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To apply for the PenFed Gold Visa® Card, you must be at least 18 years old and a member of the Pentagon Federal Credit Union.
Because conditional credit card approval is automated on the website, you may get a decision on your application within a few minutes. If there are issues with your application, it may take a few days to a few weeks to hear back.
After you’re approved, you typically receive your card within 7 to 10 business days.
The Pentagon Federal Credit Union primarily offers its services to military-affiliated individuals. But even without military affiliation, anyone can become a member and apply for the PenFed cards.
In the past, you could become a PenFed member with a one-time $17 donation to either the Voices for America’s Troops or the National Military Family Association. This requirement is no longer active.
For a better idea of how the PenFed Gold Visa® Card stacks up against other low interest rate cards, select up to four cards and choose Compare.
Pentagon Federal Credit Union is not accredited with the Better Business Bureau, but it earns an overall A+ rating from the agency as of August 2021. Some customers complain of difficulty reversing penalty fees, obtaining statement credit and having loan amounts honored.
The credit union currently holds a 4.5 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot as of August 2021.
Perhaps the best reason to get the PenFed Gold Visa® Card is its ongoing APR — as low as 15.49% variable on purchases. It’s a solid card in other respects, too, offering a $0 annual fee, a signup bonus and an intro APR on balance transfers.
Before you apply, make sure to compare your options and find the credit card that best suits your needs.
Review by
Kevin Joey Chen was a credit cards, banking and investments writer for Finder. His work and analysis have appeared on CNN, U.S. News & World Report, Business.com, Lifehacker and CreditCards.com.
The PenFed Gold Visa® Card is a low APR credit card offering from PenFed. It requires no annual fee, comes with a signup bonus after you spend in your first days and offers an ongoing APR of 15.49% to 17.99% variable depending on your credit score.
Unfortunately, the card doesn’t offer a 0% intro APR on purchases. But then again, none of the PenFed credit cards do as of this writing. That’s not to take away from the card’s ongoing APR: 15.49% variable is an impressively low rate if you qualify for the low end of the card’s range. This makes the card a great option if you need to carry a balance on occasion. By comparison, the average credit card APR is around 16%.
The card comes with other helpful perks, such as a $0 annual fee and a promo APR on balance transfers, which can help you save on interest for any existing debts you need to pay off. The card also comes with a signup bonus, which is a rarity for a no annual fee, low APR credit card.
On the whole, the PenFed Gold Visa® Card is a simple but useful credit card and a solid pick if you need to carry a balance on your card from time to time.