Penfed no longer offers 24/7 Credit Card Customer Service

[tussking]

Shocked...This must be something new. Just when I opened a new Power Cash Visa and was looking to give them some love...Nope.

Back to NFCU with my monthly charges.

[Anonymous]

Do you routinely call banks? And if you do you call them at 2 AM?

[NRB525]

not sure why this would be a dealbreaker

[bourgogne]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Do you routinely call banks? And if you do you call them at 2 AM?

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2am..thanks for that, I just sprayed tea all over my xps 13 lol...

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Do you routinely call banks? And if you do you call them at 2 AM?

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Maybe a valid case if one notices that his/her wallet is no longer within sight at 1:50AM and determines that it is lost at 2:00AM?

Although, nowadays many issuers allow one to freeze card(s) using app/website so might not be a huge issue and could be quicker than going through ID questions with CSR after a long hold.

That said, for travel oriented cards the story is different. What if one is in a hurry to let an auto declined charge go through in a timezone that happens to not be in the wee hours when it is 2:00AM EST? What if one faces an emergency situation and wants to call help from the Global Assist®/CSR? Of course these probably not going to happen routinely, but getting burnt once in these situations can easily make one think of the horror routinely for many years to come.

[Anonymous]

What ifs can go on forever.

[kdm31091]

My guess is they decided there weren't enough people calling at the odd hours with issues that can't be resolved more easily (website, app, etc). It's not worth keeping the phone lines open if no one is using it at that time.

Yes, there is always that 1% of situations where it could be an issue, but hardly a dealbreaker.

[UpperNwGuy]

I have only called a bank once at 2am in my 45 years of having credit cards.  That was when my Chase card wouldn't work in a European ATM at 8am Sunday morning (Central European time) shortly after my plane landed.  Chase couldn't help me anyway, so a friend loaned my some Euros until Chase finished their overnight system updates a few hours later.

I rarely call lenders.  I think it has been two years since I've called UNFCU, and a year since calling PenFed or Chase.  I haven't called NFCU in four or five years.  I called Amex and Citi about 18 months ago to close my cards.  I've never understood why folk in this forum seem to enjoy chatting up customer service reps so frequently.

[Sharingan]

I always appreciate businesses that don’t aim to be (below) average, and strive to deliver a higher level of service than the competition. Regardless of whether or not I would actually phone PenFed at 2:00 in the morning, I’m not really one to welcome less service with nothing in exchange. I feel exactly the same way about Walmart or Target (...) expecting customers to ring up their own items at self-checkout without a discount when they decide to close down staffed registers. That’s certainly one of the reasons why I drive past those stores, but I digress. I don’t even think I can consider PenFed as being average with this change since so many basic credit cards have 24/7 customer service... “The cost of doing business.”

[UpperNwGuy]

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@Sharingan wrote:

I always appreciate businesses that don’t aim to be (below) average, and strive to deliver a higher level of service than the competition. Regardless of whether or not I would actually phone PenFed at 2:00 in the morning, I’m not really one to welcome less service with nothing in exchange. I feel exactly the same way about Walmart or Target (...) expecting customers to ring up their own items at self-checkout without a discount when they decide to close down staffed registers. That’s certainly one of the reasons why I drive past those stores, but I digress. I don’t even think I can consider PenFed as being average with this change since so many basic credit cards have 24/7 customer service... “The cost of doing business.”

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You sound like an Amex kind of guy who shops mostly at Nordstroms.