Penfed - 2.99% BT for the life of your balance - starting 4/1

Is this an April Fool's joke?

If the terms are the same as the current 5.99% BT promo:

A fee of 2.5% (min. $10–max. $100)

link to current offer

This is so tempting with high student loans...I know I shouldn't though.

studiddy said: Precept said: This is so tempting with high student loans...I know I shouldn't though.
I'm in the same boat. This could potentially save a ton of money, but losing the ability to stop paying when I go back to school would suck ass. Then again, this would get paid off a lot sooner...

Just put your non-staffords on the CC. Interest is going to accrue anyways, so you might as well keep paying whether you're in school or not.

lotusgardener said: studiddy said: Precept said: This is so tempting with high student loans...I know I shouldn't though.
I'm in the same boat. This could potentially save a ton of money, but losing the ability to stop paying when I go back to school would suck ass. Then again, this would get paid off a lot sooner...

Just put your non-staffords on the CC. Interest is going to accrue anyways, so you might as well keep paying whether you're in school or not.

Good point...about half my loans are Stafford (6.75%), but this could still yield substantial savings.

I don't see the minimum payment percentage on Penfed's site anywhere. Google search came up with 2%, though that was just listed on discussion sites... does anyone have confirmation on this?

How liberal have they been with credit limits? I have a lot of non-card debt at higher interest rates that I'd move over...

sethdallob said: How liberal have they been with credit limits? I have a lot of non-card debt at higher interest rates that I'd move over...

They are quite conservative with initial credit lines. I had to fax my last 2 years tax returns and a copy of every lease for my rental properties and they gave me $15k (FAKO was 750+). I've read where some other posters state that after 1 year they were bumped up to $50k but I've only had the card for a couple of months so I can't confirm this.

I applied 2 years ago, Got 45K credit line. No problem then and still have the 45K credit line.
Watch out though, I think if you request, above 10K they might need to have you call in or if you get too close to your CL you have to call in, one of the two.

Have to say, 2.9 is a good deal, especially if you have 45K to play with.

bbr said: sethdallob said: How liberal have they been with credit limits? I have a lot of non-card debt at higher interest rates that I'd move over...

They are quite conservative with initial credit lines. I had to fax my last 2 years tax returns and a copy of every lease for my rental properties and they gave me $15k (FAKO was 750+). I've read where some other posters state that after 1 year they were bumped up to $50k but I've only had the card for a couple of months so I can't confirm this.

Out of the blue they offered me 50k on a pre-approved line. That was earlier this year, so it's fresh data. myFICO is 682, my DTI is through the roof right now, they required no tax returns, just asked if I had any change in employment or income. I filled out like a 3 line application and was approved. Now my wife doesn't get the offer. Her Fico is pushing 750, all the debt is stacked onto my credit report, she has a very good balance sheet compared to mine. They're still offering to lend me another 50k for a car loan. I'm not going to bite on that one. I can get 10 perfectly usable cars for 50k, and I don't do liens against depreciating assets as a personal rule of dumb.

I wonder if they're going to let me pay off the 6% and take another at 3%. I'll certainly have my eyes open this week.

WalStMonky said: Out of the blue they offered me 50k on a pre-approved line. That was earlier this year, so it's fresh data. myFICO is 682, my DTI is through the roof right now, they required no tax returns, just asked if I had any change in employment or income. I filled out like a 3 line application and was approved. Now my wife doesn't get the offer. Her Fico is pushing 750, all the debt is stacked onto my credit report, she has a very good balance sheet compared to mine. They're still offering to lend me another 50k for a car loan. I'm not going to bite on that one. I can get 10 perfectly usable cars for 50k, and I don't do liens against depreciating assets as a personal rule of dumb.

I wonder if they're going to let me pay off the 6% and take another at 3%. I'll certainly have my eyes open this week.

