topic Re: Got the "Couldn't verify identity" message also in Credit Cards

Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:24:46 GMT

I just wanted to share my experiences with Alliant Credit Union with the board. I've been a long-time customer of BOA (an account I will continue to maintain), but with the rocky times the banks are facing I decided to find a good CU to join. I research many boards looking for the best CU in terms of rates, lending policies, convenience and financial stability. After hemming and hawing for awhile, I decided on Alliant CU.

I jumped on-line and joined the national PTA (needed to join) for $25 bucks. Immediately after, I went to Alliant's web-site and started the on-line membership process. It walks you through easily and about half way through it tells you it will pull an EQ report. Once you agree, it comes back with accounts on your report which you must verify through a series of questions. After I completed that successfully, the next screen popped up with a preapproval for their platinum rewards Visa with a $7,500 CL and a $20,000 Auto loan. You check the box of the product you want to accept, and then it goes to the final verification screen. You must then fund your account, if applicable, with a credit card or existing bank account. Since I also opened a checking account, I funded it from my existing checking account.

I accepted only the visa, and the last screen congratulates you and welcomes you as a member. About one week later, my new Visa arrived in the mail, as well as my new debit card. I decided to call them and inquire about the auto loan that I did not accept initially. What I found out was the rate was 4.65%, which was much better than the rate I currently had. I chose to refinance my car through them, a quick and painless process all done right over the phone.

With Alliant, you speak directly to a loan officer with lending authority. He did have to pull another hard, which makes two hard hits on EQ but worth it! Within minutes he had approved me and emailed me a list of documentation he would need to complete the Refi. In addition to the auto loan approval, he also approved me for an overdraft line of credit for my checking account. Not bad, both done on the same EQ pull.

The next day the check arrived at my home via FedEx. Done.

This has to be about the most positive experience I have ever had with a bank/CU. Considering this, I decided to make Alliant my primary bank and have moved all my direct deposits etc to them.

Sorry for the wordy post, but if you're looking to move your business over to a credit union because of the banking instability, I would recommend Alliant Credit Union. www.alliantcreditunion.org

A tough act to follow.

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:33:52 GMT

Congrats. I've been using Alliant for a savings account for a while now and am also VERY pleased with them. I was preapproved for a few products but couldn't accept, as I am currently in the middle of the mortgage process and prior to that I didn't want to open a new account. Their process is very painless and customer service is great. I find them to be far superior to the hassle I went with at PenFed...a week long approval and having to provide every asset statement and tax returns, etc. just to wind up with a $1000 CL on their Visa card.

Glad you had a good experience with them.

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:36:30 GMT

I haven't heard much positive about PenFed. Difficult approval process, inconsistent lending policies. I did research them before I decided on Alliant. The other one similar to PenFed is NASA. I'm not sure what the big attraction to PenFed is since their rates are not even close to Alliants.

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:39:06 GMT

I regret even bothering to join PENFED

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:41:34 GMT

That is pretty much what I've heard about PenFed, and yet many people swear by them. Not sure why. I'll stick with Alliant!

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:14:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That is pretty much what I've heard about PenFed, and yet many people swear by them. Not sure why. I'll stick with Alliant!

I guess if you have a 720+ credit score it is the place to be.

Thats not me.

I just really hate the fact that the week after NFCU gave me an auto $5K CLI on 2 accounts I applied at PENFED, gave the membership fee to some stupid organization to become a member to gain membership eligibility got the PENFED account but am "restricted" so I have second class membership status and get this- I cannot do ACH transactions into the freaking account.

How moronic is that? I have to mail in deposits which they will hold for 9 days.

They will "review" it in 6 months.

And have nothing but high Utilization in my report. No lates, no negs, no judgements.

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:41:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I regret even bothering to join PENFED

Well I don't hear that very much. I thought I was on the only one that hated PenFed. I too regret joining them. Waste of inquiry, time, frustration and picked up a new account that was lower than my rebuilder cards from a few years back. In fact, my Target store card has the same CL. Rewards are not that good either, unless you drive a lot for your job, you can only spend so much on gas. I do much, much better on Chase Freedom Plus card than I could ever do with my PenFed rewards card. I really don't see what the hype is all about myself. I wish I never applied with them.

Oh and I had a 740 EQ with no inquiries (or maybe 1, but pretty sure it was none) when I applied. I am pretty sure they treated me so poorly because I was self employed. I literally spent a week faxing everything but my first born to them and the customer lack of service department would not put me through to speak to any of the loan officers or whatever the folks are called that make the decisions on their credit cards. Really ridiculous.

I also could not transfer the money I wanted into my savings accounts. I had to do $50 a day and it was quite a hassle as I had several thousand I wanted to transfer. That's when I opened my alliant account. SO much easier to deal with and their website is 1000 times better. Not to mention, PenFed's savings account rates suck. When I opened my alliant account it was 3.7% with no minimum. It's down to around 2.9% now, but all the rates are falling on savings accounts, so not much you can do there.

