PenFed uses this FICO score

[maceto]

777 Eq today, will be 785 or so in 2-4 days when yet another cc reports 0.

[-Wade-]

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@maceto wrote:
777 Eq today, will be 785 or so in 2-4 days when yet another cc reports 0.

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well your score is higher than mine was when i got the card 3 years ago. It's up to you if you want to try for the card again.

[Anonymous]

Was talking about this on the other recent penfed thread but will essentially double-post here. I just got a penfed cc (on the day i joined the CU) with a 1y11month history and two accounts under 6 months. Had no inq on EQ. My FICO is probably in the 750s but i don't know.

I applied by phone (website was down) and asked the guy how they feel about credit history. They say they generally prefer longer history but will extend credit to someone who with short history as long as they don't seem to be on a cc binge or overextended. I interpreted that to mean that they generally like to see no inqs and low credit/income ratio. Note that this was a CSR not an underwriter. In any case i would say you should get it unless you already have a ton of credit relative to your income

[maceto]

Income is 140, have 90K spread over 5 cards. Rest is just stinking cc lines. A total of 107.500 if not mistaken. About 15K I have tied up on one card (which brings my utilization up). Clearly I can do a balance transfer and fool penfed as I can play with dates stuff posts...

I doubt they will accept me as is. Reason I have the 15K; I paid down over 10K on the cars to get them refinanced (from 10% to 2.5%). The 15K is on 0% until next summer.

I earn enough, if I eat pasta with ketchup for dinner for 1 month I can pay it off .outgoing expenses (car,rent,utilities etc are less than 2500). Just so much shiny out there ;-)

I want in with Penfed to consolidate all (car,checking,cc's), will only keep my Amex CC and close Discover, Barclay, Élan IT etc. my AAoA will not adjust much and overlap so no issue in 10 years. I played the credit score game well when started (AU on a 15 year old citi account with 42K credit- this allowed me to apply for everything under the sky and landed me where I am today. But having played the game, I want to retire :-). All in one is less work and pain. Which is why Penfed makes sense

[hot4u]

Lack of recent retail account information
Your FICO® Score evaluates your mix of credit products, and your credit report shows no retail accounts or sufficient recent information about your retail accounts.

I have one lonely Retail card- Macy's

Have read since its a different Tier Card (Retail) It does add to the credit Mix..

[ecocredit]

I don't see it on my account How do I get it? I just have a savings account with them...

[CS800]

Penfed looks for a near perfect credit profile for credit products. I had 4 lates that were 6 years old and my EQ FICO was 747 about 2 years ago and still would not give me a card . Util was 3%

Reason for denial a paid charge off that was about 5 years old then also. So after trying to get a penfed, i gave up years ago.

I only had a checking with them so no FICO for me

[BigBS]

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@CS800 wrote:

Penfed looks for a near perfect credit profile for credit products. I had 4 lates that were 6 years old and my EQ FICO was 747 about 2 years ago and still would not give me a card . Util was 3%

Reason for denial a paid charge off that was about 5 years old then also. So after trying to get a penfed, i gave up years ago.

I only had a checking with them so no FICO for me

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Interesting.  I have been with PenFed since 2002 with motorcycle loans, auto loans, a mortgage, money market and savings accounts.  Hit a rough patch from 2007-2009 during which time I was late on the mortgage 9 times (a couple of those at 60 days) and when I applied for their Platinum VISA in Jul 2011 was given my highest limit of any card.  My scores were in the low 700s and 2.5 years since last late.  Not sure what my AAoA was, but had recently app'd for a Chase freedom and HH Gregg retail card.

Definitely a YMMV situation, but I think I would be leery of applying for another CC with them for fear of 'pyramiding debt' as a denial reason.

[FutureBillionaire]

The Penfed site is still down. 

I have a card with Express, and I've had it for years. We'll see how that impacts my score.

I have two CCs and a savings with them. I had a checking account, but I closed it. I regret that I closed it, because I want to use it now.  I don't want to use another hard pull to open another one.

[maceto]

Turned me down, to recent apps/cards little history etc. so I am now refinancing auto's with my local at 1.65% as up 7500 on both cars. So happy to bring it down from 2.6%. Saves me a few dollars a year (also a principle to pay as little as possible) Upped my Discover (SP) to 5500, Barclay's to 7500 (HP) as only 20 days since they gave me an auto CLI. Citi up from 15 to 25K. My local credit union (where refinance autos - will call me on the cash back cc in less than 30 min) So goodbye Penfed and hello to the rest!