PenFed Credit Union Reviews 

I financed an auto through Penn Fed back in 2010 approximately. Excellent payment schedule and paid it off a short time later. During this period of time, they issued a Gold Card charge card to someone using my name. I never applied for a gold card, ever received a gold card and was never notified or billed for monthly payments. According to Penn Fed charges on this card have been going on for ten years. Now I was notified that my balance owed is $29.85 . I spent hours on the phone with them, opened a fraud case with them and they sent me a letter stating it was me. I would pay the amount just to have the daily harassment calls stop, but that would allow the crooks to keep charging. They have filed a negative credit report over this $29.85. This is not a company, in my opinion, any sane person would want to deal with.

This place preys on young soldiers and hates enlisted veterans. These people literally don't even want poor young soldiers opening accounts with them but they have to so they make sure to squeeze as much money out them as possible. God forbid you move away from Fort Hood TX...and whatever you do don't ets and keep this as your bank. They have mistreated and preyed upon so many soldiers i know including me. They don't care about veterans or poor soldiers so trust me battle unless you're making 100k a year with perfect credit you'll regret ever doing business with this place I guarantee you.

I worked for PenFed for one month. They fired me on the last week of training because I was not doing well enough on the phones. Keep in mind it was only my 3rd day taking calls. After lunch the manager and trainer pulled me for a meeting and said my work was unsatisfactory and that I had the option to be terminated or resign. They said I wouldn’t get unemployment either way so I resigned so I did not have a termination on my record. I have applied for unemployment and now they are telling NDOL that I quit because I was “not happy with the location”. That is a COMPLETE LIE. I had previously worked in Waverly, NE and was actually very excited that I had a job that was only 10-15 min from my house. I made that very clear when speaking with them during the hiring process. I am now upset that they blatantly lied on my name. I will never recommend this place. They don’t even give you a full 40 hours. You only work 7.5 hours a day because even with an 8 hour day you get an hour lunch they’re calls are back to back nonstop and they only offer 4 seconds of after call work time. They’re expectations for their work is completely unrealistic. They also only provide 10 min breaks. You don’t get paid much at all either. I hate that they won’t take responsibility for their actions and giving false information to the department of labor. I will take this as high as I need to if that is necessary. I did not sign any paperwork regarding this claim. They seem great, but they really do suck.

😡😡😡VERY DISAPPOINTED! I HAVE BEEN A MEMBER FOR A VERY LONG TIME AND HAVE SAVINGS/CHECKING, AND A CREDIT CARD WITH PENFED. I RECIEVED A LETTER YESTERDAY REGARDING PENFED IS NOW GOING TO CHARGE $95 PER YEAR AS A FEE TO HAVE THE CREDIT CARD (WHEN AGREEING TO THE TERMS, ETC., FOR THE CARD 15 YEARS AGO THE TERMS STATED “NO ANNUAL FEE”), NOW PENFED IS STRONG ARMING THE CONSUMER TO PAY AN ANNUAL FEE! THE LETTER STATES THAT “YOU WILL PAY THE FEE OR CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT”. CLOSING THE ACCOUNT AFFECTS THE CONSUMERS CREDIT RATING IN SEVERAL WAYS. THIS SEEMS LIKE ROBBERY. 😡😡😡. DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHO I SHOULD CONTACT TO FILE A FORMAL COMPLAINT WITH THE BANKING COMMISSION OR FTC, ETC.,
SEEMS LIKE PENFED IS ROBBING THE CUSTOMERS WHO PUT THEIR MONEY IN THE CU.

Bad customer service, no helpful responses. I sent my car insurance since day one and the last month they charged me with their insurance.

I hate PenFed for their overly aggressive and over zealous fraud detection on my credit card. I've been a customer for 12 years and never had any fraud yet they shut my card off 3 or 4 times a year because they think there's fraud. I live in the usa. I recently vacationed in Costa Rica and used my card there. The next time I tired to use it, I couldn't because they shut it off! Now I'm in a foreign country on vacation and my credit card won't work!!! I couldn't even log into my account online. When I tried to call, they were closed.

