So I've had a thing for PenFed for about 8 years now. The first 2 years of that were plagued by high util, high inq, then the next 5 years of that were taken up by being a ch 13 bankruptcy fool. So I never could get approved for anything (back when I first joined I wanted to refi my car, didn't really care about CCs then). Now here I am 3 months post BK discharge.
I tried for the Platinum Rewards and Cash Rewards one month post BK, because I am mostly crazy and I shoot for the absolute highest goal I'm able to. Why apply/recon for a card I don't really want just to get in with a bank? Anyway, I got declined, no big surprise there. Did a recon and was still declined. Oh well. What did I expect with a pretty low FICO and a fresh-ish BK?
So part 2 of this story is I've had the same car now for about 8 years. It's reliable as Ol Faithful, but I'm bored of it and unlike when I filed BK, I now make a lot of money and can easily afford a new car. Strictly a NEED, not a want. So I decided to hit up PenFed for an auto loan just for poops and giggles. Did an app online, they countered my $50k ask with a $40k loan at 4.3%. Not bad, but I thought I could do better. They were using the same pull from the declined Plat app that was about a month old. I decided yesterday to call them up and ask if they could force pull a new app (which would show 3 mos of rebuilding and about a 50-70 point score increase.) Long story short, the lady on the phone offered me up to $45k this time at the same interest rate. Then I asked her about the possibility of a credit card using the new pull. She told me to write another recon letter, but to add that I wanted a new pull performed. (I'm the HP queen 
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SOOOO Last night I did that. Emailed it, got an email this morning that my request had been forwarded to an LO for review. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest. So I go about my day, I'm sitting at the vet's office waiting for my dog to be seen and decide to check to see if any updates have been made. Amazingly enough I WAS APPROVED!!!
I had checked on their app, and I was like wait, WHAT? Is this a joke?! So I logged onto their site on my phone, and sure enough. APPROVED. WHAT!?
It's their absolute highest interest rate and lowest SL, but I don't care. I put my mind to something and I DID it. I am officially IN WITH PENFED, 3 mos post BK discharge. My life is complete, lol 