topic Re: Penfed Pathfinder Strategy in Credit Card Applications

Penfed Pathfinder Strategy

Gingi — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 14:37:32 GMT

Just joined Penfed a few days ago. Opened a free checking account and premium savings account with $500 initial deposit to the savings account. When I try the pre-qualify link for the Pathfinder (or any of their CC's for that matter) it only comes back with a $5,000 CL. I'm looking for at least $10k and preferably $15K-$20K.

Income- low 6 figures

Rent- less than 8% of my gross income

Here are my stats:

EQ Fico 8 - 778

Util- 4%

AAoA- 13 years, 11 months

AoOA- 39 years, 4 months (bc of Amex backdating on an AU account. I'm not old enough to have had credit 39 yrs ago)

Newest Account- 5 months

1 inquiry in 24 months

0 inquires in 12 months

Only baddie is one 30 day late from 2.5 yrs ago

Current CLs- $17K, $4K, $3,600, $600, AU on a $6K CC

2 Amex charge cards

Do you think the reason the pre-qualify tool is only coming back with a low CL is because I'm a new member?

Would it help if I deposit $10K (or more) to the savings account and wait 30 days? I don't love the idea of losing over 2% in interest but if it will help with starting CL then it's worthwhile.

Re: Penfed Pathfinder Strategy

Gingi — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 14:51:03 GMT

Forgot to mention that I also set up $500 of my monthly paycheck to get DD to my Penfed checking account. First DD will hit in the middle of this month.

Re: Penfed Pathfinder Strategy

SouthJamaica — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 17:57:02 GMT

@Gingi wrote:
Just joined Penfed a few days ago. Opened a free checking account and premium savings account with $500 initial deposit to the savings account. When I try the pre-qualify link for the Pathfinder (or any of their CC's for that matter) it only comes back with a $5,000 CL. I'm looking for at least $10k and preferably $15K-$20K.

Income- low 6 figures
Rent- less than 8% of my gross income

Here are my stats:
EQ Fico 8 - 778
Util- 4%
AAoA- 13 years, 11 months
AoOA- 39 years, 4 months (bc of Amex backdating on an AU account. I'm not old enough to have had credit 39 yrs ago)
Newest Account- 5 months
1 inquiry in 24 months
0 inquires in 12 months
Only baddie is one 30 day late from 2.5 yrs ago

Current CLs- $17K, $4K, $3,600, $600, AU on a $6K CC
2 Amex charge cards

Do you think the reason the pre-qualify tool is only coming back with a low CL is because I'm a new member?
Would it help if I deposit $10K (or more) to the savings account and wait 30 days? I don't love the idea of losing over 2% in interest but if it will help with starting CL then it's worthwhile.

1. I don't think it would help.

2. They do have a premium online savings account presently generating 3% interest.

3. I don't think $5k is such a low limit.

Re: Penfed Pathfinder Strategy

coldfusion — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 21:00:31 GMT

Penfed does grant SLs in the $15-20K range for the Pathfinder but they've always tended to want to get to know you a little bit before opening up the floodgates for their cards.

Re: Penfed Pathfinder Strategy

Gingi — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 22:37:35 GMT

Thanks for your insight. I do have the Penfed premium online savings account at 3% but the interest rate on my HYSA with a diff CU is 5%. FWIW, I. went ahead with my "plan" and 1 hour after depositing $8K in Penfed, the pre-qual tool came back with $10K instead of $5K. I'm still going to wait a few weeks before applying as I am not in a rush for this CC.

Re: Penfed Pathfinder Strategy

zerofire — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 17:22:44 GMT

The Pathfinder is PenFed's premium card. They are not going to just hand it over with all the bells and whistles to anyone that asks. I do believe that 5k is the minimum but since you want more then you will need to make PenFed more comfortable with you, how exactly is your choice.