PenFed no balance transfer offers?

[CreditCuriosity]

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@BuckyB wrote:

Wait a minute... you both don't use debit cards or carry cash but routinely take out cash advances on credit cards?  I don't understand this at all.  Surely, if you're afraid of someone stealing money out of your account with a debit card, there are a few options:

1) Freeze the card on your phone through the app and then unfreeze it right before you need to withdraw cash. I've never heard of someone stealing someone's phone and debit card, accessing his locked phone as well as accessing the app with biometrics, unfreezing a card and then using the card to steal money from an ATM.  The odds of that are nearly nil.

2) Open a separate checking account, put only $500 or $1000 in and carry only that debit card.

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

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One less card I will keep in my car glove box for those occassions if they are stopping that..

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You say that's "one fewer card" you'll keep in your glove compartment and I don't quite get that either.  You're so worried about debit cards being fraudulently used that you freeze them and cut them immediately but you leave credit cards in your car?  I don't get it.

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Credit cards you aren't responsible for charges on above $50. and 99.9% they will never hit you on that.  Some debit cards don't have a feature of freezing them.  I have over 15 different CU/Banks I have $ in for various reasons and prefer not to have debit cards with them.   I only have one active debit card right now that is froozen.  With that said I have had issues with that card before at time I used it at ATM for someone hit me for just under.1k on a few withdrawals somehow I did end up lucky getting my $ back, but you aren't guaranteed this with bank accounts being the same protection as CC's.   Keep in mind if I have time and need say 5k in cash I still go into a bank and pull it out and just show them my DL's. otherwise I have the CC option when needed which i only a few times a year.  Some banks/cu's you still can' freeze debit cards.   I likely have about 5-7 banks/cu cards laying around house with stickers still on them that have between only 200 dollars and 5k in the accounts that arent primary bank accounts just used to store iniital sign on bonuses that likely have $ transferred out or a HYSA type of thing this isn't my primary FI.

[Namaste7]

When I clicked on BTs, I have a balance transfer option for 50% of the CL. I’m not sure if that’s based on the regular APR or the Promise 4.99% rate. When I clicked on cash advance, it said I didn’t have any offers.

I really like the Promise card due to the 4.99% BT rate with no BT fee and continuous offers through the year. I hope this is a temporary restriction; if not, I'll close the card no later than 2025. 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Namaste7 wrote:

When I clicked on BTs, I have a balance transfer option for 50% of the CL. I’m not sure if that’s based on the regular APR or the Promise 4.99% rate. When I clicked on cash advance, it said I didn’t have any offers.

I really like the Promise card due to the 4.99% BT rate with no BT fee and continuous offers through the year. I hope this is a temporary restriction; if not, I'll close the card no later than 2025. 

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Well you're lucky, most of us are getting 'You do not have any balance transfer offers for this card'.

You're also lucky to have the Promise card, since it's no longer being offered.

[NoMoreE46]

Reviving this thread.

So it looks like PenFed's BT will formally end for me Dec 8.

Anyone else get this letter?

[CreditCuriosity]

They must of taken a serious bath of losses being one of the largest CU's and no longer offer BT on their existing CC's

[Jnbmom]

@NoMoreE46  DH and I both got letters this week as well .

[creditrizz]

I have penfed gold and platinum.  Just logged on for researhc purposes and clicked balance transfer and it says:

Your account status is affecting your eligibility for balance transfer. Contact us or use our live chat to discuss the issue.

Both of my accounts have zero balances as I don't really use these cards anymore, just a small transaction here and there to keep them alive.

I've used the 0% apr transfers on both cards previously, paid the minimum monthly until the promo period was almost up and then paid the BT off.  I know they don't make any money off people that do this, so I'm not sure if that's what they mean by my "account status" or if it's just a generic message.

[SouthJamaica]

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@NoMoreE46 wrote:

Reviving this thread.

So it looks like PenFed's BT will formally end for me Dec 8.

Anyone else get this letter?

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Yes I got the same letter.  It's just making official what had already become apparent over the last 10 months or so.

The sad thing about it is that the Promise card, which is the main reason I joined PenFed, was primarily useful to me for the balance transfers.

[SouthJamaica]

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

They must of taken a serious bath of losses being one of the largest CU's and no longer offer BT on their existing CC's

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Yes, in fact they did sustain serious losses, and this was clearly the reason for their dropping the balance transfer feature.

[Tdatb64]

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@SUPERSQUID wrote:

I just called in to Penfed to inquire since I have no BT's available too.

The csr told me that on Dec/7 they changed their policy on BT's. Only when you receive a mailer from them you have an offer, otherwise you can't do a BT period, not even at their regular interest rate.

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I got a letter in the mail a couple of days ago to that effect:

"We are no longer offering standard balance transfers. If your account is eligible for one or more promotional offers, the terms applicable to that promotional offer will be provided at that time. Balance Transfer changes will be made to your account effective December 9, 2024.

The change will impact your account as follows:

     At our option, a special promotional rate may be offered from time to time. The specific terms will be provided at the time of the offer."

It goes on to say that if you don't agree with the changes you may cancel your account, yadda, yadda, yadda...

<Edit>

Oops, I posted this before I read through all the replies to see that one of our denizens already posted an actual copy of the letter. Could've saved myself all that hunt 'n' peck typing...