Penfed Account Holds

[Absolution16]

@CCrew 

And this transfer is between 2 PenFed accounts?  This seems absurd, considering how long you have had those accounts as a member.

Your DP is severely discouraging.  I certainly don't want to deal with this kind of hassle with my financial institution, as a main, secondary, tertiary, or whatever.  I am now not so sure about even bothering to join any more.

[CCrew]

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@Absolution16 wrote:

@CCrew 

And this transfer is between 2 PenFed accounts?  This seems absurd, considering how long you have had those accounts as a member.

Your DP is severely discouraging.  I certainly don't want to deal with this kind of hassle with my financial institution, as a main, secondary, tertiary, or whatever.  I am now not so sure about even bothering to join any more.

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No, between Penfed and a small local bank I deal with. The local bank is on the ball. Penfed pulled the ACH quickly and the other bank processed it at quarter until midnight on Friday, still not in Penfed. Transfer does show in Penfed - but balance not available. 

[OmarGB9]

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@CCrew wrote:

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@Absolution16 wrote:

@CCrew 

And this transfer is between 2 PenFed accounts?  This seems absurd, considering how long you have had those accounts as a member.

Your DP is severely discouraging.  I certainly don't want to deal with this kind of hassle with my financial institution, as a main, secondary, tertiary, or whatever.  I am now not so sure about even bothering to join any more.

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No, between Penfed and a small local bank I deal with. The local bank is on the ball. Penfed pulled the ACH quickly and the other bank processed it at quarter until midnight on Friday, still not in Penfed. Transfer does show in Penfed - but balance not available. 

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Have you tried transferring between Penfed and a different CU/bank?

[CCrew]

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@OmarGB9 wrote:

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Have you tried transferring between Penfed and a different CU/bank?

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Thats exactly what i'm doing here if you read back. Penfed being the receiving side of the ACH. The ACH was also initiated from the PenFed side. As an additional DP here - now after Friday's ACH and as of today (Wed) the balance shows in Penfed, but the "available balance" shows short the amount of the ACH ($500), so it's either still processing on the Penfed side or it's indeed a hold. My other bank has fully processed the transaction and posted this as last Friday's business. 

[Absolution16]

@CCrew 

That is bad.  Very bad.  Not ideal as a primary financial institution.  Considering how long you have been a member, this is a joke.

I think I will just settle with $5 put into their regular savings account and nothing more.  Just going to age the years of membership in case I might find them useful for an auto loan or something in the distant future.

[CCrew]

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@Absolution16 wrote:

@CCrew 

That is bad.  Very bad.  Not ideal as a primary financial institution.  Considering how long you have been a member, this is a joke.

I think I will just settle with $5 put into their regular savings account and nothing more.  Just going to age the years of membership in case I might find them useful for an auto loan or something in the distant future.

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@Absolution16 I agree. I'm not impressed. I may play with this some more, initiating an ACH next Monday morning and seeing if I have the $ by Friday. My day job I'm a consulting security engineer for a security software vendor and all my direct clients are financial institutions so I know how the data moves. Even if they're waiting for the ACH's to go through clearinghouses it should be absolute tops 2 days. 

[Absolution16]

@CCrew 

Yep.  No way these transfers should be taking that long.  I suspect they are deliberately putting hold on your funds.  Either that, or their IT and system are so outdated full of problems.  Neither of them good.

Even my lowly Ally Bank doesn't do this.  So much for a "CU" and "relationship."  This looks worse than major big banks.  No thank you.

[CCrew]

Thursday. Funds still not available. Penfed shows the transfer in the separate transfer section was completed 3/13.

[Absolution16]

@CCrew 

Just wondering in regards to the PenFed account in question. Is that a "Premium Savings" Account?

I found this disclosure when I read through their documents earlier.  Maybe this has something to do with it?

I actually called PenFed to ask them about this.  I was confused as to what "Premium Savings" Account is.  It turns out it is a special kind of Savings Account that earns higher interest and is a completely different product than a "Regular Share" Savings Account.   I got the impression that such restriction is put in place in exchange for offering members higher interest yield.

You mentioned that you initiated the ACH from PenFed side.  So if your account in question is indeed that special kind of Savings Account, that may explain the delay/hold.  However, if your account is just a plain ol regular kind, then it really should not be happening, and the least you can do is to call and let them know how unreasonable they are.  In such case, it will be more than enough for me personally not to do business with them.

[CCrew]

@Absolution16 it's a regular share savings account. Basically the generic $5 account that was opened to make us members when we financed a truck through them in late 2018. I did call and verify a few things about holds...specifically as it pertains to transfers. I'll note the $ did post today, so it's definitely 5 (banking) days. 

From their message to me in their internal messaging:

"Generally, when you request an electronic transfer or make a check deposit, your funds will be available for withdrawal on the 5th business day after you initiate your transaction at PenFed. If you internally transfer funds from another PenFed account, your funds will be available for withdrawal on the 5th business day after you initiate your transaction at PenFed.
You will start to earn dividends on the business day you initiate your deposit or transfer at PenFed."

Get a load of the line:"If you internally transfer funds from another PenFed account, your funds will be available for withdrawal on the 5th business day after you initiate your transaction at PenFed."

INTERNALLY? IMHO, that's freaking nuts. I primarily bank with NFCU and the small bank I've dealt with for 20+ years, with other money in Fidelity and CD's with NFCU. Barring Fidelity it's instantaneous. I'll leave $500 in that Penfed savings account and a matching Checking just to play the relationship game and get the rewards bump out of the CC they just gave me but that's all the $ they're getting from me. 

Certainly shoots the early data point from someone that they only do it in the beginning.