topic Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa in Credit Cards

PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 02:33:48 GMT

So I'm considering apping for the PenFed gas card but in order to join I would have to sign up for either the "National Military Family Association" or "Voices For America's Troops," which are $20, and $15 one-time non-refundable fee's respectively. Obviously the fee would be worth it if I get accepted for the PenFed card, but if not, i would have essentially paid $15 for a HP.

Does anyone know a way around this? Or, does anyone know how picky they are about the 5% gas card?

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 03:49:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
So I'm considering apping for the PenFed gas card but in order to join I would have to sign up for either the "National Military Family Association" or "Voices For America's Troops," which are $20, and $15 one-time non-refundable fee's respectively. Obviously the fee would be worth it if I get accepted for the PenFed card, but if not, i would have essentially paid $15 for a HP.

Does anyone know a way around this? Or, does anyone know how picky they are about the 5% gas card?

Read around --lots of info here on this.

You have to join something. Do they still have the American Red Cross as a joining option?

I did the NMFA as a one-time deal. I figured that if I could help a kid with a parent on active duty go to summer camp or something, it was worth it.

This is a hard card to get. They want an established history, almost no reported debt, not many recently opened accounts, and very very few inquiries on Equifax. If you're self-employed or have highly variable income, be prepared for a long battle of proving financial worth.

Note: yes, there are exceptions to the above, but they are few and far between.

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 04:28:45 GMT

FOR ALL CREDIT CARDS YOU NEED TO SEND DOCUMENTS TO PROOF YOUR INCOME?

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

wmarat — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:06:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
FOR ALL CREDIT CARDS YOU NEED TO SEND DOCUMENTS TO PROOF YOUR INCOME?

YES

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:53:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
FOR ALL CREDIT CARDS YOU NEED TO SEND DOCUMENTS TO PROOF YOUR INCOME?

Most people do for PenFed CC's. Certainly not for all CC's, as in CC's from all lenders.

When I applied for PenFed, I was a Federal employee, and I just told them my pay grade. Since it's nationally published what people in my job made, they never asked for proof of income.

I've never once had to supply documents to prove income, to anyone. I'm always ready, though.

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:20:46 GMT

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So I'm considering apping for the PenFed gas card but in order to join I would have to sign up for either the "National Military Family Association" or "Voices For America's Troops," which are $20, and $15 one-time non-refundable fee's respectively. Obviously the fee would be worth it if I get accepted for the PenFed card, but if not, i would have essentially paid $15 for a HP.

Does anyone know a way around this? Or, does anyone know how picky they are about the 5% gas card?
Read around --lots of info here on this.

You have to join something. Do they still have the American Red Cross as a joining option?

I did the NMFA as a one-time deal. I figured that if I could help a kid with a parent on active duty go to summer camp or something, it was worth it.

This is a hard card to get. They want an established history, almost no reported debt, not many recently opened accounts, and very very few inquiries on Equifax. If you're self-employed or have highly variable income, be prepared for a long battle of proving financial worth.

Note: yes, there are exceptions to the above, but they are few and far between.

True. It's become the 'white whale' for many.

By the time I'm the CC customer PenFed wants, their product won't actually be very useful. It's a timing issue and I don't own a car. I'm stubbornly keeping the account despite the unlikelihood of ever getting a re-approved offer due to being opted-out.

After 6 or so months of gardening, I'm going for USAA. They have a better interest rate and my chances will be better with them than PenFed.

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

MarineVietVet — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:42:53 GMT

@wmarat wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
FOR ALL CREDIT CARDS YOU NEED TO SEND DOCUMENTS TO PROOF YOUR INCOME?
YES

I can only speak from my experience but I have 7 CC's and have never been asked to verify income for any of them. YMMV.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Red1Blue — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:55:46 GMT

Most of the Credit Union's require the proof of income. I have not see one that did not ask me for proof of income.

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:11:08 GMT

Ok thanks for all the info! I did a quick search prior to making this thread but didn't find what I was looking for.

