@Anonymous wrote:As I read with drooling envy all the glee acceptance posts on PenFed I decided to take the Pen Plunge. At first I was only going to sign up for the membership, but I read they did HP and that HP would be used across any/all products for 90 days. So I applied for their top tier card. Was denied. Called and spoke to member services, who recommended I apply for the lower tier card. No new pull, still denied. Called to recon today, spoke to manager, who spoke to senior loan officer. Due to 2 c/offs, even though paid, they couldn't/wouldn't consider my app. Think my PenFed Eq was 629, my FICO EQ is 690. Lesson learned. No love lost.
Sorry for your denial. I would try it again in a couple months down the road and if it's still denied try a recon again but send them a secure message and explain in detail why they should take a second look. I was denied the first time, both on the original app and recon, last November but it worked for me the second time I tried doing a recon this past tuesday..
AU:
@mitchblue wrote:I'm curious how many Inquires you had? It helps with Penfed if you have few, and not many recent.
Not sure I agree with this as I had about 10 within 2 months at that time and got their top two cards.
Starting Score: 660
@westcoastpeach1965 wrote:
@mitchblue wrote:I'm curious how many Inquires you had? It helps with Penfed if you have few, and not many recent.
Not sure I agree with this as I had about 10 within 2 months at that time and got their top two cards.
YMMV kind of thing. Not set in stone plus the OP's score aren't rock solid so they might have more of an effect. But yours are similar so what do I know.. 
@mitchblue wrote:
@westcoastpeach1965 wrote:
@mitchblue wrote:I'm curious how many Inquires you had? It helps with Penfed if you have few, and not many recent.
Not sure I agree with this as I had about 10 within 2 months at that time and got their top two cards.
YMMV kind of thing. Not set in stone plus the OP's score aren't rock solid so they might have more of an effect. But yours are similar so what do I know..
My scores might not be "rock solid" yet, but I did manage to get two nice PenFed cards, so apparently, that's not all they're looking at.
@Anonymous wrote:As I read with drooling envy all the glee acceptance posts on PenFed I decided to take the Pen Plunge. At first I was only going to sign up for the membership, but I read they did HP and that HP would be used across any/all products for 90 days. So I applied for their top tier card. Was denied. Called and spoke to member services, who recommended I apply for the lower tier card. No new pull, still denied. Called to recon today, spoke to manager, who spoke to senior loan officer. Due to 2 c/offs, even though paid, they couldn't/wouldn't consider my app. Think my PenFed Eq was 629, my FICO EQ is 690. Lesson learned. No love lost.
There are lots of other fish in the sea
@Anonymous wrote:^ True dat. I have some nice scores but not a lot of history. They barely gave me entrance. My promise card started at 2k.
You have some other really nice cards though. I hope to have scores like yours within 6-8 months of aging. I have an excellent mix, so maybe that was what they liked. I also don't have a single late, so that definitely helps. I'm really not sure what all the parameters are for PenFed, but as the above poster stated, there are other fish in the sea!