PenFed Mobile Reviews

by Mmk01

So I made a phone call this week to get a check. I was getting irritated with whoever that was and said that their system was so backwards that a third world country could do better. She got snippy. Tuesday I get my check and the payee is spelt incorrectly. They have to re-issue, I called about Tuesday and was not informed about the waiting and turnaround. Now it’s Saturday still no check. And the earliest I can get my check is Tuesday when I won’t be able to access my mail for a year. The best solution is to drive 60 miles to a closed branch. Like why did y’all come to NJ if you have no branches or better customer service. This whole experience is worse than living through final destination

by Klox0523

Every other bank has the recent transaction feature for years with no problems. Almost every time I try to check my recent transactions, it doesn’t load. It’s very frustrating. Get with the program this app...it’s kinda pathetic. Your app should work sometimes. Most apps work nearly all the time. What’s the point of your bank having an app if it NEVER works correctly? You have blatantly ignored the complaints about this from lots and lots of customers and don’t seem to have any intentions on fixing it soon, since this has been going on for quite a long time now. I’ll be taking my services somewhere else!! Be a better bank to the people who are trusting their money with you. That 4 star rating must be inflated cause this app is terrible.

by NoMoreFeesForMe

I was a member of a local credit union that was taken over by another and then taken over by this app. this app’s online banking and app pale in comparison. They take forever to show your pending charges or to have things clear. It gets very confusing and has caused me to incur several fees from forgetting about charges that show up days later. I understand it is my responsibility to track my spending, but I haven’t had to in such a long time due to technology allowing me to know my true balance immediately after using my debit card. As the bank for our military, they should have the most up to date technology as it is available. They also seem to process things in a way that maximizes the number of fees the customer will be charged. I am in the process of switching all of my accounts to a different bank and cannot wait to have the hassle of writing down every single charge and bill payment be a thing of the past! Get with the times this app and update your online presence and processing times!

by Jetlounge

“I want my bank mortgage dashboard to show me my home value “, said nobody ever. You know, the same info the Zillow has had for like..10 years? This is the fancy update. Of course, this app does not disclose how they derive their estimated home value or how they use it, so the info is less than useless.

But here is the kicker ...the genius that decided to add this removed the absolutely ONLY function you need from an online bank...THE ABILITY TO SEE YOUR PAYMENT HISTORY. That’s right , there is now absolutely no way to see when or how your last payment was applied. Was it received on time? Your guess is as good as mine. Was it accurately applying principal and interest? The world may never know.

Currently on hold for 15 min to confirm payment was received as the only thing you can see right now is last balance and your next payment. Oh, but they do have an online payoff quote, which will come in handy as I source a refinance with a bank that provides meaningful information.

by B'nuts

External accounts link but repeatedly don’t show up in PenFed . This issue has been going on for months now. UPDATE: I just received instructions from Member Service to “log into this app online, click on the transfers tab, then click on the link located just below that says external accounts” …So the linked account has been there all along. A bit BURIED, but there… I just cannot get this app to take money from that account and make a loan payment. I did find a TINY “register” link below the above link that apparently triggers a micro-deposit verification process, however when the external account was linked in the first place, there were absolutely no further instructions given to this effect, and therefore was left to the impression that the external linked account was entirely ready and usable for loan payments right after it was linked, I.E no “registration” necessary.

by Msjpollard

This is the worst bank account I’ve ever had. I had to sit on the phone for over an hour to figure out why I couldn’t transfer money out of my account and after being told it was an issue with my card, being HUNG UP on and then speaking to two more people after being transferred a different agent told me my account was overdrawn. HOW?? I just deposited money and PenFed says my balance is not negative so how could I possibly be overdrawn?! Oh that’s right because this infantile app doesn’t update debits and deposits until almost a week after they’ve been received whenever you tried to charge to your debit card. The count of people I’ve spoken to is now at 6, and I’m still on the phone. I can’t WAIT to close this account and be done with this app because what’s the point of mobile banking if I STILL HAVE TO GUESS WHATS IN MY ACCOUNT?! How do y’all actually expect someone to manage their finances with your app?? If I wanted to walk around doing calculations all day I’d keep my money in a mattress. I hate this bank and even more PenFed and I have absolutely NOTHING positive to say about it and PRAYERFULLY they don’t take forever to close my account because I’m over it. And please don’t get me started on entering all my info into the automatic system only to be told they “can’t pull up my account” I hate it here so much.

