Auto Pay for PenFed Credit Card Question

[Anonymous]

I realized I had not yet set up auto pay for my PenFed Power Cash card, so I am filling out the required form and will soon mail it in. I'll be setting it up to pay the minimum payment as a backup, but I plan to not let a balance post on my card statements.

However, in the event I do let a balance post with a statement and then immediately pay it, how does their system handle the auto payment of the minimum payment? Does PenFed's system recognize when a statement balance has been paid, and an auto pay is no longer needed for that specific statement? Alternatively, does the system debit an auto payment of the minimum balance anyway, despite the statement having been paid in full before the auto payment date?

Depending on the amount of hassle, I'll be more diligent about not letting a balance post on that card when the statment cuts. Having auto pay is no question, as I don't want to risk being delinquent in the off chance I forget that I had a balance.

[AllZero]

I pay before statement cuts and reports zero. I have my auto pay set up for back up. It doesn't pull extra payment if your balance is zero.

I don't have an answer to your specific question.

[NRB525]

wait, you are snail mailing in an autopay setup?

I haven't been able to get PenFed autopay to work to my liking so I don't have autopay on it. Others seem to get it to work. Maybe I need to try again.

Online.  

[Anonymous]

I only said mail because that is what the form indicates. As far as I know, there is no way to set it up online (well...no clear way that is...). I would have already set it up if there was a way to do it online.

Perhaps a call or secure mesage to PenFed is in order for me. Not having to wait for a form to get to them through the mail would be preferable.

[Anonymous]

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@NRB525 wrote:

wait, you are snail mailing in an autopay setup?

I haven't been able to get PenFed autopay to work to my liking so I don't have autopay on it. Others seem to get it to work. Maybe I need to try again.

Online.  

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So...there are sometimes I think I'd lose my head if it weren't attached to me. I took another stab at it and got auto pay set up! Thank you for confirming that it can be done online!!!

For the sake of making it absolutely, abundantly clear for anyone with this question in the future, I went to Make a Payment under the Tranfers tab. That is where I was able to set up an auto pay as a recurring payment, with the option to specifically pay the minimum payment due. My problem was thinking I had to type in a specific amount to pay to set up a recurring payment. I probably got this impression from my consistent use of the Transfer Funds bar on the right side of the account overview page, rather than making payments/tranfers through the transfers tab.

Technology always humbles me. I can set up fancy functions in excel...but get confounded by a website...

[UpperNwGuy]

I was wondering what this thread was all about because every time I pay my PenFed cards I have to be careful to click on "one-time payment" to avoid inadvertently setting up a recurring payment.  My feeling is that PenFed makes it too easy to set up autopay.

[Rogue46]

That's good to know I too didn't think there was a way to autopay. 

[MrT_521]

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@NRB525 wrote:

wait, you are snail mailing in an autopay setup?

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This doesn't apply exactly, but I had to do this with my SDFCU credit card. There is no option to set up autopay online, at least from a non SDFCU bank account, which I'm using. In fact, I'm not even sure it's possible even if you're using an SDFCU bank account for payment. You can set up to pay a specified amount via autopay, but not to pay the statement balance or minimum payment. I had to send in a form via snail mail.

Maybe it's a credit union thing.