PenFed Loan

[Anonymous]

I'm finally seeing the light for eliminating my debt. I managed to get a Penfed Personal loan begining of Feb.. Here was my experience:

• They will mail a check. Interest starts immediately once you are approved. However, the check arrived with a couple of days, which was a nice surprise.
• Website experience: archaic. Something out of the 90's.
• Deposting the check to BOA checking account was only a 1 day hold as it is a bank check.
• Approved for $20K @ 14.99%/5 years with around 690-707 score. Had around 55-60% CC utilization of around $50K NOT inlcuding car loan of about $10K remaining. I paid off the remainder with family loan. Will have a few thousand left on my NFCU CLOC.
• Montly payment is just under $500; I made a $1150 payment prior to any due amount being shown but due on 3/14; next payment date pushed back now to 5/14; account still so new it does not show amount due yet.
• They softpulled to qualify. They hard pulled EQ when applying. TU and EQ show new accounts soon thereafter; still no alerts from EX of a new account.
• Goal: once all my CCs show AZEO next month or two; I will scout for a new loan to pay this one off. My score per the various tools should jump up to about 780+. I have 2 accounts that have 2/3 late pays back in 2015; otherwise clean report. UTIL was killing me.
• I will try to get off cycle reporting and have the lingering interest waived. There is a lot saving there. Amex, BOA and Cap1 already waived some interest. Will NFCU waive payoff interest?

Questions: Overpaying shows that it is pushing back the future due date. Is the accumulating interest based off what figure? I believe that as min amount due is paid; it is applied as normal to P&I as scheduled; and the remainder goes to principal? The added benefit of overpayment is the date push back. Can someone confirm this? If not, do we need to call a PENFED rep to make additional principal payments?

[AllZero]

Congratulations on your loan approval! Thank you for sharing the data points.

I don't have detailed answer for your question. I do know that with PenFed, they do push out the next payment due date.

[K-in-Boston]

Additional payments (or overpayments) will be applied toward the principal, and they do push out payment due dates if the following minimum payment(s) has (have) been satisfied.  Continuing to pay as scheduled will result in a shorter loan term (and less interest); waiting to make a payment until the next due date showing would retain the loan term.  Interest is calculated daily based on the current balance.  There is always an up-to-date payoff amount available that includes unapplied interest.

While their website may not be as modern-looking as Amex or Chase, they're head and shoulders above most other credit unions and some smaller banks; it's pretty easy to find most things (credit card credit line increase is not one of those).

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm finally seeing the light for eliminating my debt. I managed to get a Penfed Personal loan begining of Feb.. Here was my experience:

• They will mail a check. Interest starts immediately once you are approved. However, the check arrived with a couple of days, which was a nice surprise.
• Website experience: archaic. Something out of the 90's.
• Deposting the check to BOA checking account was only a 1 day hold as it is a bank check.
• Approved for $20K @ 14.99%/5 years with around 690-707 score. Had around 55-60% CC utilization of around $50K NOT inlcuding car loan of about $10K remaining. I paid off the remainder with family loan. Will have a few thousand left on my NFCU CLOC.
• Montly payment is just under $500; I made a $1150 payment prior to any due amount being shown but due on 3/14; next payment date pushed back now to 5/14; account still so new it does not show amount due yet.
• They softpulled to qualify. They hard pulled EQ when applying. TU and EQ show new accounts soon thereafter; still no alerts from EX of a new account.
• Goal: once all my CCs show AZEO next month or two; I will scout for a new loan to pay this one off. My score per the various tools should jump up to about 780+. I have 2 accounts that have 2/3 late pays back in 2015; otherwise clean report. UTIL was killing me.
• I will try to get off cycle reporting and have the lingering interest waived. There is a lot saving there. Amex, BOA and Cap1 already waived some interest. Will NFCU waive payoff interest?

Questions: Overpaying shows that it is pushing back the future due date. Is the accumulating interest based off what figure? I believe that as min amount due is paid; it is applied as normal to P&I as scheduled; and the remainder goes to principal? The added benefit of overpayment is the date push back. Can someone confirm this? If not, do we need to call a PENFED rep to make additional principal payments?