by GKJDCJ

A lot of times I cannot sign on with facial recognition. I have to put in my password and user id. When I can log in especially lately it will not allow me in my counts. It states transactions cannot b displayed. I get sooo annoyed. Then I go into the internet and log on and have no problems with seeing the transactions. I get tired of Turing my phone off to get in PenFed but it will get me in only that once. I always delete app and go back into App Store to download again to ensure it’s the latest. Sorry but the mobile App is frustrating so I’ll prefer to just go through the internet.

Now I’m trying to send and it ask for nickname and I’ve tried 5 names and it says it’s taken try again. See if nicknames are frustrating. I don’t have all day. So none of my names work initials then I tried the name TERRIBLE and that’s taken. Really 😐😡

by ZXYbacWVU

First, PenFed allows you to select to pay last statement’s balance but does not tell you what the balance was. You need to do researches to find out. Then you make a payment to pay off the last statement but PenFed still shows that you did not pay and you have to do another round of research to find out that you actually paid. This is the only bank app that requires you to constantly research to find out what you want to know. Even though you eventually find your answers, you have wasted a lot of time. If the Pentagon CU cares about its customers, they should improve to make using PenFed less time consuming. This is in addition to other defects such as frequent error messages and slow app response.

by Aschultz813

this app’s online and mobile banking system has to be one of the worst I have ever used, and I’d expect more from a $30B credit union. Much smaller institutions provide a much better digital experience. The lack of secure messaging and live chat is disappointing. Adding an external account to pay a credit card is near impossible - the verification process never starts, and even if it did, there’s nowhere to complete the process. I was excited by the rewards offered by the this app credit card I was approved for, and as a big credit union person (CUDE!) I was looking forward to using a credit card from a CU rather than a bank, but because of these drawbacks of the digital member experience (and lack of participation in shared branching), I just can’t.

by Thewesman03

Had this account for a little over a few weeks now and it’s pretty useless. I can’t add external accounts through PenFed , the bank takes ages to deposit from transfers or withdraw money from transactions. There’s even a transaction that was there for a short period of time and suddenly disappeared and hasn’t been debited from my account. PenFed seems like it hasn’t been updated since Androids were first created and is very clunky. Oh and I can’t connect the account to ANY financial management software (Mint, Truebill, etc) which is one of the main reasons I wanted this account. I gave won stars because PenFed does tell me my balances so at least there’s that. If you’re looking for a credit union that keeps up with technology and isn’t still living in the 20th century, I’d steer away from this app.

by JoylLV

I find this pen-fed app very frustrating!!
I use it on my I-phone. It’s very hit or miss
(mostly miss) & takes up way to much time!
I pay bills at other sites all the time from this phone & NEVER encounter these issues 😡
When I try to transfer money to pay a credit card bill, I’m either told that; 1. I’m not connected to wi-fi 2. the server is not available or can’t connect to it, 3. my credit card info is not accessible at this time.
This happens whether I try to transfer money between my pen-fed accounts or from an outside bank account.
Pppaleease...All I want to do is make payments. A couple weeks ago, I had to give up & go to the actual credit union. I told the teller that I kept getting told that my account could not be connected to the server. She said something like, “That’s odd, I’m not aware that there’s been any problem” She completed the transaction for me easy-peasy.
I would be so grateful if your team would fix this problem. PFCU credit union(although it was named differently) has always been good to us, from the beginning. My husband & I 1st became members as soldiers stationed at Ft. Hood Army Base in 1989.

