I have found my local credit union to be non helpful when it comes to my financial needs and have decided to switch to someone else. I have a penfed membership and am thinking about them but wanted to see if I could find out more first and if they are a good choice for a main bank even with no branch access?
I will not have direct deposit do they care?
I have been a member for more than 6 months so are external transfers instant? If not, what are the average waiting times for funds to be available?
Mobile check deposits instant availability? If not, average hold times?
Overdraft line of credit: Average limit with this type of product? Does it report to the CRAs?
Are transfers from Premium online savings instant to checking accounts or does the 5 day rule apply?
Thank you very much in advance for any information provided about this I appreciate it.
@user979797 wrote:I have found my local credit union to be non helpful when it comes to my financial needs and have decided to switch to someone else. I have a penfed membership and am thinking about them but wanted to see if I could find out more first and if they are a good choice for a main bank even with no branch access?
I will not have direct deposit do they care?
I have been a member for more than 6 months so are external transfers instant? If not, what are the average waiting times for funds to be available?
Mobile check deposits instant availability? If not, average hold times?
Overdraft line of credit: Average limit with this type of product? Does it report to the CRAs?
Are transfers from Premium online savings instant to checking accounts or does the 5 day rule apply?
Thank you very much in advance for any information provided about this I appreciate it.
Update 12/14/22: I would be very wary of using PenFed. They have just implemented the weirdest restriction yet.
When I tried to do a 2nd credit balance transfer, I got the following message:
You've reached your daily limit
warning
You are allowed one balance transfer per day. This includes withdrawals and cash advances.
1. They don't "care" if you have direct deposit but as with all institutions there are certain advantages to having it.
2. I have found that sometimes external transfers are posted instantly. I don't know if it's all the time, however.
3. Their overdraft line of credit has a prohibitively high interest rate, so I would avoid it. Their regular personal line of credit has a more reasonable rate. But I don't know if they're even offering that any more.
4. I don't know the answer on mobile deposits. Sorry.
5. Internal transfers are usually instant, sometimes next business day. PenFed, oddly, has a limit of 1 transfer per account per day.
I find transfers in and out are faster than with most institutions, as are their credit card balance transfers. All in all, PenFed's services can be pretty powerful. It has its oddities, though.
My advice would be to start using the accounts, and get the feel of it, and then if it feels right, take that plunge into its being your primary online account. I have a number of credit union relationships, and PenFed is certainly a strong choice to be a primary institution.
Thanks for all the great info. I'll give them a shot.
I am not impressed at all so far with my new PenFed checking. External transfers are held each time as are mobile deposits (both for 5 biz days). Also with billpay, even if electronic pay is available when i go to make a payment i get a error message about transfer limitations and that the payment must be sent by check. This is super slow banking and not what I am used to and not what I expected from PenFed since I have credit products with them as well.
I am hoping that even though I was a member for over 6 months before I opened the account, that this is all happening because it's the first 30 days and hopefully next month I will see better service and speed with my transactions. If this is how it will be past the 30 day mark I will probably go through the hassle of switching and finding a new checking yet again this will be too slow for me when other banks can do much faster.
I will update after the inital 30 days and report if things have changed. If anyone else has experienced this and after 30 days it was faster please chime in. Thanks.
@user979797 wrote:I am not impressed at all so far with my new PenFed checking. External transfers are held each time
I've never experienced that with them; I have found them to be super fast. Maybe it has to do with the new account/6-month thing.
as are mobile deposits (both for 5 biz days). Also with billpay, even if electronic pay is available when i go to make a payment i get a error message about transfer limitations and that the payment must be sent by check.
I have never experienced that; have found that electronic payments from bill pay are as fast as it gets.
This is super slow banking and not what I am used to and not what I expected from PenFed since I have credit products with them as well.
I am hoping that even though I was a member for over 6 months before I opened the account, that this is all happening because it's the first 30 days and hopefully next month I will see better service and speed with my transactions.
I'm sure it has something to do with the newness of the account.
If this is how it will be past the 30 day mark I will probably go through the hassle of switching and finding a new checking yet again this will be too slow for me when other banks can do much faster.
I will update after the inital 30 days and report if things have changed. If anyone else has experienced this and after 30 days it was faster please chime in. Thanks.
My advice would be to let it sit for awhile and then try again after some time has passed, or to call customer service with a list of the issues and see if they're related to it being a new account.
Update 12/14/22: My new advice, for reasons expressed elsewhere, is to avoid PenFed.
Spoke with Customer service and they were very helpful and this is standard for new accounts regaurdless of membership tenure so I am sticking with Penfed as I believe after 30 days things will be faster. On a more positive note they write up direct and electronic deposits super fast and I really appreciate that. 