someonesomewhere Posted March 19, 2007 Report Share Posted March 19, 2007 I had accounts with Penfed. When the wife and I fell behind on bills after a couple of job layoffs, I figured since they're a CU they would be the easiest to work with. Wrong answer.Contacted 'em and told 'em about the layoffs, was starting a new gig, but there was a move involved and the new employer didn't provide medical coverage for 3 months so I had to pay for COBRA for 3 months. We were tapped out, and we were gonna be late.Penfed said sorry, nothing they could do to help. About 4 or 5 months later, contacted them again as I could, at that time, bring the accounts current. Would not talk to us. Referred us to the CA. Said it had gone to CO.Contacted 'em several times over the past 5 years. Offered to make payments, offered about $1000 down ($4200 total debt) and payments. Nothing. Wasn't even trying to negotiate for favorable reporting to the CRAs. This was before I ever found CIC or Kristi's book.Knowing all I know now, woulda gotten a telephone recorder and let 'em rack up violations. With almost every call, the CA they employed threatened lawsuit, garnishment of 70% of wages, and even one time threatened jail. SWMBO took most of the calls, but SWMBO is AKA She With Whom One Must Not Trifle AKA She Who Does Not Blink At Threats.CA stopped calling about 2 years ago. OC gave it to an attorney last year. Finally arranged payment options with him. Going to try to negotiate it away with a lump sum payment in exchange for deletes using the threat of job layoff.Still fighting with Penfed as they are incorrectly reporting on SWMBO's CRs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNY Posted March 19, 2007 Report Share Posted March 19, 2007 I had accounts with Penfed. When the wife and I fell behind on bills after a couple of job layoffs, I figured since they're a CU they would be the easiest to work with. Wrong answer.Contacted 'em and told 'em about the layoffs, was starting a new gig, but there was a move involved and the new employer didn't provide medical coverage for 3 months so I had to pay for COBRA for 3 months. We were tapped out, and we were gonna be late.Penfed said sorry, nothing they could do to help. About 4 or 5 months later, contacted them again as I could, at that time, bring the accounts current. Would not talk to us. Referred us to the CA. Said it had gone to CO.Contacted 'em several times over the past 5 years. Offered to make payments, offered about $1000 down ($4200 total debt) and payments. Nothing. Wasn't even trying to negotiate for favorable reporting to the CRAs. This was before I ever found CIC or Kristi's book.Knowing all I know now, woulda gotten a telephone recorder and let 'em rack up violations. With almost every call, the CA they employed threatened lawsuit, garnishment of 70% of wages, and even one time threatened jail. SWMBO took most of the calls, but SWMBO is AKA She With Whom One Must Not Trifle AKA She Who Does Not Blink At Threats.CA stopped calling about 2 years ago. OC gave it to an attorney last year. Finally arranged payment options with him. Going to try to negotiate it away with a lump sum payment in exchange for deletes using the threat of job layoff.Still fighting with Penfed as they are incorrectly reporting on SWMBO's CRs.HiWe try to stay away from advising everyone to "stay away" from a particular creditor/bank because we had one bad experience with them. If it's something that person after person has reported is happening (like Capital One's hijinks), fine. But your bad experience--unique to your circumstances--does not mean that everyone should be advised to stay away from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
someonesomewhere Posted March 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2007 Point taken.Is there a preferred forum or method for posting bad practices/experiences? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNY Posted March 19, 2007 Report Share Posted March 19, 2007 Point taken.Is there a preferred forum or method for posting bad practices/experiences?Oh, don't worry... everyone likes to hear about bad experiences!!! It's very helpful! But you can just say "can you believe this?" as opposed to saying "everyone should avoid this company like the plague!"It's sort of the difference between advising people to read the fine print for a certain card and screaming "this company is running a scam!!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debtor1 Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 Penfed saved our bacon when we got into financial trouble. I was laid up for 6 months with little income b/c of a motorcycle accident. All my CC's defaulted to 30%. Wife took out a 25k signature loan from Penfed with no docs at the best rate they (or anyone else) had.I have never dealt with them on a default item. But their lending rate and approval really helped us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elyse449 Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 Penfed saved our bacon when we got into financial trouble. I was laid up for 6 months with little income b/c of a motorcycle accident. All my CC's defaulted to 30%. Wife took out a 25k signature loan from Penfed with no docs at the best rate they (or anyone else) had.I have never dealt with them on a default item. But their lending rate and approval really helped us.I suppose a good name for this thread could've been, "My experiences with PENFED..." Everyone's situation is unique. It's been my personal experience that some companies are WONDERFUL provided you're never late, provided you're never over your limit...and then the moment you are, it's a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde sort of situation. I think it's just good to know WHO you're doing business with...especially once one begins to hear the same "theme" of experiences over and over again. I'm glad your experience was positive.Elyse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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