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Welcome to the forums!

There are no tools for a simulated score that I would consider reliable.  Out of curiousity, did you have multiple 30 day lates in 2015 or were they greater than that?

[Anonymous]

My two oldest cards going on 18 years had late pays: I was unemployed during that year. The 60 day had a silver lining and helped motivate me to find a job that was outside my industry and out of my area. Still working for them today btw and I love it.

Cap1: two 30s ( March and sept.)

Cap2: two 30s and one 60 day (Feb and Sept/October)

[AllZero]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My two oldest cards going on 18 years had late pays: I was unemployed during the year. The 60 day had a silver lining and helped motivate me to find a job that was outside my industry and out of my area. Still working for them today btw and I love it.

Cap1: two 30s ( March and sept.)

Cap2: two 30s and on 60 day (Feb and Sept/October)

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You should consider sending out GW Good Will letters. There has been some success stories in the Rebuilding Your Credit sub forum with Capital One.

[Anonymous]

I wish! I recently tried in December. I stated I will be buying a house soon and asked for GW. Which is true. I would be golden if I could get rid of those late pays. Executive office called back about a month later and denied it. They are required to report it as the explained.. I tried my best charm responses and that did not budge them... I also tried before a few years ago. From all the things I read it is almost impossible. But if if there is a new success stories, I would be interested in reading it.

[AllZero]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I wish! I recently tried in December. I stated I will be buying a house soon and asked for GW. Which is true. I would be golden if I could get rid of those late pays. Executive office called back about a month later and denied it. They are required to report it as the explained.. I tried my best charm responses and that did not budge them... I also tried before a few years ago. From all the things I read it is almost impossible. But if if there is a new success stories, I would be interested in reading it.

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Check out the sub forum. Keep trying until it happens.

I would recommend reading the below from BrutalBodyShots
The Saturation Technique: Best GW adjustment odds.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I wish! I recently tried in December. I stated I will be buying a house soon and asked for GW. Which is true. I would be golden if I could get rid of those late pays. Executive office called back about a month later and denied it. They are required to report it as the explained.. I tried my best charm responses and that did not budge them... I also tried before a few years ago. From all the things I read it is almost impossible. But if if there is a new success stories, I would be interested in reading it.

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Advice I offered another member based on my research and subsequent success with Wells Fargo (perhaps the toughest nut to crack). Use, or not, as you see fit.

A couple of things I learned from my GW experience with WF that I expect are (mostly, if not entirely) transferable to other lenders:

* some/many lenders carte blanche policy is to make no GW adjustments although they will consider requests that involve a "catastrophe." This catastrophe is often (some more loosely than others) defined as a naturally occuring disaster (think: earthquake, hurricane, etc). 

* many/most lenders standard rebuttal is "we are required by contractual (legal) agreement to ONLY report accurate information to the CRA and, as such, we are unable to honor your request ..."

I learned this by starting my GW campaign with a series of phone calls. Once escalated to the Executive Office I got a very nice lady who kindly explained to me why my situation did not apply. No, it didn't. But I learned how I would need to reshape my situation subsequently.

So I would suggest in your rewrite you consider the need to overcome these two obstacles: 1) they don't want to help you; 2) they will argue "our hands are tied."

So your task is two-fold: 1) Untie their hands; 2) Make them want to help you.

Your odds of success will be improved if you can incorporate a "catastrophe." And then add to that a lovely "asking" tone, plus the rebuttal that "I would never ask you to report inaccurate information to the CRA in violation of your agreement" only that "you not report anything at all." Which, by the way, they frequently do without provocation. 

A couple of other tips: 

* keep it short & clean (edit, edit, edit);

* tell no (discernable) lies -- you need to come across as fully authentic;

* blow no smoke up their a_____;

* make your case emotionally without sounding pathetic;

* win the argument of why you should get GW relief.

Good luck.