We've been long-time Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) members, and I recently noticed a fabulous new feature within our account access: free access to your FICO NextGen scores with suggested actions to improve your scores. This benefit is available to PenFed members with active checking accounts, credit cards, or installment loans.
PenFed's NextGen Credit Scores
The PenFed site uses FICO's NextGen score, which produces scores between 150-950 points. This is different from the other FICO modeling, which uses scores between 300-850. There are also various other credit scores out there, and they each have little differences. It is very important to know which scoring model is being used when you look at scores because the same number can mean very different things depending on the model used.
Keeping track of your credit score (whichever model) can help you make intelligent decisions about credit related issues. Your credit score can also act as incentive to clean up your financial situation because it feels good to watch that score go up.
On the PenFed site, you can get to your score by clicking on a blue box that says "Your FICO Score is Ready." It looks like an advertisement and it located just above the account information next to other boxes that have promotions in them.
In various places, I have seen PenFed claims that your score will be updated quarterly or that it will be updated whenever they have a reason to pull your score. So far, everyone I know has the same score date of 27 May 2014. We shall see how this actually pans out over time.
**Please note that this "button" is blocked by some adblocking software. If you don't see it when you are logged into your account, try a different browser or temporarily disable your adblock software.**
About PenFed
Established in 1935, PenFed is one of the largest credit unions in the country. There are many ways to become a PenFed member; including numerous association members and employee groups. For more information about PenFed, call 800-247-5626 or visit PenFed.org.