Again, I don't have a problem contributing $15 to the organizations PenFed lists as options if you are not otherwise eligible, but I don't necessarily want to pay $15 just to get rejected and have another inquiry on my report. If it truly is a difficult card to get approved for I'm not going to bother because although I have a pretty good score (720+) I do have quite a bit of student loans (in deferment) and about 15% util across all of my CCs right now.

I guess the next step for me is to search the forums for info on other gas cards!

Thanks again.

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:24:38 GMT

PenFed does a hard pull when you ask for membership. IIRC, most apply for the card when joining to avoid a second pull.

Searching whogavemecredit to see how your profile matches up against thiose who were approved is always an option.

It's a great product, just hard to get without really excellent credit. I'm not saying don't apply, LOL!

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:00:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
PenFed does a hard pull when you ask for membership. IIRC, most apply for the card when joining to avoid a second pull.

Searching whogavemecredit to see how your profile matches up against thiose who were approved is always an option.

It's a great product, just hard to get without really excellent credit. I'm not saying don't apply, LOL!

I did a search for "PenFed" here: http://www.whogavemecredit.com/index.php?page=search.php&srch=name

Then I did a Ctrl+F search for "Cash Rewards" and it looks like a lot of people with scores in the high 600's/low 700's were accepted. Maybe I do have a shot

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:00:40 GMT

I was just recently approved for a PenFed Visa Platinum Card with a $20K limit. I joined PenFed online last week by joining Voices for America's Troops and since I knew they'd do a hard pull I went ahead and applied for this card. It was pending for a couple of days and then they sent me an electronic message saying, "Additional Income for Consideration." I added my fiance's income and they required that he sign as a joint owner/guarantor - at this point we were able to request the credit line and we put in for $20K.. We sent the paperwork back via email and the next day it was approved for $20K. The card is on its way and is also showing up on my accounts page. So far, they haven't requested any income verification, but I'm ready just in case they do.

They pulled EQ (EQ FICO was at 710 back in late July/early August). I was worried that they'd deny me because just two weeks ago, I had an inquiry with Citi and got issued a $10,900 limit card (the card isn't showing on my CR's yet). On top of that my NFCU inquiry from this past April was there too when I joined & applied for my $10K Cash Rewards card. I think I'll be gardening for a while now that I have this card.

Good luck if you decide to pull the trigger! It's definitely worth it to have this card!

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:49:17 GMT

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So I'm considering apping for the PenFed gas card but in order to join I would have to sign up for either the "National Military Family Association" or "Voices For America's Troops," which are $20, and $15 one-time non-refundable fee's respectively. Obviously the fee would be worth it if I get accepted for the PenFed card, but if not, i would have essentially paid $15 for a HP.

Does anyone know a way around this? Or, does anyone know how picky they are about the 5% gas card?
Read around --lots of info here on this.

You have to join something. Do they still have the American Red Cross as a joining option?

I did the NMFA as a one-time deal. I figured that if I could help a kid with a parent on active duty go to summer camp or something, it was worth it.

This is a hard card to get. They want an established history, almost no reported debt, not many recently opened accounts, and very very few inquiries on Equifax. If you're self-employed or have highly variable income, be prepared for a long battle of proving financial worth.

Note: yes, there are exceptions to the above, but they are few and far between.

They don't show it as a direct option, but it's still in the list.

https://www.penfed.org/howToJoin/overview.asp
American Red Cross
Employees and Volunteers.
A volunteer is defined as anyone who provides wealth wisdom, or work. Wealth can include a blood donation or a financial donation.

The minimum donation to the Red Cross is $10.

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:55:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was just recently approved for a PenFed Visa Platinum Card with a $20K limit. I joined PenFed online last week by joining Voices for America's Troops and since I knew they'd do a hard pull I went ahead and applied for this card. It was pending for a couple of days and then they sent me an electronic message saying, "Additional Income for Consideration." I added my fiance's income and they required that he sign as a joint owner/guarantor - at this point we were able to request the credit line and we put in for $20K.. We sent the paperwork back via email and the next day it was approved for $20K. The card is on its way and is also showing up on my accounts page. So far, they haven't requested any income verification, but I'm ready just in case they do.