by NeedBetterToys

So they claim PenFed was better, so I figured I’d give it another whirl. That was a mistake. In using it for only a couple of minutes, there are glaring omissions and errors such that I can’t trust the output. 1). No ability to see statements, only what it considers “recent”. Was trying to see what made up the current balance on a cc. Can’t do it with PenFed . 2) Some Pending transfers don’t show up in PenFed . Had to go to the web to make sure the transfers to pay the ccs were still there since PenFed didn’t show them. 3). In my certificates, dividends and the balance shows up with a negative sign in front. All this in a couple of minutes. Do PenFed developers believe in qa?

by Angela W. - Gaithersburg

The new look and feel is pretty nice. But I have had issues with the new app. It froze several times when trying to deposit 2 checks this past week causing me to spend close to 30 min for what used to be a very simple transaction in the old app.
Next item of concern, I was either logged out or could not log in using the Finger-print technology. Love this technology, but not if it doesn’t work as designed. I use it on a regular basis with other apps without a problem so I know it is not user error.
Also, PLEASE PUT BACK THE BALANCE AMOUNTS WITH EACH TRANSACTION. I cannot tell If my overall balance is updating when many transactions are happening within a short period of time.
And lastly, I often move between PenFed and other apps on my phone while trying to conduct business, I find it VERY ANNOYING that it logs me out the second I leave the page. Your app should give at least a 2 to 3 minute window of idleness before logging someone off.
As a suggestion, please list somewhere on your app where we can use ATM’s without incurring a fee, like CVS, Walgreens, and Navy FCU’s. I really didn’t want to have to call and speak to someone while driving home on Friday just to pull cash out of my bank when all I wanted to do was look on my phone before I pulled out to work and know which direction to head in. (For the record, I’m not opposed to chatting with people, but sometimes, it’s a timing thing.)

by Mcollelo

I've been using PenFed for years with no issue, no complaints. The recent upgrade, however, resulted in a horrible mobile deposit experience. Developers note: the camera takes sooooo long to take and save the picture of the check. And when in full screen mode is almost impossible to scroll up/down without touching the image (no white space on the outside) so I ended up in the picture viewer so many times unintentionally. Guess what? You can't exit picture mode without taking a picture. If you do, it will dump the picture you've previously saved. I ended up taking the same picture (note I mentioned it takes way too long to take and save) like 10 times before I was able to move on. Please fix. I loved PenFed before.

by Pioneer$@!

Like the new layout and functionality. I don’t like that the balance after each transaction was removed from the transaction history and you can only see your balance at the top. I like to see it after each transaction like it was in the old version. Easier to find discrepancies that way and track your money. Also, the time late night maintenance takes can be inconvenient. It’s usually the time I have to check my account and I can’t get into to for hours. I was also recently double charged for every transaction I made one week and made my account go to overdraft! Not my fault, but I was charged for it. The money was put back into my account, but not the overdraft charge.

by Bobertsen

It’s a pretty app and the interface is nice. The real problem for me is I have a loan with this app and PenFed (and their full website) are seriously lacking in details about my account. I really appreciated other banking apps that show you on the loan details page not only how much your last payment amounts were but how they were allocated (interest vs principal) as well as your total loan balance including interest. The this app app and website only show you your principal amount unless I’m being completely blind and can’t find it. I feel this is very basic information that should be on the account info page. I hope this app starts adding these, and more, details soon!

by Moo To You

Right now the algorithm for depositing checks only allows it to recognize a signature on the end portion of the check. I have checks that require a signature in the center of the back and the deposit photos on PenFed will not recognize that there is a signature. This causes a problem because now I can’t go and cash the check at a local bank because it already has the endorsement on the back that it’s for a electronic deposit only to a specific account.

by WNnJN

Summaries are easy to understand and use. For banking transactions however, it takes some practice to use correctly. Items such as credit card current balance and amount due for next payment is not intuitive. It take several steps. One must select account, then choose the amount one wants to pay to ascertain next payment due. It is not displayed side by side in the summary. For $ transfer:Typing in amount for transfer must be entered with out using decimal point. Once learned, it is easy to use on iPad. Usable, but common sense improvements should be made.

