My EQ was below 600 when I joined in March 2015. However, the account was restricted. I couldn't open a checking acct, couldn't make electronic deposits to the share saving acct, and they obviously weren't going to approve me for any credit products.
What is your EQ Fico 08 score and do you have any negatives?
@Anonymous wrote:
I have been doing some reading and can tell PenFed is probably more conservative than NFCU but I would rather join PenFed for a few reasons. Sounds like they hard pull for membership, then use that same hard pull for a few months if you apply for their products.
Question is what scores are typically needed to simply join PenFed? Thank you!
I don't think anyone really knows the answer to that, especially since PenFed uses a scoring model, FICO NG2 EQ, which is (a) unlike any other, and (b) not available to consumers.
My NG2 was in the 600's, I believe, when I joined PenFed.
The only way I know of to learn one's NG2 score is to join PenFed. After you are a member, they will reveal to you, once every quarter, your score from a month earlier, so that at any given moment, whatever NG2 score you're aware of is between 1 and 4 months old.
I don't know if the correlation is meaningful, but I think my FICO 8 EQ runs around 20 points higher than my FICO NG2 EQ.
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the replies. I know they use the hard pull for membership and then for 90 days for any of their products. After that 90 day period, if my scores have gone up, will they update my scores? For instance if I barely got membership with a 600, then 90 days later I'm at a 700 and want to get an auto refi or CC. Will they use the 600, or do an updated pull?
I believe they do the soft pull quarterly, and a month later let you know what it is.
So if you're going to apply within the 90 day period, and rely on the initial pull, I think you're going to be stuck with the score they initially pulled.
If you were to wait 4 months or more they would do a hard pull and get your current score.
But I'm just guessing about this. I have no concrete knowledge.
They're not brutal on their underwriting standards, but they're not as accommodating as NFCU, so if you're looking for a credit union which will be kind to you, go with NFCU.
My score are below and I was able to become a member last month and was approved for 2 cards but denined the CLOC.
12/27/16 - Eq683 TU666 Ex681 04/05/17 Eq742 TU763 Ex757
@heavyjay wrote:My EQ was below 600 when I joined in March 2015. However, the account was restricted. I couldn't open a checking acct, couldn't make electronic deposits to the share saving acct, and they obviously weren't going to approve me for any credit products.
What is your EQ Fico 08 score and do you have any negatives?
Pretty much this; you can join with scores under 600 as I did back in 2012 for a share account, and my account was restricted as well.
Strangely enough in 2015 I did actually get approved for a 20K PLOC even with my account being restricted, but it was pretty funny in retrospect I couldn't do anything with it like move money from it to the Share account. I exchanged a couple emails and they did wind up unrestricting my account, but the restriction was apparently tied to my credit report / score as they did state they may have to pull again to unrestrict (which they didn't, thankfully that would've been more annoying).
Here is a rather large post on PenFed data points from many on the sight that have been approved (and denied).... closer to the end, about the last 5-10 pages or so... there is some discrepancy about how long the hard pull is used for... 90 days vs. 30 days (more recently noted). http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Pentagon-Federal-Credit-Union-Data-Share/m-...
Personally, I'm waiting/gardening (trying) until my scores improve, as I don't want a restricted account. If you decide to go for it, be sure to come back and let us know how it went.. and/or update the attached thread. Goodluck! 
