Penfed, good or bad?

[Ladyofthelake]

Hello. I am interested on Penfed power cash 2% back on everyting.  I want to get some feedback. (I love USAA and NFCU too, but I don't have any military tie. They won't let me in, but I can join penfed by opening a saving account). 

Also. I am curious about their free checking and general member service.  

What is your experience with Penfed? What is the good and the mew about them?

Thank you.   

[FinStar]

They are a pretty decent credit union, in my experience.

Just keep in mind that sometimes any application requests could require POI, and based on the thread below, you can potentially run into an issue if they request it.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/AMEX-asking-proof-of-Income/m-p/6503835#M1810288

[Mero_mero]

There are a lot of 2% cards out there.  What makes this one, one of the best, is no minimum redemption rate and you can redeem your cash back as a transfer to any external bank account you'd like.  It's true cash back and not statement credit card.  Find another 2% card that does the same regarding minimum redemption and to external banks for cash back.

The only con I can think of is I like instant notifications when the card is run.  PenFed has this, but it's through a Visa text service and not pushed via an app like Cap One, Amex, or Citi.

[Ladyofthelake]

@FinStar Thank you. I definitely will take that into consideration. If I run into a request to POI, I'd waste a hard pull. I want to avoid it ASAP. 

[Ladyofthelake]

@Mero_mero Yes. I like citi doube cash too, but I hate the 3% FTF. Lol. 

[SUPERSQUID]

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@Ladyofthelake wrote:

Hello. I am interested on Penfed power cash 2% back on everyting.  I want to get some feedback. (I love USAA and NFCU too, but I don't have any military tie. They won't let me in, but I can join penfed by opening a saving account). 

Also. I am curious about their free checking and general member service.  

What is your experience with Penfed? What is the good and the mew about them?

Thank you.   

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Just keep in mind to get 2 pct cb you need one of the following,

1 - have a minimum of 500 dollars in a checking account

or

2 - be an honorably disharged veteran.

otherwise its a 1.5 pct cb card.

[CountryLivin]

I have been a member of PenFed for about 10 years and I really like them. I joined through my dad, who is sadly no longer with us. I have  also been a member of NFCU since I was 12. I wish I could get into USAA, but no military tie anymore. PenFed is a pretty nice credit union, in fact they sent me a pre approved offer for the Power Cash Rewards Card, which I accepted. Pretty low starting limit, only $500, but I charged $350ish to the card and paid it off, and then did almost $400 and paid it down to $20 and let the $20 report...I called and asked about an increase and they actually gave me $2000. I really didn't expect them to raise the limit until at least the 6 month mark at the minimum, but they surprised me.

[GatorGuy]

In my experience they have been a great credit union with good customer service. Their Power Cash Rewards is definitely a solid card and one of the better 2% cards out there. 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Ladyofthelake wrote:

Hello. I am interested on Penfed power cash 2% back on everyting.  I want to get some feedback. (I love USAA and NFCU too, but I don't have any military tie. They won't let me in, but I can join penfed by opening a saving account). 

Also. I am curious about their free checking and general member service.  

What is your experience with Penfed? What is the good and the mew about them?

Thank you.   

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They're good.

They have a powerful web site.

Customer service is decent.

The free checking is fine.

To get 2% (as opposed to 1.5%) on Power Cash Rewards you need to make direct deposits totalling $500 into your checking account each month. But they seem to accept ACH transfers from your external accounts as direct deposits.

They limit credit card total limits to 50k.

They have some peculiar limitations on transfers & the like, but nothing too bad.

During 1st 6 months fund availability is slow; after that it's super fast.

They have their peculiarities, but the good far outweighs the bad.

[unsungivy]

Currently using them as our primary FI, and P2 has the Power Cash Rewards at 2% (he's active military).

I don't like that we don't see "pending" charges for most things, only pending deposits from internal sources (ie, if I initiated a transfer from another bank, I don't see that, but if I have direct deposit or mobile deposit from a check, I do). This has not caused an issue yet, but it definitely could... for example, I could do payments to multiple cards and not be aware that more has already been set to pay out than I am aware of, causing bounced payments.

I also don't like that when we went back later after joining to open a Premium Savings account, it did a hard pull for me as a joint owner. Just for a savings account to an FI I already was on regular savings and checking accounts with!

I also have not been able to connect to Plaid with them.

Otherwise the Power Cash card is great, the premium savings is great, I like being able to initiate most transfers from them, even if it's not with them, etc. The only issues are the ones listed above.