I am so sick of PenFed and their incorrect, faulty fraud detection software!!! If they temporarily shut my account down again, I'm done with them.

I kept a minimum balance at Penfed because interest rates were better elsewhere but I wanted to keep the account in case I wanted to get a loan in the future. I didn't log into the account for years and then I received a notice that I was below the minimum balance. Come to find out they took my funds and sent them to the state under state escheatment laws. No courtesy warning or anything. They just gave me a website to go search for my funds and try to get them back. Very disappointing.

After three years as a PenFed member, I recently made the decision to close my accounts.

Throughout my relationship with PenFed, I maintained an impeccable payment history and responsibly managed my credit account. PenFed does not accept traditional credit limit increase requests; instead, members are advised that their accounts are periodically reviewed for potential increases. Yet during my entire three-year membership, I never received a credit limit increase.

I fully understand that no financial institution is obligated to extend additional credit and that all increases are subject to underwriting standards. My frustration is not simply that I did not receive an increase. It is that PenFed tells members their accounts are periodically considered, while my three years of responsible account management gave me little confidence that this process provided any meaningful recognition of my relationship with the credit union.

What makes the experience more disappointing is that I referred employees and family members to PenFed, several of whom opened credit card accounts based in part on my recommendation. Some have since expressed similar frustrations.

After three years of loyalty, responsible account management, and bringing additional business to PenFed, I ultimately concluded that the relationship no longer provided value to me.

The final irony came after I closed my accounts, when PenFed sent a message encouraging me to “reapply for membership” in the future to take advantage of its products and services. I found that message particularly tone-deaf. PenFed had three years to demonstrate the value of those products, services, and my membership while I was actually a customer.

I am comfortable with my decision to close my accounts, and based on my experience, I can no longer recommend PenFed to my employees, family members, or others.

Financial institutions certainly have the right to make their own credit decisions. Consumers have the same right to decide where they take their business. After three years, I decided to take mine elsewhere.

I was a member for more than 5 years when on 8.24.2026, I made a purchase AUTHORIZING my routing and account numbers. I spent $467.25 using the bank and my funds in it. Days later, I come to find out that the money was taken out of the account and not received by the end user. Further I come to learn that THERE WAS NOTHING THE BANK WOULD DO TO HELP ME RETRIEVE MY ALMOST $500. Not a single thing. My disputes were rendered VOID. They would put nothing in writing. To this day, I have NOT RECEOVED A PENNY. I foolishly thought the bank carrying insurance would mean the instant return of my funds.

RUN AWAY FROM PENFED CREDIT UNION.

RUN FAR AND GO TO NAVY OR ELSEWHERE!!!

I cannot stress this enough.

Do NOT open accounts with this bank.

Absolute nightmare of a company to deal with. They say one thing to get you in the door and then pull a bait n switch. Avoid this organization like the plague

They don't have underwriters, everything is automated, and they have no way of rectifying what the system does.
When you call in, you get the typical BS where they act like they're helping but only say, "I know the system is effed up, but you just have to deal with it"

They consistently withhold payments and usage of cards, the rates and experiences with cards has not been great at all, and customer service is never any help. I wish I had signed up with another bank when I was opening my account. Don’t make the same mistake that I did!

On Aug. 14 I received a letter stating that the $95 fee for my Pathfinder credit card will no longer be waived, as it had been for the 8+ years my account was active with a qualifying penfed checking account. Today, Aug. 17 the penfed website still indicates that the fee will be waived for Honors Advantage members. When I called I was told "the web site hasn't been updated yet". FALSE ADVERTISING!!!!!!!

I’ve been with PenFed for years at the Temple branch and every single time I go there no matter what day or time drive through or lobby no matter how many people are there I end up waiting 15 to 20 minutes for them to help me and I’m sick and tired of having to deal with this. It’s absolutely ridiculous and I have never had this happen at other banks that I have dealt with!!!!!!!!!

