Pentagon Federal Credit Union ("PenFed"), a DepositAccounts.com advertiser, serves more than 1.6 million members, including many in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. PenFed is one of the largest credit unions in the country and offers a range of banking products and services, in addition to credit cards and loans.
On its personal banking side, PenFed offers savings accounts including checking accounts, Money Market accounts, Certificates, Coverdell Education Savings Certificates, and IRA accounts. PenFed’s Access America Checking earns dividends and comes with free online bill payment and mobile check deposit. PenFed’s regular savings account earns dividends, which are compounded daily and credited monthly. Money Market Savings accounts are available and come with free checks, have no regular service fees, and offer tiered rates of dividends for greater account balances. DepositAccounts.com has featured PenFed’s Certificates, referred to as ‘Money Market Certificates,’ repeatedly in the past for their competitive dividend rates. IRA accounts are also available, providing a retirement savings alternative.
PenFed online banking is a secure banking platform through which members can access their accounts, transfer funds, pay bills, and view transaction history. The credit union has optimized its website for mobile banking and released a mobile app to make account management easy and convenient on the go. The credit union introduced its ACH online transfer service in the spring of 2012, making it easy for members to transfer funds into and out of these liquid accounts.
Pentagon Federal Credit Union has more than $23 billion in assets. It was originally established in 1935 and is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. The credit union serves members in each U.S. state and at military bases in Puerto Rico, Guam, and Okinawa. PenFed is federally insured by the NCUA.
Membership in PenFed is now open to all U.S. citizens/resident aliens who open a Share Savings Account with a $5 minimum deposit.
See current membership details
Just opened 3 CDs online - great process. Customer Service extremely helpful and accessible.
I bought CDs from PenFed multiple times, because they offer great rates - sometimes the best in the nation. Some of their processes are a little bit old fashioned, but that's OK. What is NOT OK is secret transfer limits. That's right; they limit transferring YOUR money out; the employees know what the limit is, but are literally not allowed to share the info with customers! I was able to figure out that the secret transfer limit was $30,000 per month, resetting on the 13th of each month. Separately, they have not-secret limits; for me, the limit was $5000 per day. Depending on the amount of your CD, it can take a LONG time to get your money out of PenFed, unless you wire the money out. I would be giving a lower rating, but a helpful employee's good attitude makes me feel that 4 stars is the right score.
With years of banking expertise I decided to give PenFed a try. I recently joined and obtained a few of their products and have been impressed by the service so far. Customer service is not 5 out of 5 however they do go above and beyond to correct any errors and you can email their customer service team and get a quick response. My personal experience has been top notch all of my accounts function better than expected I have no holds or any issues transferring funds. I appreciate the somewhat lower rates on their loan products and the lower fees. They finally offer free checking which all credit unions should offer and they have a nationwide network available to use fee free. Overall a decent credit union if they have products that meet your needs.
Avoid Penfed. I started using them decades ago. Their technology has always been several years behind but their low fees made up for it. But that is no longer the case as the quality of service has eroded other the last five years.
The mobile app is frequently non-functional. It's almost always slow. And its features, such as depositing checks, are not as good as other apps, e.g. TD Ameritrade.
The website used to have all of your accounts on one page so you could quickly and easily move money between loans, heloc, credit card, savings, and checking. They removed heloc access from the page for no announced reason. Now that account is almost useless since it is much more inconvenient to pay off and is no longer a useful source of short term liquidity.
I've complained but the cost to do so it very high. They are extremely understaffed and the staff they have can do very little on their own. The wait times are always long (>30 min) and resolutions take a long time once the call is answered since the helper needs to consult for just about everything. Again, their tech is behind, most services call you back when a rep is available. Not penfed, they direct you to a link on their website which does not respond.
BillPay is functional, though I have had a couple of recurring payments fail for no reason (not NSF). It could have been the recipient, but no one at Penfed could help -- as usual.
The fees are low and sometimes the online savings account pays a lot on a relative basis. I plan on finding a new bank, but the cost to switch is high. Presently I am minimizing use of the bank by transferring balances to my brokerage account which has much better banking services (but no loans other than a margin account).
You should avoid this bank. Penfed does not care about its customers, at least they don't care about me. Maybe if I racked up lots of fees.
I know another customer that moved to Navy Credit Union after reaching a similar level of frustration. I wish I had that option.
Overall | |
---|---|
NCUA # | 227 |
Year Chartered | 1935 |
Employees | 3585 |
Primary Regulator |
Profit Margin | |
---|---|
Return on Assets - YTD | 0.95% |
Return on Equity - YTD | 3.14% |
Annual Interest Income | $1.06B |
Assets and Liabilities | ||
---|---|---|
Assets | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $32.52B$26.74B |
Loans | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $23.75B$18.95B |
Deposits | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $23.09B$19.70B |
Equity Capital | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $9.42B$6.63B |
Loan Loss Allowance | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $251.4MM$244.7MM |
Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $290.6MM$209.5MM |
Real Estate Owned | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $0$1.5MM |
Always verify rates and promotions with the bank or credit union. We are not PenFed Credit Union; we are a rate comparison website and cannot provide official rates or promotions.
* The APY shown varies based on the deposit amount. Expand the listing to see APYs for other deposit amounts.
APY | MIN | MAX | ACCOUNT NAME | VIEW DETAILS |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.70% | - | - | Premium Online Savings | |
0.05% | - | $2.5k | Regular Savings | |
0.05% | - | - | IRA Savings Account | |
0.05% | $10k | - | IRA Premier Account |
APY | MIN | MAX | ACCOUNT NAME | VIEW DETAILS | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
0.15%* | $100k* | - | Money Market Savings Account | ||
OTHER TIERS: 0.05% → Up to $10k | 0.10% → $10k - $100k |
APY | MIN | MAX | ACCOUNT NAME | VIEW DETAILS | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
0.35%* | $20k* | $50k | Access America Checking | ||
OTHER TIERS: 0.15% → Up to $20k |