Penfed Approval?

[Anonymous]

I am currently in the re-building of my credit journey and i was curious if anyone knew if it might be possbile to get the cash rewards with Penfed.  I was able to join NFCU (family member) so i know i can get in with Penfed, just wasnt sure of the criteria they use for cards. I tried to read thru the page but with 400+ pages it was alot after about the first 50 or so. 

I know NFCU is more based off DTI and UTI and i was able to get an unsecured card albeit a low limit.  i'm okay with that cuz i'm still building and before i go into the garden i thought about trying for just one more.

My siggy has my updated scores for this month and still sub 600, but my aaoa is 4.7yrs and my uti is 14% ( hard to keep low since 2 cards are low limits)

Thanks for any advice/info you can help with.

[Anonymous]

There criteria for credit cards is quite a bit more conservative than NFCU, I have two NFCU card with pretty high limits (14k and 18K) plus a 15k CLOC and I cannot get approved for a credit card with Penfed.  My suggestion is to continue to bulld your scores and when you get around 660 or higher join Penfed and take advantage of that HP to get your CC.  They use the same HP for 90 days.  They are pretty sensitive about applications, utilization and AAOA so I would suggest at least 90 days without any applications or new accounts before you apply in addition to the mid to upper 600 scores.  They use equifax data and have their own scoring system so YMMV a little bit but they seem to be fairly close to the Fico 8 CC scores.

[fltireguy]

OP - Do NOT join Penfed until your reports are fairly clean, apparently it will make a difference in the preapproval offers, as well as other things if you join with dirty reports....

[fltireguy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

There criteria for credit cards is quite a bit more conservative than NFCU, I have two NFCU card with pretty high limits (14k and 18K) plus a 15k CLOC and I cannot get approved for a credit card with Penfed.  My suggestion is to continue to bulld your scores and when you get around 660 or higher join Penfed and take advantage of that HP to get your CC.  They use the same HP for 90 days.  They are pretty sensitive about applications, utilization and AAOA so I would suggest at least 90 days without any applications or new accounts before you apply in addition to the mid to upper 600 scores.  They use equifax data and have their own scoring system so YMMV a little bit but they seem to be fairly close to the Fico 8 CC scores.

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Workingfor850 - I was approved with EQ655 for $11500, and reconned to 15000 (I just couldnt get them to match my NFCU limit..lol I tried though) 

Heres the thing. I had/have a LOT of Inq (65 then), and a LOT of new accounts, and somehow I got an instant approval...  Maybe I got lucky/ IDK, but I cant believe that they just will not give you a card... (esp. because on EQ I have 3 dismissed BK that are over 7 yrs old)

[Anonymous]

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@fltireguy wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

There criteria for credit cards is quite a bit more conservative than NFCU, I have two NFCU card with pretty high limits (14k and 18K) plus a 15k CLOC and I cannot get approved for a credit card with Penfed.  My suggestion is to continue to bulld your scores and when you get around 660 or higher join Penfed and take advantage of that HP to get your CC.  They use the same HP for 90 days.  They are pretty sensitive about applications, utilization and AAOA so I would suggest at least 90 days without any applications or new accounts before you apply in addition to the mid to upper 600 scores.  They use equifax data and have their own scoring system so YMMV a little bit but they seem to be fairly close to the Fico 8 CC scores.

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Workingfor850 - I was approved with EQ655 for $11500, and reconned to 15000 (I just couldnt get them to match my NFCU limit..lol I tried though) 

Heres the thing. I had/have a LOT of Inq (65 then), and a LOT of new accounts, and somehow I got an instant approval...  Maybe I got lucky/ IDK, but I cant believe that they just will not give you a card... (esp. because on EQ I have 3 dismissed BK that are over 7 yrs old)

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Believe it, tried twice and was denied both times once for the Platinum Rewards and once for the Promise card which is their lowest.  They approved my wife who has nearly identical credit but did not have recent apps or new accounts.  No big deal for me, I have over 100k in available credit right now I am not using so I will just try when I come out of the garden next year.

[Anonymous]

I was approved for a used-car loan in February with EQ FICO (NextGen 2) score of 690/691. I have a Chapter 7 bankruptcy from 2014 and a 2011 judgment for homeowner's association fees on my record, along with lates on student loan from late 2013/early 2014, but set against that, I've been rebuilding my credit for a couple of years now, have had a longstanding relationship with Penfed dating back decades to my high school days, have never burned them in any way, and at the same time I got my loan made a large deposit to get my long-inactive share account going again. I know the criteria for car loans (which are secured) are different from those for unsecured CC loans, but I saw a data point yesterday from another member who got approved for a Power Cash Rewards with EQ in the 650's and a BK less than 2 years old, so I'm hopefully optimistic that I'll get approved for that card or at the least a Promise in the fall when I complete my gardening phase, which by September will have been 6 months without a new application, account or hard pull (assuming I don't get hard-pulled when I try for my CLI's with Capital One, Discover and Amazon soon!).

[Anonymous]

I'd wait until those scores come up a bit before trying with PenFed. They are more conservative than NFCU. 

[AverageJoesCredit]

I agree with fltireguy in that the dirty file stigma seems to stick. I got in with a bk7 still on my report , its off now and have been with them about a year now. No preapprovals or offers as of yet. Nor do i expect any . Combine the dirty file and low income, i have a better shot at getting approved for a Navy Powrcash Card

[NC84]

I got in with penfed 1 year post bankruptcy. I just found out the other day I can use the penfed card at a local credit union ATM. I'm tired of going to the gas station to withdrawl money on my Capital One 360 checking account. I have the plat rewards cash with them for 6500k

[Anonymous]

Yeah I got a 723 credit score with them and still was denied because too many recent open accounts