by JP5710

I was with the CEEFCU for years and made the trip to the local branch to do my banking. When this app took over their banking, I went to the federal building downtown thinking about closing out my accounts due to the distance. There was another client there who did just that. I decided to try PenFed . It had some bad reviews at the time. That was a few years back. I had one check I couldn’t deposit several years ago and I had to mail it in. I haven’t had any more issues since. And I haven’t been back to the Federal building in years. I’m glad I tried PenFed ! It changed the way I bank.

by E1rmxtlg

Update has seriously improved PenFed! App has been freshened up and looks really clean now. Two of my priorities for PenFed have just been implemented, Touch ID for ease of logging in and this app's Bill Pay. Now I can see at a glance which bills I've scheduled for payment, I can see the bill payment history, I can see my list of billing receipients and set up new billers, I can change or delete scheduled bill payments. Basically everything that I could only do on the website, I can now do in the mobile app. Thanx this app!

by PIT Tookus

I have been using PenFed for years now and while it was originally user friendly, in the past year or so it is very difficult to deposit checks. “Unknown error has occurred” is the message I get constantly when either signing in or when trying to deposit the check after the photos are taken. I eventually am able to deposit after literally clicking repeatedly for 30 minutes. I only bank by app and dread depositing my checks every 2 weeks, hate to go back to banking by mail but PenFed is a real time waster and a pain in the tookus. I have tried reinstalling PenFed for updates etc and every trick on the internet (not my phone- happened with my old phone too), to no avail. Not a happy camper.

by Wadsonf

This new redesign is bad. It’s not optimized for iPhone X, there’s a lot of unused real estate making the look seem very distorted and annoying. I do not know how this passed QA. The developers also released a fully updated app with no option for Face ID? Really? Touch ID? I don’t have a sensor. Lastly, my problem with their application is they don’t accept special characters in passwords that come first. For example if you your password is $Passw0rd, the application won’t recognize it because of the character in the front. It works on the website but not on PenFed . That’s insecure and not great at all. I contacted them about it and they said they would look into it and it’s fine... I don’t know what PCI would say about that...

Optimize this to look better on iPhone X, use a better font, and you’ll get maybe 4 stars.

by Penfed Member For 30 Yrs

Depositing checks used to be a quick easy task with PenFed. For more than three months it has been a very frustrating experience. It now takes at least 30 min to successfully deposit a check using PenFed . I take a picture, it loses the picture. I try to enter the deposit amount and I get logged out. And each action comes with a three second lag. Take a photo of the front of the check, wait three seconds, and then you’ll see that the photo is available to use. I actually forgot how difficult it was the last two times (when I switched a different banking app to make my deposits to a different bank) and tried again today. Same problems. No bueno.

by GAK2010

this app has a lot of work to do on PenFed. 90% of the time I cannot get past the login page because it tells me there is a system malfunction. It does not hold up to the mantra they espouse, “around-the-clock access.” It doesn’t matter what time zone I’m in, I have the same problem. this app’s solution was to uninstall and then reinstall PenFed , this along with a couple of changes to my phone worked for a couple days, but has had no longer-term impact. Do this app employees not use PenFed ? If they did, this would change quickly. Throw in fingerprint ID log-in while your at it. There is nothing more frustrating than typing in a 12 digit password only to be denied 90% of the time.

by Yodawhistle

I have been using PenFed since they first started and must say for a credit union you rock. PenFed needs work and so does the service support for PenFed . First the upgraded version for the IPad is not as good as the last version, one of the best option I used was the search and it is not available in this version. When I sent an email in to support I was told they never had that option in PenFed , well that person has no clue or I have been in dream land because I used it every time I logged on. The current APP is ok but the earlier version was better, please put in the search back!

by MrPureTrauma

I have been with this app for three years and PenFed has come a long way. The made me proud when they gave you access to do bill pay on PenFed . I was extremely happy when PenFed finally allowed face recognition for log in. It was such a hassle to go through that extremely long log in process.

But now, they need to catch up with the times on security. They need to make it so you can lock and unlock your card from PenFed . It would be so much more secure and worry free if we could do that.

If they do that, then we can get petty and request the penny savings that take the change from your purchases and put it in your savings account. I know, that’s asking for a lot. Thanks for reading.