PenFed Credit Union Mortgage Rates

Terrible, unavailable, inexperienced, knowledgeable, poor English comprehension, loan officers. Stay away from this company for your mortgage needs.

I attempted to get a VA loan through PenFed. I had no issues with there customer service and they also gave me an amazing rate. I did, however run into one big issue with them that I did not run into with any other VA lender. My loan officer told me since my wife’s ETS date was 10 months from now and she plans on getting out that she would have start working the job she has aligned on the outside within 2 months of closing. You can see why this would be impossible with her ETS date being 10 months out. Based off this policy no military member can count there income for a VA loan if they have more than 4 months until they get out that 4 months is included the terminal leave we allotted. My loan officer claimed this was a VA requirement, but I don’t see how this is possible when no other VA lender has required this.

MANY problems. From not contacting my insurer to glitchy online interface that "shuts off" and charges late fees incorrectly. I have to go in monthly, even with autopay on to see what has gotten buggered up, spend hours on the phone resolving, and getting bounced around from credit union to mortgage side both claiming the other is at fault. I would never use again.

Bar None the worst Credit Union or banking experience that I've ever had.

So here is their hustle and scam. Promise to deliver either a loan or credit cards service, get you to open up a membership with minimum deposit, drag out the process and effectively never approve you over several months. What do they gain? They boost their membership numbers. They increase their overall deposit holdings amounts with your $5. (e.g. 1000 new applicants per month with $5 min deposit=$60k and 12,000 new members a year!) And then they use these numbers to brag to financial regulatory agencies and other suckers that they are a sound and trustworthy financial institution.

Their communication is terrible. Tuesday, next week will be 6 months to close on a VA refi loan. They will not take any responsibility for failing to give you a timely and / or comprehensive checklist requirement for closing. They will ask you to produce all manner of documentation, which I have would have provided generally within 48 hours, and still not be able to set a closing date. The last closing date I had was January. And you can best believe that they will give you all the apologies under the sun and insist that you submit your documentation ASAP, but will somehow never be able to commit to any action on their side. I should have gone with Navy Federal.



I have complaints with HUD and CFPB pending and suggest others file complaints with same and/or FDIC depending upon their issues.

REFINANCE NIGHTMARE that never ended, until I woke up & moved on! --I was drawn to Penfed with what I thought was a low refi rate, but the FOUR MONTH process turned into a nightmare before I moved on. Having EXCELLENT credit, I was never denied, but just stuck in the process, until I moved on to another company and was refinanced in a month with a lower interest rate than I thought I was getting at Penfed.
My two-fold Qualms are: (1) LACK OF COMMUNICATION- Response to emails/phone calls are rare or almost non existent. Progress reports are not given. I went a month without hearing progress, and my loan officer was on vacation for over a week for the first closing date given.
(2) LACK OF ORGANIZATION -I was switched from one officer to the next with new officer not able to see the other officer's emails, is what I was told, so we start afresh.. Duplicate requests for uploads were the NORM, as well as incorrect info. For EX. I was told I had a lien, (which I did not have, as I was refinanced with another company in a month) but no one would email/fax what was needed to verify. Hopefully my emotions are not here, just facts, as I am still a member of PenFed credit union. I am not here to bash, but to give facts. I just don't think refinancing is a specialty and I would not recommend anyone to go through what I encountered from Nov. to Feb. trying to get refinanced. My recommendations would be to work on the team spirit with cross training and being more customer service oriented. Maybe more updated equipment and finding a way to give feedback and respond to customers with progress reports would help. The first upload request is not user friendly at all. After the upload, when questions are asked, one is told that part is not needed. How would a newcomer know this? I uploaded immediately, but it is not customer friendly. This is just my experience and my opinion. Thank you PenFed for an opportunity to share facts from my experience and not my emotions.

Good rates and approval was rather smooth. Customer service is always attentive and helpful. Would like to see minor improvements on the customer website

This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced. We submitted a request that has been completely ignored for several weeks. When we call they give us a new date that reflects they haven't started on the request. When we email the email they told us to submit the request, they never answer. When I tried to use the chat functionality, it disconnected me and then said no agents were available. I would recommend going anywhere else.

I highly recommend you go somewhere else if you are trying to get a VA loan. We started our loan process an early October with a pre-approval we had to update our pre-approval again in November both times qualifying. We found a house in early December with a closing date in late January, they offered us a great interest rate on the VA loan so that is one of the main reasons along with reputation why we chose PenFed over other institutions. The pre-approval process. Everything was going great until the loan was turned over to the loan processor. The loan officer initially emailed us explaining she will be processing the loan and sending it to the underwriters. There was no communication between us and the loan processor for a few weeks so we contacted them. At that time the loan processor explained to us that we will not be qualified for a VA loan because of the residency requirements. I called the VA to verify that my situation does meet the residency requirements the VA asks for. I notified the loan officer what the VA said and they continued with processing the loan. A week past and we were notified by PenFed the underwriters had two questions very minor. We answered both questions and assume the process was continuing. We didn't hear anything again so we contacted PenFed they informed us we would need a letter of explanation to be handed over to the underwriters for the loan approval. The letter was written and emailed to PenFed the following day. Again we did not hear anything from PenFed loan processors so my wife called again at this point we were now informed the loan will not process because they could not use my salary and I wouldn't have to provide retirement benefits. Since this loan has been in with the loan processors they have repeatedly come up with reasons why the loan should not be approved citing the VA lenders notebook. Every time I contact the VA with the questions that PenFed has about my situation they explain that I am correct my situation does fall in the guidelines. It appears for some reason and fed does not like to work with veterans and process VA loans. I was always told the VA loan process was aggravating but that it was the VA that made it aggravating. I am finding out the VA has been the most helpful in the process PenFed seems to not want to process VA loans.

Wasted a lot of time to complete payoff....will not return calls....Calls getting disconnected...Money not applied to principal...stay off...shady business practice

PenFed has sunk to an all time low. 5 or 6 mortgages with PFCU, this refi has been a disaster and I'm only 3 weeks into it. All docs have been uploaded.