They pulled EQ (EQ FICO was at 710 back in late July/early August). I was worried that they'd deny me because just two weeks ago, I had an inquiry with Citi and got issued a $10,900 limit card (the card isn't showing on my CR's yet). On top of that my NFCU inquiry from this past April was there too when I joined & applied for my $10K Cash Rewards card. I think I'll be gardening for a while now that I have this card.

Good luck if you decide to pull the trigger! It's definitely worth it to have this card!

Congrats!

I'm currently a college student and I've only worked at my current job for about 8 months so the only proof of income I have is pay stubs. I've read that PenFed doesn't want/accept pay stubs as proof of income. Do you think I'll have a problem getting accepted?

Re: PenFed Cashback Rewards Visa

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:33:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

...I'm currently a college student and I've only worked at my current job for about 8 months so the only proof of income I have is pay stubs. I've read that PenFed doesn't want/accept pay stubs as proof of income. Do you think I'll have a problem getting accepted?

I don't know about the pay stub issue, but how long is your credit history (oldest account reporting), and what is your AAoA (average age of accounts), if you know it?

If you are of traditional college age (18-23), as opposed to someone going back later in life, that might be a problem there, because PenFed likes to see established clean history for the gas card.

Anyone here successful in getting the gas card when they were still in their early 20's or so, i.e., short history?

As far as I know my oldest account is a student loan from...

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:53:58 GMT

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:

...I'm currently a college student and I've only worked at my current job for about 8 months so the only proof of income I have is pay stubs. I've read that PenFed doesn't want/accept pay stubs as proof of income. Do you think I'll have a problem getting accepted?
I don't know about the pay stub issue, but how long is your credit history (oldest account reporting), and what is your AAoA (average age of accounts), if you know it?

If you are of traditional college age (18-23), as opposed to someone going back later in life, that might be a problem there, because PenFed likes to see established clean history for the gas card.

Anyone here successful in getting the gas card when they were still in their early 20's or so, i.e., short history?

As far as I know my oldest account is a student loan from 2007. Oldest credit card is from 2009 though. My only negatives are two 30 day lates on an account that my parents made me an AU on. Still trying to get those removed.

Re: As far as I know my oldest account is a student loan from...

Red1Blue — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:10:34 GMT

I am not sure what your question is. I am sure they will accept your pay stubs as proof of income. You can always declare additional income in the application and I do not think they ask proof of that. How is you EQ scores and inqs? If you have less than 3 inq's and not may new accounts, you should consider applying for Nordstrom Card. Even if they approve you for store card, after 7 months you can ask upgrade for their Visa Card. It is also a very good card, decent limits and very good customer support.

Re: As far as I know my oldest account is a student loan from...

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:58:08 GMT

@Red1Blue wrote:
I am not sure what your question is. I am sure they will accept your pay stubs as proof of income. You can always declare additional income in the application and I do not think they ask proof of that. How is you EQ scores and inqs? If you have less than 3 inq's and not may new accounts, you should consider applying for Nordstrom Card. Even if they approve you for store card, after 7 months you can ask upgrade for their Visa Card. It is also a very good card, decent limits and very good customer support.

My question was whether or not having proof of income (like income taxes from last year) was an absolute must when apping PenFed. I thought I read it somewhere on these forums and, if that is the case, I don't want to bother apping because the only proof of income I have are pay stubs from the last 7-8 months.

I'm confused, how would applying for a Nordstrom Card help me get the PenFed Cash Rewards Visa? Is the Nordstrom card owned by PenFed?

Re: As far as I know my oldest account is a student loan from...

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 02:16:18 GMT

FWIW,

PenFed did not accept student loans as income when I joined two years ago and applied for the card.

Re: As far as I know my oldest account is a student loan from...

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 02:29:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
FWIW,

PenFed did not accept student loans as income when I joined two years ago and applied for the card.

I don't plan on using student loans as income. I mentioned student loans because hauling asked what my oldest reporting credit was.