Pentagon Federal Credit Union reviews and complaints

Legal categories:

Mortgage, Bank Loan, Pentagon Federal Credit Union

Lender Manager: Amy Hermes

Work Phone: [protected]

Case Summary:

On October 16. 2023 I applied for a Home Equity loan of $45,000. Monthly payments would come out to $100 a month. My credit score & proof of income got approved. I went through the whole process for a month to submit all the legal documents they requested. On November 8, 2023, I was told to pay their

appraiser a $580 fee. On November 20.2023 I got an email from the processor telling me I didn't qualify anymore due to me being on Paid Family Leave. I informed them that was considered discrimination because it violates the Fair Housing Act and they said to contact their Legal Department. The name of this bank is Pentagon Federal Credit Union. If I knew I wouldn't qualify I would never have gone through this whole process for a whole month especially since I paid a $580 fee for nothing while getting my credit checked.

The current market

value of the property is:

$590,000

The approximate

amount owed on the

property is:

$449,098

PENN FED IS THE WORST!

I have attempted to have my CD closed out, with a Penalty for two weeks,vwith numerous phone calls. Every single time I call to have MY MONEY transferred to my Credit Union, I am told excuses & blatant lies. I was advised to call back yesterday to have my money transferred. I called today & was told to wait another 48 hours & to call back for a $25.00 wire transfer charge. So, now snail mail will need to take over so Penn FED does not take any more of my time & money.

I have over 25 years of investing experience and secured over 40 loans from 20 banks other than PenFed. I have never witnessed such incompetence, never experienced such a lack of basic communication and never received such abismal treatment as I did with this company. The following are some warning highlights based on my personal experience. Failure to head them MAY cause severe financial upheaval as well as destroy your ability to buy your dream-home...

1. The Loan Officer, Venessa Mendez was quick to run my credit and "lock in" a low rate based on my high score but had no working knowledge of how to calculate self-employment income. She ignored my suggestion to wait until my 2021 taxes were filed which was a severe mistake. She argued and became irritated when a manager was requested.

2. I lodged a complaint with corporate and was contacted by Home Loan Operations Manager Chris Saminski who referred me to the Manager, Consumer Direct Mortgage Loan Officers Jennifer Struve. J. Struve displayed the same lack of understanding of Fannie Mae guidelines and although I again suggested waiting for my higher income 2021 returns insisted that she "go ahead and send 2019 and 2020 over to underwriting to see what they say". Horrible advice especially from someone managing the loan officers.

3. I started with 5 weeks to close requesting that PenFed inform me asap if there would be any issue with securing the loan. They squandered 3 weeks before declining the loan making it impossible to start over with another bank.

4. While this travesty could have been avoided on the FIRST phone call had the Loan Officer possessed even a basic level of training regarding self-employment income, it CERTAINLY should have been handled correctly at the management level which was NOT the case.

5. Both individual operated under the FALSE assumption that Fannie Mae would accept a 24 month averaging of income. However, when income declines from one year to the next they ONLY accept an averaging of the most recent 12 months. Had they headed my suggestion and I submitted my 2021 taxes I would likely not be issuing this warning.

I will soon be closing my accounts with Pentagon Federal and will invest in an organization I deem to be competent and who values their clients enough to listen and respond effectively.

I applied for and was approved for a personal loan on 1/17/2021. Today is 3/8/21, still haven't received check in the mail - 1st payment is due tomorrow.

I have called them 16 times, each time on hold for over 30 minutes (today was an hour and 21 minutes - answered and put back on hold for an additional 22 minutes) and I still have no check and no one at this business who gives a crap.

