PenFed Power Cash Rewards

[SFLSpotter9210]

Good day everyone. Well I received a snail mail preapproval letter today. So I've been wanting to join this CU but, have been reluctant to do so due to all the negative reviews I've seen about how conservative they've been. 

Well I went ahead and applied and was accepted to join. Then I tried funding said account but, couldn't due to some technical issue. So I went ahead and gave them a call and a nice lady helped me fund account. 

So after getting the funding squared away I proceeded to ask her about the preapproval offer I received in the snail mail today. She asked me to please give her the approval offer numbers in which I did. Then she explained that the application process was a SP and if I wanted to take advantage of the preapproval I could and that too would be a SP as well. 

It kinda caught me off guard by her telling me it would be a SP. So I decided I better get on here and find out from the experts if it truly is a SP or a HP. Does anyone have any data suggesting it would be a SP? I'd really like to take advantage of the preapproval if it's a SP. 

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there. Thanks in advance for all your replies.

[Anonymous]

Penfed will use the hard pull from opening your account for any other products you open with them within a certain period of time. They'll just soft pull to make sure you didn't, like, file bankruptcy today or something. 

[SFLSpotter9210]

The funny thing is the rep told me that the membership was a SP too plus the acceptance of the preapproval would be a SP too. I've never read that on here as of yet. That's why I figured better get on here first before I accept the offer. Plus I haven't received any notifications of any inquires as of yet for the membership application. 

[Anonymous]

Yeah PenFed membership has been a SP lately and there have been some SP card approvals (as well as HP approvals) but always expect a HP and be happy if you don't get one. No matter what anyone says, there are exceptions to every rule. 

[SFLSpotter9210]

Thanks for your data points. Should I wait till some accounts show PIF or just go for it now? My utilization will be at 5% when those hit my reports. It's sitting at 7-8% now but after they report it will drop down to 5%. Thanks for your fast repsonse to my posting. Hope your doing well in Colorado I love it there wish my wife would move there with me lol. 

[Anonymous]

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@SFLSpotter9210 wrote:

Thanks for your data points. Should I wait till some accounts show PIF or just go for it now? My utilization will be at 5% when those hit my reports. It's sitting at 7-8% now but after they report it will drop down to 5%. Thanks for your fast repsonse to my posting. Hope your doing well in Colorado I love it there wish my wife would move there with me lol. 

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I would go for it honestly. Your utilization is considered in the normal range and 2% won't make a difference unless you have a maxed out card. 

Things are okay here in CO. We don't seem to be hit as hard as some other places. Even groceries are still reasonable here. Nowhere else I would rather live.

[SFLSpotter9210]

Yeah I'm in South Florida and were finally starting to get back out in the open lol. I agree with you statement that by waiting it would be no big deal won't make that big a difference. As far groceries are hit or miss here and prices really haven't gone up but, truthfully I don't really pay attention to the cost. I shop at Fresh Market and we shot there every Tuesday and they have a special 2.99 per pound for chicken so we buy 5 lbs every week whether we need it or not just to throw in the freezer can't hurt to have. Again thanks for your timely response.

[recoveringfrombk7]

Confirming that I joined a week or two ago and it was a SP for membership.

[SFLSpotter9210]

Thanks for the confirmation 👍. 

[Aim_High]

Well, these recent soft pull reports are all a big change from less than six months ago, but it's a positive change! 

PenFed has traditionally been a HP-crazy lender.  They would do a HP for membership and then another HP (both EQ) for a credit card.  I even went into a local branch in November 2019 to try to avoid the double-pull.  The customer service representative who opened my account explained that they had to do both independently since their computer systems for banking and credit didn't crossflow information.  They were separate.  Sure enough, I got two HPs. 

That aside, I've been very pleased with PenFed.  The people were friendly and the branch manager even called and followed up with me the next day to see how my experience was with them.  And the CS rep and manager arranged to waive their normal monthly fee for paper statements since I like to get those and they normally charge a fee. 

I have some money saved with them in Premium Online Savings that pays a rate competitive to some of my other money markets, current rate in this down market is still 1.25%.  (I think it was 1.60% when I opened it.)

Power Cash Rewards earning and redemption is easy and starts at a penny.  Their app (iphone) has been a little wonky sometimes but they just updated it again and it seems to be better.

Welcome to PenFed!