Pentagon Federal Credit Union

Based on very expensive ads that ran in the LA Times touting incredibile Equity Loan rates, I applied for membership and an equity line loan on my house owned in the last 9 years. The amount was $ 293,000 and house appraisal outside of PenFed has pegged the value of house at $ 1.9M.

Applied for a loan, submitted docs as required and it was immediately APPROVED. Then additional docs were requested like homeowners insurance policy and copy of paystub. After a non response of three weeks, I asked for a status and was told I need additional docs like tax return. Loan went from approved to PENDING. Loan sat for another four weeks and one docs was requested- a notarized copy of my drivers license which made no sense because my mailing address is a PO Box and the same as mailing address on my existing home loan. After jumping through all the the requested information, notaries, statements..etc the loan was changed from pending to DENIED with hours after submission. Frustrated I sent an email to PenFed asking why loan was ws DENIED, I got a very short boilerplate response in cryptic form that loan to value exceed their underwriting and that I would be receiving a letter in the mail ( Probably will arrive four weeks later as usual). Needless to say, PenFed could have done the analysis in the beginning instead of delays and impersonal responses. And could have save me a minimum of 60 days of waiting and hassle. But once PenFed determines that your loan has been denied, PenFed will DO EVERYTHING to treat you like you never existed. It is true-just read all the other reviews when in comes to loan application. PenFed is the WORSE in loan processing, in-house underwriters will do everything to stall your loan application and the loan coordinator is as knowledgeable as a blank piece of paper.

In closing, I wished PenFed would have denied my application from the start rather than stringing me along for 60 days only to be denied and then you become completely worthless to PenFed.

SERIOUSLY THINK TWICE, actually, think THREE TIMES before you apply for any loan. They will bait you in with an unusual low rate while spending hundreds of thousand of dollars in advertising in all major newspapers. I prefer my local credit union and did get the loan. No credit card debt, FICA score of 799, house appraised at $ 1.7M, having lived in my home for the last 9 years with impeccable loan payment history, my local credit union says that it is a very solid application.

I think PenFed entices all these application to get upfront "application fees" and to charge an in-house appraisal of $ 475 using their own employees. Just multiply those two amounts based on the number of advertised applicants, you can see it pays for PenFed to run very expensive advertisements in all major newspapers throughout the US!

Excellent rates for mortgages. I got a 30 years, non-conforming loan @6.25%.

The rates are unbelievably low, if you don't need the loan to close in 30 days. Closing window is 3 months. Too slow processing. The loan officers some times have no clue on what they are dealing with. They don't ask for all the documents in one shot. Little bit disorganized.