Thread: Just applied for a PenFed membership... and Platinum Rewards Card

So, I just applied for a PenFed membership with the full intention of applying for the Platinum Rewards Card.

After I set up my account and established my pin, the CSR asked if I was interested in any of their banking products such as a credit card or auto loan. I asked if it was frowned upon especially wi me being a member all of 15 seconds. She kindly replied, "no".

So, I went through the application process and she came back with " the application has to be sent to a loan officer for approval" I was a little worried but its better than a flat out denial. She said the department was backed-up and to check back in 24-48 hours.

I created my on-line account and checked the status of my application and I have a proposed credit limit of $1,500. Fingers crossed I get good news in the days to come.

From members personal experiences, does this card grow with you? I am a little confused by the initial CL.

Good luck I hope you get it. My only thought is, why not ask for 5k?

They didn't ask me what I wanted my credit limit to be.....otherwise I would've asked for something more comparable to my other CLs

I just called them back to add additional information to my application. I plan on doing a balance transfer of 3k from 2 of my other cards. So we'll see if that helps any.

Well, I was denied.

Reason being, "sufficiently obligated with unsecured indebtedness" basically my credit utilization is too high. Which I should've been a little more mindful and paid my cards down before applying. Which is what I usually do but I don't know why I didn't this time. At least it was a soft pull used from when I applied for membership and not a wasted hard pull.

They pulled a 718 from Equifax

After I pay my cards down. What's a good amount of time to wait before applying again? Thank You for your help in advance.....

Originally Posted by Jslimm1985

Well, I was denied.

Reason being, "sufficiently obligated with unsecured indebtedness" basically my credit utilization is too high. Which I should've been a little more mindful and paid my cards down before applying. Which is what I usually do but I don't know why I didn't this time. At least it was a soft pull used from when I applied for membership and not a wasted hard pull.

They pulled a 718 from Equifax

After I pay my cards down. What's a good amount of time to wait before applying again? Thank You for your help in advance.....

"Sufficiently obligated with unsecured indebtedness", I guess they couldn't just say "Utilization too high" or those of us with normal intelligence might "get it" without reading it twice. Rather than saying "Good morning, honey" to their wives, these folks would say "Good pre-noon timeframe, sweet, bee-derived substance" and rather than say "I used a fork to eat a potato" it would be something like "I utilized a multi-tined instrument to process a starch resource". You get the idea.
I think my favorite example of this of possibly all time was Al Haig explaining to an aide why he's not going to get a requested raise:
Al Haig: "Because of the fluctuational predispositions of your position's productive capacity as juxtaposed to government standards, it would be momentarily injudicious to advocate an increment."
Aide: "I don't get it."
Al Haig: "That's right."
Did ANYONE get that the first time through? I sure didn't.
Anyway I'm sorry they declined you. Every lender is different - Amex requires a 30 day wait for example, and this seems to be the minimum I've seen from a lender, so you should wait at least a month before applying again, and it will probably take that for your utlization to go down and be reported anyway. Certainly at the most you could re-apply in 90 days. I'm not sure what their requirements are. But you for sure can apply again within 3 months, and a month may work.

Lol yea. I giggled when I read their reasoning.

I may just wait a awhile. Denial sucks but I dug my own grave on that one.

Sorry. My verbiage was off. The membership was a hard pull. I said soft pull in reference to them just using the pull for my membership.