Pentagon Federal Credit Union Auto Loans Reviews

The original lien holder released the title and sent it to PenFed which was misplaced by them (they say that they never received it but the original lien holder insists that they sent it) and I was bombarded with mails telling me that would increase my interest rate to the max if they didn't receive the title within 150 days of loan approval. It is a pure case of mismanagement and ineptness with which they handle these kinds of things. Now I need to apply for my duplicate title. This has to be one of the most irritating experiences ever.

Credit score 740, mortgage, car loan and no credit card balances.

I joined PenFed on a Monday morning, paid the $15 fee to one of the organizations and $5 to fund account, and applied for the 1.74% auto refinance. Automatically conditionally approved. All I had to do was send the 10-day payoff letter from the current lender. Emailed the document that same day. Did not hear from anyone or receive status emails outside of the normal thanks for applying, which could concern some people. However, logging in online, I monitored the status of my loan. I called for information on Wednesday and thought the service was great - no wait time, friendly service, was explained all was well and my application was currently being looked at by a loan officer, and to call back later for an additional update if needed.

I called back Thursday. They said the loan was complete and was advised of next steps. I would be sent a promissory note and a check to send to current lender. Online, my status noted "transferred" and I saw the balance in my online account with option to start paying. I received packet in the mail on Friday with all instructions and the check. Now here, you do have to do some additional work and be careful to read all instructions. You have to mail the check to your current lender, fill out a few forms, obtain insurance verification and make sure the current company transfers and sends the title to PenFed.

I would rather take care of this myself than pay another organization (Blue Harbor wanted a $299 app fee and $150 title transfer fee. What a rip) to do it. Got everything filled out and mailed out Saturday. Quick and painless process. I received an awesome rate with no fees (even my current bank wanted an origination fee). Would highly recommend.

This is a very sloppy credit union, which has very unprofessional staff. When I tried to get an explanation, the first rep hung up on me and the second one told me I needed to understand that they are a very conservative credit union. As I tried to speak with him, he interrupted me multiple times and kept repeatedly trying to get me off the phone by saying, "Anything else I could help you with?" If you really want a good credit union, try Randolph Brooks FCU (1.9% on vehicle loans). At least they work with members and they don't lie to you when you're submitting applications nor do you have to pay to become a member, because they have more ways to qualify for membership.

“Please provide this information as soon as possible today by 2:00PM EST either by email or fax (703) 838-1555, Attn: Ms. ** to our office. Once received, we will review and process the draft accordingly. We are under strict guidelines from the Federal Reserves to process your draft the same day upon receipt and if unable to do so, the draft must be returned unpaid. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our office at 1-800-247-5626 ext 1282 to discuss this matter.”

This is the crazy part to me. I responded that I was more than upfront about what I applied for and even called about the vehicle to inform PenFed, giving the VIN for the actual vehicle and was told I could proceed under the 72-month term. Further, they sent me an email to notify me I have 3 hours to respond to it? That is very unprofessional. Ultimately, it makes no difference. We'll take the 60-month loan and we'll pay it off before that anyway. This is very sloppy work by PenFed. I do not recommend trusting PenFed. I have always had far more positive experiences with USAA.

PenFed has representatives who have no knowledge about the whole process and misguide customers. When I called Penfed to apply for loan on February 14, the lady named Sarah was so patient and spent 2 hours to file the application for me. However, after that, every call I made has been a mental torture for me. She assured me that the loan approver would go through the application and would come back to me in 48 hours. Weeks passed by and there was no information on the application. When I called them, I was told that the application has been turned down because of "less credit experience.”

I was suggested to get a guarantor who has a long and good credit history and would take the responsibility of the loan in case I don't pay it. I managed to get a guarantor who has 12 years old good credit history and faxed it to PenFed. After that, I used to call every day for 7 days to PenFed to know the status of my application and every time they keep telling me the same reason of being turned down: "less credit experience.” It was annoying because I gave them the guarantor form. On the 7th day, I talked to the loan approver somehow and she told me that they never received the guarantor form! I told her the exact date, place and fax number from which I sent the form and she found it in her system. Then and there, she entered all the details of the guarantor and again turned down the application with the reason that the guarantor was in Virginia and I was in New Jersey. For God's sake, if you wanted a guarantor from the same state, you should have informed me when I was looking for one!

I do not believe that it could be a law that the guarantor has to be in the same location for ownership of the vehicle - that vehicle which hasn’t even been bought yet. That is the weirdest reason I have ever heard. I am capable enough of paying the loan amount of $15k in 2 months! But I applied for loan so that it could help me build my credit history. Still, PenFed did not approve the loan and I don't even know the reason behind that. I tried to negotiate with them on the rate, loan amount and tenure of loan to increase/decrease it so that they can approve it. But they were so stuck on "no" that they didn’t even hear me completely. PenFed’s systems are so obsolete that they never gets refreshed with the current fax details and their representatives are very misguiding. They never informed me that in spite of a good credit score, a guarantor, a great salary and a co-applicant, they would decline it without any sensible reason/explanation.

Three years later they begin calling us saying that we owed a balance for the car. I spoke to a "Mike" who said that gap only covered 125% of the MSRP, and then I spoke to "Sheri" who said that when the insurance payment was made it paid the car note for three years, not paid the car off. Erik assured me that the GAP coverage had been applied. I then spoke to "Donna" who said she thought gap covered the amount financed and said she would help but did nothing. The calls have kept coming and no one wants to admit that they lied about the gap coverage. On the Pentagon Federal Credit Union web site I found where it states "GAP coverage covers the loan balance that your primary insurance carrier did not cover.” To date they are threatening to forward my file to attorneys and bill me for the fees.

They can care less about my tenure with them and that really is making me consider finding another bank. Their criteria for rating a customer is not fair and whoever makes their business decisions is very unfair and will make them lose a lot of business. They probably don't care because they have a lot of active duty members so that is a lot of money they bring in easily. Be careful when selecting your financial institution. If they won't work with you then they are not worth it.

This happened for both my equity loan and my auto loan. I finally got a manager and she said "Oh, yes I can see it it's here on the computer". Okay, when I got the documentation I called up and told them I don't want credit life. A girl marked on the form CL and threw it over to the loan folks who intepret this as close loan so they put a stop check. I noticed that money was being taken out of my account so I called and they told me the stop check was issued.

I finally talked to a manager and she told me they are sorry and it was a mistake. I have to start the procedure all over again. I always get a different person when I call. They are running a country club and don't seem to care. Here are the things that I found out (Between the equity loan and the car loan):

1) No one was on the same page. Customer service, supervisors, managers will all give you different telephone numbers or tell you something different from the previous person.

2) There were no numbers to call and you will find it hard to get any information.

3) Training seems to be lacking in both the management, customer supervisor areas.

4) Our federal government needs to do an investigation of this organization.They clearly need some guidance on how to run this business. It is important because they service military personnel and these people in harms way need better treatment than this. I hope you will send this to some oversight committee on banking and credit unions. I have been working on an auto loan for a month. It would be nice if you could get a loan officer. Every time I call they are not in their office. I, of course, got a number after a month. I see other complaints so I do not feel alone. Our troops deserve better treatment.

Although it is the federal government, I don't get how it is legal or ethical lending practices to entice new members without disclosing all details of the advertised rate and requiring the payment into a special fund. Do the calculation yourself. There are 3 million plus people within earshot of the radio ad, and if each of those applied to become a new member with Pen Fed, they automatically receive--are you ready for this--$75 million just for becoming a member! I’ll just stick to Apple Federal Credit Union where they have fair and disclosed lending practices.