And, I am at 9 months now. At the 6 months mark, I called and was told they changed their policy to do reviews at 12 months now. Whatever, I put one tank of gas on the card I have with them every month to keep it active and otherwise it is sockdrawered.

Message Edited by UpUpUp on 03-23-2009 08:41 AM

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Schoolbuskid — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:22:09 GMT

To the OP, since it has not been asked what type of scores did you have? I'm looking for a personal loan to replace my HSBC loan (currently at 22%)

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Creditaddict — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:57:20 GMT

I just joined Alliant and got all the way to security questions and then it said a representative would contact me with 3 days. Does that mean I got one of the questions wrong? I did not recognize a mortgage it mentioned so put none

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Creditaddict — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:08:40 GMT

well I called and they said it's being reviewed and everything is fine. I hope I get offered something!

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:48:19 GMT

@Creditaddict wrote:
well I called and they said it's being reviewed and everything is fine. I hope I get offered something!

So I guess they ran your credit we gone have to lock your reports an mine to lol. Is this a local credit union that's located in your state?. I hate putting my money in a place where I don't have local access.

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:25:43 GMT

Yes, Alliant is a great CU. Congrats to the OP!

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Creditaddict — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:31:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Creditaddict wrote:
well I called and they said it's being reviewed and everything is fine. I hope I get offered something!

So I guess they ran your credit we gone have to lock your reports an mine to lol. Is this a local credit union that's located in your state?. I hate putting my money in a place where I don't have local access.

I like hiding money from myself! or making it take a couple days to access! lol

The online thing asked for my permission to pull EQ my best 630

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

score_building — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:48:04 GMT

congrats on the approval!

great hearing about members good experiences over at alliant. having just been 'turned down' for pen fed again (recon) today, i was feeling a bit dejected. since alliant was high up on my list of cu wanna apps i decided to test the waters on what i mistakenly thought was my 'pen fed ready' app profile with another cu. even the pen fed csr said, 'oh it looks like you were really close, it's not that you're bad...' he, he

then, i apped alliant and they offered multiple preapprovals upon app incl. a 6.5k cc. i hope i am approved for it, not sure how that works. in any case, it's true the application process was simple and streamlined. towards the end of the online app they instructed me to print, sign and send in a 'signature card' by snail mail.

Message Edited by score_building on 03-24-2009 03:48 AM

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:59:45 GMT

If they approved you on-line while joining, the card will show up within a week or so. They do not require anything else as long as you checked the box to accept the card. Once you set-up skybranch for on-line access, you will see your new credit card and deposit accounts right away.

The first time I logged on, which was a couple of days after joining, all my accounts including credit card were listed.

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:03:55 GMT

Sorry for leaving out my scores, they pulled EQ and my true FICO is 710, no baddies.

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:30:33 GMT

thebostonredsox, great post!

My question to you is how much documentation do they require for opening a personal account with Alliant? I understand that a personal credit report would be pulled (EQ ?), as with other credit unions, and I know proper ID's are needed to prove you are who you say you are. I'm asking specifically about tax records, balance sheets, net worth summaries, or any other docs they might require which provide more information than just verification of income.

In other words, can I just open an account with them without necessarily applying for any type of credit product, or is the whole process automatic without exception?

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

score_building — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:30:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
If they approved you on-line while joining, the card will show up within a week or so. They do not require anything else as long as you checked the box to accept the card. Once you set-up skybranch for on-line access, you will see your new credit card and deposit accounts right away.

The first time I logged on, which was a couple of days after joining, all my accounts including credit card were listed.

wow - that's great. thanks for the info -i thougt it was possibly just an invitation to apply, not a firm offer. v. cool! i daresay that was a borderline pleasurable apping experience. i too sure am feeling cu love, Alliant RULES!

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:04:48 GMT

Uborrow - They do not require much documentation. You will need your driver's license number and exp date. The credit preapprovals pop-up toward the end of the process and it is automatic. This is because in order to join Alliant, your EQ file is automatically pulled, as is a Chexsystems report. They verify this info, determine your eligibility to join based on your credit and then match you up to any credit product you qualify for.

The credit card, if offered and accepted, requires no further documentation. The car loan, if offered and accepted will require proof of income (paystub), and all pertinent vehicle information. In speaking to a loan officer i was told that the pre-approvals offered during the enrollment process are largely score based. The higher the score, the better the offer.

At the very end of the on-line process, they will give you a .pdf file to save and print. this contains your signature card which you must sign and immediately mail back to them. They must have your signed sig card in hand within 7 days of your app date.

Re: Alliant Credit Union ROCKS!

Creditaddict — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:08:48 GMT

well I still have not heard form them since (I think failing the security questions) so I did not get to the part where they offer additional products like I wanted but I do see the pull today.

should I call again?