How long have you had your existing relationship with Penfed? Also, for BT offers, I wonder if having balances out there actually helps. A couple of months ago, I called BOA asking for a CLI to take advantage of a BT offer they sent in the mail. They gave me an increase, but only slightly above all of the outstanding balances showing on my CR (and stated that should be enough to pay off everything). So I guess I would have received a larger increase if I showed more outstanding CC debt. It sort of makes sense in that there would be no new debt, only transferring debt from one account to another. Which I guess is the original purpose of the BT anyway.

Are there any downsides to Penfed's BT? Other offers I've seen requires you to make purchases (which of course fall under the card's normal interest rate and interest accrues until the lower interest items are paid off), or other crap to meet the requirements each month.

My friend and I just worked out a nice tactic: You can use this to pay off your mortgage provided u have outstanding AOR balances you can use and that cash liquid in a HYS.

1> BT from penfed to pay off your AOR card balance. Let's say 10k at bank X.
2> Use the 10k of cash, the cash that was sitting in HYS, to pay your mortgage

Rinse and repeat for as many cards as you have.

The positive: it's 3% for life as opposed to 5+% for mortgages and 8+% for small (e.g. 20%) mortgages.
The negative: You lose the outstanding balances and free cash you could use for your next AOR. Considering the yield on HYS and CDs, that's not that bad. AOR isn't lucrative these days.

-Glen

WalStMonky said: Out of the blue they offered me 50k on a pre-approved line. That was earlier this year, so it's fresh data. myFICO is 682, my DTI is through the roof right now, they required no tax returns, just asked if I had any change in employment or income. I filled out like a 3 line application and was approved. Now my wife doesn't get the offer. Her Fico is pushing 750, all the debt is stacked onto my credit report, she has a very good balance sheet compared to mine. They're still offering to lend me another 50k for a car loan. I'm not going to bite on that one. I can get 10 perfectly usable cars for 50k, and I don't do liens against depreciating assets as a personal rule of dumb.

I wonder if they're going to let me pay off the 6% and take another at 3%. I'll certainly have my eyes open this week.

$50,000? 2006 called... they want their easy credit back.

jackcrawfish said: CASH FLOW concern...

assuming $100,000 mortgage, a $650 pmt on a 30 year fixed is a smaller payment than

assuming $100,000 balance, a $2,000 pmt on a 2.99% $100k for life

also keep in mind a 6% mortgage effective cost is 4.32% (assuming 28% tax bracket)

also keep in mind a 5% mortgage effective cost is 3.60% (assuming 28% tax bracket)

Could also pay off the 100k in about 6 years vs. 30 years - with break-even being somewhere in the 3 year range. You could also get a 60% LTV HELOC to supplement cash flow as you have a "paid off" asset.

I put my 20% rental property mortgage on the credit card last time they had this special about 7 months ago.

In the previous 4 years of making $208 payments, I netted about 1k in equity.

So far in 7 months, I've netted about 3k in equity (or lessened CC debt). I do pay double my payment now - but that will break even in about 3 years as well. If you calculate having paid the overage on the mortgage in the first place, I'm still up about $1500 in 7 months.

If you have any debt over 2.9% and decent cash flow - you should max out cards on this. Even if just to leverage 1% for CD's.

Is there a way to join PenFed if you don't already know a member? (and aren't part of the Gov't)

psychoslowmatic said: Obama4Prez said: Is there a way to join PenFed if you don't already know a member? (and aren't part of the Gov't)

Go here and check out option #7.Key piece of information under option #7 >

Membership in NMFA does not need to be maintained in order to maintain membership in Pentagon Federal Credit Union

translation = pay the $20 and you're a golden lifer at PenFed

I got in on the last Penfed 2.9 for life deal ~9 months ago and it's worked flawlessly. I paid off my car loan and have been saving tons in interest every month ever since.

Did a credit limit increase online, go from 10K to 50K no problem at all. Sweet, can't wait for the 2.99% deal.

site did not say anything about credit pull. I assumed no hard pull.

Sintax said: Was there a hard pull?

internetle said: Did a credit limit increase online, go from 10K to 50K no problem at all. Sweet, can't wait for the 2.99% deal.