PenFed Credit Union and their travel rewards card

[El Gringo]

I just discovered this no-annual fee credit card that gives 5% cash back on travel (https://www.penfed.org/travel-rewards-american-express/). You have to become a member of the Pentagon Federal Credit Union first, which apparently I can qualify for by giving a one-time donation to a military/vet organization. Does anyone have any experience with PenFed? This seems like a sweet deal, particularly because I travel internationally for work and buy the airfare on my own credit card and am later reimbursed.

[Dave1442397]

PenFed are great. I've been a member for at least ten years, and I've been using their 5% cash-back card that whole time. I don't know if they still offer the card I use, but I get 5% back on gasoline, which is nice.

I've also used them when buying cars. I think our last two loans were 0.9% and 1.49%, both for used cars.

The couple of times I've had to call them over the years, their customer service department was excellent.

[El Gringo]

Thanks for the feedback. Just now I'm realizing that it appears that it's not cash back, but rather points. Not sure where I got the idea it was cash back -it seems like it used to be cash back, but then they changed it? I'm not really interested in a points system, unfortunately.

[Dave1442397]

Thanks for the feedback. Just now I'm realizing that it appears that it's not cash back, but rather points. Not sure where I got the idea it was cash back -it seems like it used to be cash back, but then they changed it? I'm not really interested in a points system, unfortunately.

Yes, a lot of their cards have changed over the years. It's nice that they give you the option of staying with what you have, which is what I did. I see they still have a cash back card for gas, but the terms are not quite as good as what I have - https://www.penfed.org/platinum-cash-rewards-card/