@Anonymous wrote:Alliant Credit Union is the one I am looking into joining now, I have read great reviews and they seem to have all the features of a monster mega bank. If you are out of state like me though it will be more like an online bank than brick and mortar. They do offer good savings and even checking rates if you meet the requirements though. I am also joining up with DCU soon to get 3% back on my first 500$ in savings but that is all the use I have for DCU at the moment. Alliant will HP you too, but its worth it from what I have read.
FWIW, I joined them 8/2015 and opened checking+savings+secured loan, all without a HP.
@Anonymous wrote:I am suprised they did not do a hard pull at Alliant, hopefully I will be so lucky! How have you liked them thus far, they are my banking frontrunner at the moment. I hear I can open a savings there, and then in a 5-6 weeks they will send me a 50$ offer to open checking.
I love them. Nice people on the phone, great rates, super fast transfers and zero worrying about fees. Although they are not my main bank at this moment, since there are no branches near me.
And at first I only opened a savings accounts. When I recieved the welcome package from them, inside was the $50 checking promo, which I quickly opened. Their rate for checking is 0.648% (off the top of my head) if you make ANY kind of transfer or deposit to your checking from an external account on monthly basis.
Im a member of 20 some credit unions (most just have the 5 dollar or 20 dollar member fee in the accounts.) I will join damn near any credit union I can because many of them have some interesting quirk. I sit on a volunteer membership board on 2 of them. We meet every couple months to discuss products services and other ways to get new members. Both of the ones I am on those committees are relatively conservative in their lending which I actually like. Both are insured (some credit unions self insure) but as it is my money they are lending you (and my interest the profits from your loans pay) I don't necessarily want them willy nilly tossing money out the door... Both of those are small, dont use a lot of paperwork, but they are relatively strict on POI and such.
I also use alliant as sort of a stash spot for money I am saving for a specific purpose. I livein Illinois so I do have access to Alliant branches as well as the online features. I have dealt with several people in the offices and all have been fast, efficient and friendly.
I do much prefer going into my smaller credit unions as most of the people know me, know my name and always seem genuinely happy to see their members. (It probablyhelps that I buy the ladies at one of them pizza a couple times a year. The membership committee gives us 25 dollar gift cards for "travel expenses" and meals for the meetings and every few meetings I just use one to send a pizza to my girls) This also allows me to periodically get a soft pull TU 04 score from the loan lady 
Basically my advice is to join one BIG and one small Credit Union. The big guys function like a big bank, but with better rates. The little guys will listen to you and try to help if its possible. Flexibility and diversification are always advisible.