 2020, mine was NOT an automated approval and yet was still given a 35k SL. I received a lovely letter last month stating they were reducing my credit limit to 25k...no reason given even when I called to customer service. It appears they have a few kinks to work out with their new lending guidelines on credit cards.

Inconsistent indeed! Thanks for your update, @DebtStinks, and sorry to hear of your rollback from $35K to $25K. Apparently, you were affected like they told me about reducing credit limits on accounts in excess of $25K. The $25K is still a pretty decent limit, but I thought I could get a single $50K card out of them instead of multiple lower cards.

Yes, one of the reasons I called back today to speak with a manager was to have someone higher-up look into how inconsistently they are applying their guidelines. I even revealed to a few at PenFed that I had data points from other members of My Fico and the manager today was familiar with us from his days in underwriting, so we have a reputation. Lol He promised to follow-up with me this time and get it resolved one way or the other. After four months, I've been waiting on final resolution of the credit limit increase they offered me, which is pathetic. He seems motivated to make it up to me, so I'm hoping he will grandfather me in with the higher limit unless underwriting still intends to actually reduce all limits in excess of $25K. But so far, there hasn't been any noise about them doing that.

Re: PenFed CLI Approved +$24,200...or is it?

Meanmchine — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 03:05:48 GMT

@Aim_High

Still have my limit as of 1 minute ago. My FICO9 EQ is 833 if that helps with no inquiries on file. Joined dirty. Sporadic usage $100 or so