Penfed mortgage/heloc, etc

[wbond]

I first joined Penfed in 2009 for a mortgage based on advice in this forum.

What do people think now?

Thanks,

wbond

[renegade06]

I’ve had negative experiences with PenFed. In the two times that I needed to access my money from the high yield online savings, there were problems. Most recently, it took 3 days and multiple phone calls for me to transfer $$ from PenFed to USAA (it was a computer glitch on their end). I ended up wiring all of my $$ out of there and put my cash in VMFXX at Vanguard. I would not have faith in working with PenFed on a mortgage - especially if it was a competitive situation and you needed a prompt turnaround. Everyone I dealt with was nice, but there did not seem to be any hustle in help me fix my problem.

[Mike Scott]

Depends on how competitive they are on a specific product at the moment.

[wbond]

Depends on how competitive they are on a specific product at the moment.

Meaning something like, if the terms are worth it put up with the service?

But, not as good a deal as 15 years ago?

[Colorado14]

I previously held a mortgage with them and had a great mortgage rate. Customer service was terrible; maybe that has improved, maybe not. After I paid off the mortgage, I dropped membership due to the poor customer service. Overall, the cheap rate was probably worth the hassle... Good luck with whatever you decide.

[harikaried]

We opened a 5/5 ELOC with PenFed using our home almost a decade ago with no opening or ongoing fees and the process was quite easy then. There was no initial borrowing requirement, and we generally kept it at $0 balance. The interest rate didn't adjust upwards at 5 years, so now it's a better rate than what we can get otherwise and has a balance that we're not aggressively paying off. That might change if it adjusts later next year for the final 5 years.