To be fair I don't have an account with these people but I got a text message claiming that I did and when I called to try and have my phone number removed from whatever account it was attached to the person who answered let's call her Jody hung up on me rather than actually helping me little tip if you don't like people yelling maybe be able to tell the difference between somebody yelling at you and somebody raising their voice to be heard. It took two phone calls and talking with somebody that just called her and Lorraine who should be the employee of the month this company to actually get my phone number removed from the account that it should not be attached to because it is not me. Overall this entire company can take a flying fecking leap off the Grand canyon.

Penned customer service hides behind automated policies.

My issue is that I refinanced my car loan with them. They paid off my td bank loan, didn’t get the title from td for months. During that time o was getting automated threatening emails and mail saying I needed to get it.

I called and they said td bank was dragging their feet in getting it out. I said well you need to call them every day, that it was their responsibility to get it, there was nothing I can do as they paid the loan.

Finally they got the title.

Now they are sending g me threatening emails and mail saying if I do not sigh paperwork that they mailed me my loan will go from 5 ish percent to 19 percent!! The problem is I have not received the paperwork they want me to sign.

I called and asked them to email me the paperwork I need to sign so I could get it done. They said they can’t do that. I called on Tuesday and they said if I don’t get it via mail by Friday I can call back and on Friday they can send it out again.

Really? So you can’t email it, you can’t send it out for another 4 days, and in order to process sending it out, I have to call again on Friday?? I work full time, they want to up my loan over 15% due to paperwork and have no sense of urgency to help me get it done.

I asked flat out, so there is no human there that can help me to get this done? and he said no. There is an automated system in place.

He also said the worse thing that can happen is I will have to pay the inflated rate until I can get them the paperwork.

That’s helpful🙄

I received a message from fraud department, anon and telling me to call a number unknown to me so I called a number I knew. I found they had cashed checks I wrote, and then put a hold on my money for no reason that I know or have been told. I confirmed I wrote the checks and confirmed everything was in order. Then this guy calling himself Eric started asking personal questions. Why beats me cause they have already cashed the checks I hav confirmed writing. He would not remove the hold on my account. I asked to speak to a manager and now 48 hours later I am still waiting for that call. I did discover that I could release the hold if I sent photos etc to them. Really this is my account I answered all the verification questions and they still wanted my picture. I wasn’t reopening my account, I want trying to withdraw money I wasn’t reopening merely confirming it wasn’t fraud on a recorded line and confirming everything was copasetic. I did ask how on earth it was going to prevent fraud if they cashed the check before calling me. Why was I informed by email, they manage to send me unsolicited marketing emails on a daily basis.
I am still awaiting confirmation that a wire I sent 10 days ago hasn’t reached it destination despite the money being withdrawn within an hour of my order. What is going on a Penfed. Up till now there have been brilliant but having yo spend 2.5 hours to have a hold on my account taken off is beyond the pale. I repeat it didn’t stop them cashing the checks just creating bureaucracy for me the account holder.

I would give zero stars if possible. The absolute horror this organization put my family and specifically my father through after the death of my mother is deplorable. They canceled automatic payments and scheduled unauthorized payments from their joint accounts and were hardly sympathetic. I immediately advised my father to cut all ties with them. They lost all of his deposit accounts and an auto loan. Shame on them.

Last Thursday I paid my husbands loan payment and received a confirmation number. On Monday I was hit with a late payment on my credit report for said loan. There are absolutely no notices telling you that it will take days. I called hoping for a resolution, instead was met with not 1 but 3 people who told me too bad, you have to call the phone line next time. This is completely unacceptable. What is the point in having web pay option if you aren't going to process the payments. Today is Wednesday of the next week and said payment STILL HAS NOT BEEN PULLED FROM MY ACCOUNT. That's a week of processing!

Process to transfer funds that were wrongly applied to a credit card payment was very difficult to reverse in a reasonable time. Penfed customer service promised 48 hours then 5 business days and yet it is 7 business days and still no action. All I receive is apologies from customer service. I can only assume that their back office is not staffed properly or has not had sufficient training or is not customer oriented.