Alliant Visa Signature Card Seeking Reviews and Opinions

[Anonymous]

I am intriqued enough to step out of the garden for this card. However, online reviews for Alliant are fairly abysmal. Horror stories about the time it takes for payments to clear, instances where the card is declined at the register for no apparent reason, unhelpful CSRs, etc. I do not want to waste my time on a product that has issues. I want my credit card to work when I need it. I also pay on my CCs several times a month and I wan to be able to do this. So I am turning to the trusted people of FICO Forum to give me your real life experiences with this credit card. TIA!

[xaximus]

Personally, I have a few charges that are on auto-pay on this card. I have no issues with it as far as CSR's go and having any decline so far.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am intriqued enough to step out of the garden for this card. However, online reviews for Alliant are fairly abysmal. Horror stories about the time it takes for payments to clear, instances where the card is declined at the register for no apparent reason, unhelpful CSRs, etc. I do not want to waste my time on a product that has issues. I want my credit card to work when I need it. I also pay on my CCs several times a month and I wan to be able to do this. So I am turning to the trusted people of FICO Forum to give me your real life experiences with this credit card. TIA!

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I'm not in love with Alliant. I had a non-rewards platinum card, where they changed the terms and have rendered the card useless for me. I have found their customer service to be a little stiff, and slow.

[Anonymous]

It's been a great card.  Payments post fast and rewards post same month on time.  Applying is a pain more like a loan application, and their website and app aren't the greatest, but better than CITI IMO.  Not had to deal with a csr so can't help you there.  I've had it for about 9 months.

[CramEiko]

I have a family member that has it. He had to call to get a csr to expedite the payment a few times a month. IF I'm not mistaken they don't really do that in house. It's kind of a weird system. When 80-90% of his $50k total CL got caught in hold status during a statement cut... I saw a 64pt drop in fico on just that one card anone alone. 

[FinStar]

Never encountered any issues with Alliant.  I've had their Visa Signature card since 2015 (upgraded from Platinum Rewards ~2 years ago).  No issues with push/pull payments/transfers or dealing with their agents (I rarely need to contact them).  Their device app seems to work seamless IME.

Like anyother lender, CUs or otherwise, there's always going to be mixed bag of experiences.

[JaseT]

I was with Alliant for about 5 years and they weren't my favorite. The only issues I ever had were with their CSR's (difficult and rude), never any card decline issues, etc.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to thread jack, I’m considering this card and an Auto loan with them. How’s their starting Credit limits on this card.

[yapsalot]

Their starting limits are kind of low. When I got my signature visa about a year ago my TransUnion FICO 8 was around 848 (they use TransUnion exclusively for both initial applications and credit line increases, at least for me in Florida). Even though I had savings and CD's with them of about $300k, they gave me a starting limit of $25k. That's a relatively high limit but when you consider the depository account balance and a prior relationship of over 2 years, it isn't so great.

In terms of cards, the signature visa pays cash back of 3% for the first year then goes to 2.5% thereafter with an annual fee of $59 (waived for the first year). The 3% cash back on all purchases with no limits is likely one of the best cards on the market. Another good thing is their interest rates on savings and CD's is close to the highest available in the US.

Like others have mentioned, their are lots of problems that come with Alliant: bone-headed customer service, a website that works but is about 20 years behind everyone else, low limits, hard pulls on CLI, which are limited to two per year, and a very odd credit card operation. Alliant does not run the credit card operation, they sub-contract it out to a company in South Dakota. The credit union and the credit card operation have separate telephone numbers and separate staffs and sometimes you get bounced back and forth between the two offices with neither able to help.

Alliant does have 24/7 customer service but if you call outside regular business hours you get reps that are poorly informed and powerless to do much of anything. Not that the ones there during the day are much better, they have a military-like adherence to their rules that will never result an any exception or accommodation. Hold times for phone support can be long at times. I had a small fraudulent charge once. They closed my account and said they would mail me a new card that I would get in a couple of weeks or I could pay $20 for overnight delivery. They never removed the fraudulent charge even though I called about it 2 or 3 times and sent a couple of written disputes.

Also keep in mind that if you pay your credit card bill with a non-Alliant bank account, they wait 10 days before they update your available balance. If you pay with an Alliant account they adjust the available balance in a day or two. This is never mentioned on their website or account docs.

[MediumReputation]

I have the Alliant Visa Signature Card.

Like you, I pay my credit card several times per month.  When I make a payment on my card, I do so from the "Transfer Money" tab.  I transfer money from my checking to my "loan" (i.e., card).  The money is instantly deducted from my checking account.  If I do this before noon, the payment is reflected the next day.  Otherwise, it takes two days.  I've found that the "Pay Card" route takes a little longer.

I've never had my card declined.  I've made large purchases (25% of my credit limit) outside normal spending habits without issue both at home and abroad (Europe and Asia).  I've never had to call in, so I cannot provide information about the helpfulness of the CSRs.