Consumer complaint received 2017-12-01
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card — Application denied
Company: PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION (IL)

I applied for a credit card with PennFed Credit Union on 11/21/2017. Before doing so, I had paid for my credit score directly from XXXX via XXXX 's website, and my credit score was XXXX. PennFed denied my application for credit over the telephone and followed up with a letter stating the reasons for the denial. The letter was dated XXXX/XXXX/XXXX and stated the reasons for the denial were 1. Proportion of balance to credit limits on revolving accounts is too high. ( This is not accurate - I had five individual credit cards totaling {$14000.00} in limits - XXXX XXXX {$9500.00}, XXXX XXXX {$4000.00}, XXXX XXXX {$1000.00}, XXXX XXXX {$300.00}. My total outstanding balance was on XXXX XXXX at {$3800.00} and the balance on XXXX was {$220.00}. XXXX XXXX was {$0.00} ).  My total utilization ratio was 27 %, nowhere near the limits and a low utilization by industry standards ).  I explained this on the phone to the loan representative on the phone. He did not take this into consideration and instead stated that I had only authorized user accounts on my credit report and that PennFed did not take these into consideration. I again pointed out the four credit card revolving accounts that are mine, individually and show on the report. He then mentioned a delinquent account on a mortgage on the report and said it was recent. I asked which account and he pointed to XXXX XXXX XXXX short sale that was back in XXXX. We are almost in XXXX. I stated that it was a short sale and XXXX is ancient history, not recent. He had no reply to that explanation and then stated that they wanted to see a longer payment history on my current cards. I finally lost patience with this young kid who apparently did not know how to read a credit report accurately, listen to a customer 's explanations, and was declining the application on inaccurate statements, as well as violating fair credit lending laws in the process. The letter that arrived from PennFed stated three reasons for the decline : 1 ) Proportion of balances to credit limits on revolving accounts is too high. 2 ) Too many accounts with balances. 3 ) Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown. So the first two reasons, while being redundant, were also wholly inaccurate. The third one is inaccurate and vague. My revolving accounts have a perfect credit history. The phone representative had only asked about a XXXX short sale - 6 years ago is not recent. PennFed has declined my application based on complete inaccuracies. I am friends with a neighbor lady who was approved a year ago for {$5000.00} from PennFed on a credit card, only 8 months after she had declared Chapter XXXX Bankruptcy, had only two authorized user accounts from her long XXXX father on her credit report, and was making minimum wage. I know of another friend that was approved for a {$23000.00} auto loan with a credit report that had nothing except two authorized user credit cards on it. How is PennFed making accurate, fair, and consistent lending decisions? I was unfairly denied credit based on inaccurate reasons. I did call back to speak to a manager on  XXXX XXXX, XXXX and to again explain away the wrong denial reasons provided on the letter. The lady on the call refused to reconsider the application.