I want to share my experience with Pentagon Federal Credit Union to warn customers. After 6 months of losing docs, repeatedly changing closing dates, and bad customer service I finally told them never mind at the end of May 2017. I felt exhausted and upset dealing with Pentagon Federal Credit Union. I don’t have the time or patients to go through each situation but I just wanted to shed light so future customer can be prepared. I sent them an email directly explaining their mistakes and I encouraged them to check my recorded calls and email threads so they can investigate and make changes.
I want to start by giving you a little background information about my loan. My home is paid for and I have no current mortgage. I began this process in January 2017. I wanted to get a Mortgage Loan but I was unsure in the beginning if, I wanted to rent the home out and get a loan or keep it as my primary residence and get the loan. After consulting with a loan officer at Penfed, I decided to keep the residence as my primary home and get the loan. My first issue was the amount of time it took the bank to schedule the appraisal, it was too close to my closing date. They insisted that the closing date had to be changed and I was fine with that at the time.
I applied for my loan in January and in the beginning the agents seems to know what they were doing but as time went on, I could tell no body was sure about anything. Every time my closing date would be 2-5 days away, someone would call asking questions or needing further documentation, thus pushing out the closing date again. There where so many mistakes and mess up on their part I cannot keep track. I would receive calls stating they did not have documents that I had already sent, for example I sent my full statement for my personal loan which I have with another bank and someone called me to explain they did not have the account number for my personal loan or the terms of it. She said the documents I sent did not disclose that information I asked her to pull up the document on her computer which she did then I told her to look at the third page and everything was right on the page. Someone just did not read the statement or else they would have known they had everything then she went on to say she only needed another card statement I insisted as I usually did for her to check and make sure that’s all they needed from me. She said “that is all is stated, that we need at this time”. (She must not have checked before the call or on the phone when I asked her). Now, just to be clear if this was the 11th or 12th time I received this same sort of call. Simply things that no one seems to pay attention, but as expected I got another call, moving the closing date and asking for more docs.
The last time I called and was told I needed to get an new credit report and more docs I just wanted to explain my situation and ask that my recorded conversations with various employees be looked into so people can be trained properly, and the women on the phone kept interrupting, she would not answer my questions, and repeatedly wanted to remind me that I asked for my loan process to be on hold for about 1 week maybe 2 so I could confirm if I needed to have my husband on my title. The reason for this is due to the inaccurate information I received from Pentagon Federal Credit Union, I wanted to check with my lawyer and I needed to make an appointment to do so. She would not let me speak, she wanted to talk over me. she asked me to calm down I told her I apologies if I come off loud or upset I will calm down and I would like to speak with someone that is willing to listen because you’re not patient enough to deal with my issues. The women I could tell did not have the patients to deal with my many problems. I eventually told her No I will not be giving any more information, do not check my credit again I have decided to cancel the loan and I refuse to continue to go on and on with this bank. I also asked her to have someone contact me which she did and I thank her for that.
Overall my experience is just unacceptable. Thinking about the whole ordeal make me feel horrible and it upsets my stomach. I feel like I was lied to soo many times because I was told way to often “just one more thing” even when I insisted they check to make sure they don’t need anything else. The closing date changed way to many times, this all happened over a period of 6 months. After a while it came off as straight lies over and over again. I just finally decided that if I keep believing whatever someone from Pentagon Federal Credit Union tells me then I must be crazy. I really needed the loan but I finally accepted that there was no way for me to complete this with Pentagon Federal Credit Union no matter what they would tell me because it was all just LIES… I hope you can imagine how upset, and exhausted it was for me dealing with the process. What makes it even worst is up until mid-May I was still believing everything I was told “just one more thing we need” I even recommended the bank to 2 of my friends here on base and they set up accounts online. Now I just feel so bad for them, but I did warn them at this point and I would never recommend this bank again. Hopefully this will help future customers not suffer as I have in this whole process. I don’t normally complain I would just walk away and not look back but this was so bad for me I felt something had to be done for me to rest at night. The good thing is I know a lot now that I need to be aware of pertaining to loans that will help me moving forward in the process with another bank.

My husband died Dec 15, 2012 and to close the account associated with him I had to wait until his company paid for his final leave balance, etc. Even though I was on his accounts, I went to court and was appointed his executor. Now PFCU has decided that before they will close out his accounts and move the money to my accounts they need to go back to his former company to ensure that the funds were actually his. That is not the purpose of the credit union, that is the responsibility of his probate lawyers and myself. They are denying me access to funds that are legally mine. Seniors be aware that PFCU will hold everything up illegally.

The short version is that while these guys offer competitive rates, their customer service stinks. I've had better experiences at the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. If you actually need to speak with a live human being, be prepared to hold a very, very long time. If ever you actually do get to someone, be prepared to be treated like crap. If, by then, you're not satisfied with the answers you get and request to speak with a supervisor, be prepared to be put back on hold and start the process all over again with the pretty much the same dissappointing outcome. If I didn't know better, I'd think these guys were actually government employees with years of extensive training on how to treat people like dung beetles. Ironically, I put some of my hard earned money with these knuckleheads because a friend spoke so highly of their rates. When I told hime about my recent treatment frome them, he told me he had the same problem and closed his acct, too. I wish he'd told me that BEFORE I opened mine ... After this recent experience, I checked my local credit unions and found they offer rates at least as good or better, and I can walk in any of their local branches and actually get treated like my business is valued. Chalk it up to another lesson learned. I'm closing my account with these goofballs and bringing my money back to a local credit union.