No longer recommending PenFed

[SouthJamaica]

I've recommended PenFed in the past, but I'm no longer recommending them.

The customer service from their member service department has deteriorated terribly.

[coldfusion]

What happened? 

I found them to be a solid CU once I got past the initial 6 months worth of noob restrictions hoisted on all new members but I'd agree that their CS is nothing to get excited over. 

[Anonymous]

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@coldfusion wrote:

What happened? 

I found them to be a solid CU once I got past the initial 6 months worth of noob restrictions hoisted on all new members but I'd agree that their CS is nothing to get excited over. 

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I agree with this. 

A post "not recommending" them without details is hard to get behind. That said, I also have found that no business or institution can make everyone happy all the time. 

[GApeachy]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

The customer service from their member service department has deteriorated terribly.

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10-10 listening in.....we've got our ears on.

[Bankrupt2019]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

I've recommended PenFed in the past, but I'm no longer recommending them.

The customer service from their member service department has deteriorated terribly.

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When I got my PCR last month I certainly noticed that they were not Navy🤣😂

[Creditplz]

I can stand behind this 100%, I ditched PENFED back in 2019 eliminating $30k in CL. Customer service is non-existent, then I had to resolve a issue and was told "drive 100 miles to the nearest branch if you want to get it resolved".

then I asked them to close the cards, they froze my banking products and wanted a MEDALLION SIGNATURE TO UNFREEZE MY LEGAL MONEY.

let me tell you..... pretty much no bank would sign that request for medallion signature guarantee since it wasn't a transfer of stocks.... 

had to threaten to sue them to get my funds out of that bank.

[FinStar]

Not sure what issue you experienced, but IMO, just about every FI will not get it right 100%.  Hopefully it wasn't anything horrendous.

I've only had a few hiccups in the entire 5+ years since I joined, but in those instances, they fixed the issues which were minor.

I'm still recommending them (depending on what someone asks) since they still offer a variety of competitive products for a CU of their scale 🤷‍♂️.

[CreditCuriosity]

Penfed is my primary FI although they certainly aren't what they were at one point in time they are still solid for most people that have been with them along time.  With that said I would never take a PL from them or an auto loan from them and various other things as they aren't really competitive anymore with the above mentioned.   Their CC's are no where near NFCU, but you can't compare apples to oranges either as NFCU is a whole different ball game for whatever reason.  I might move my direct deposit to some other FI, but I will weigh my options as they use to be alot better and hope that the expansion they have gone through hasnt ruined them as a good CU for viable products I seek.

[SouthJamaica]

It's just typical 21st century customer service garbage.

Getting treated like dirt, long hold times, nonresponsive responses.

And then when I finally got someone on the phone with half a brain, she didn't have enough knowledge to resolve the issue, and was ordered by her supervisor to resolve the matter in a way that was wrong.

They were behaving like a typical bank with bad customer service.  The kind of 'customer service' that could care less about the customer. I joined credit unions to get away from that kind of treatment.

[FinStar]

Well, if you're no longer satisfied with them, service or otherwise, maybe it's time to look elsewhere and perhaps close your accounts/part ways.  It's fairly common knowledge around the forums that no Bank or CU will be the right fit for everyone.  If you intend on staying with them, your perceived image of any interaction will likely remain the same in the event that you need to contact them.

I agree with @CreditCuriosity.  Over the years, things have changed with PenFed, but thankfully I don't need to contact them that often, if at all.  I'm not saying they're amazing 🤩 during every interaction.

The last time I reached out to  them was during their account conversions plus wanting to consolidate several accounts to simplify things.   I asked around here for DPs, tempered my expectations and assumed a train wreck was possible.   But, I was really surprised the outcome went seamlessly. That's not to say others would've had the opposite experience 🤷‍♂️