Alliant is changing their 2.5% cash back card’s rewards terms

[Beast26]

This card's terms change too much for me.  One or two years from now the terms will change again.

[Anonymous]

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@Beast26 wrote:

This card's terms change too much for me.  One or two years from now the terms will change again.

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Too much?  So.....them making the card MORE valuable/rewarding/profitable for YOU is too much?  Just for maintaining an avg daily balance of $1000, they drop the annual fee and still give you the same 2.5% CB. Unless I'm missing something, this is an awesome change. 

[Beast26]

Like the poster stated above me, they started with 3% for first year, then annual fee for the second year, then they changed it to an even bigger annual fee.  Now it looks good but I don't trust it to stay this good is all I'm saying especially as often as they seem to change the terms of the card.

[coldfusion]

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@FinStar wrote:

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@FinStar wrote:

I'm glad I kept mine despite some of the negative press that has circulated about Alliant in general.  The AF going away is definitely a step in the right direction, and even with the AF, it has been a good performer for me.

Thanks for posting those deets @Anonymous.

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Any reason not to get this as a backup for general spend card, @FinStar? Seems like the requirements are more than fair and now with no AF to boot. Just don't know if there are any quirks Alliant has that would give someone pause

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One of the few quirks that I can recall, is they tend to be somewhat conservative. So, if there's a fair amount of inquirires and/or new accounts, they're usually dead in the water for some folks.  Likewise, if there's too much available credit, but I don't know for sure what their internal guidance is on that these days.  Definitely not like FirstTech, though.

I joined in 2015 and this particular card originated as Platinum Rewards before it was upgraded to the Cash Rewards circa ~2017.  Never had any issues with the deposit side of things (external <-> internal ACH settlement).  As far as C/S, although I haven't had to call them in a while, they tend to use a third-party CC servicer during after hours.  IME, I've been fairly happy with them overall.

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They do not like recent inquiries/new accounts.  Not at USBank-level fanatacism but if you've been relatively active seeking credit recently it might be a bumpy ride.

If I remember right this card also has, or at least had, an elevated mininum SL - $15K comes to mind - but that needs to be fact-checked.

I'll toss out a random fact as I'm pretty sure it would come up at some point that they have been reliable TU-pullers for the last 3+ years.

[JNA1]

This is not a bad upgrade. I have been sent prequals for this card several times, but since I got the AOD card, it kinda fell off my radar. 

I have the bulk of my cash savings in a high rate savings account through Alliant, and I have to say, I love the them as a FI. I just don't have any of their credit cards. 

I would think for somebody that didn't want the hassle of jumping through the hoops of joining AOD, this would be now the be the best general spend card out there. The majority of people are going run more than $10K per month through one card. 

[longtimelurker]

Another question is what counts as a deposit?  Does it have to be dirext deposit payroll or merely an addition, such as ACH in or depositing a check or cash

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

Another question is what counts as a deposit?  Does it have to be dirext deposit payroll or merely an addition, such as ACH in or depositing a check or cash

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Per the T&Cs, "An electronic deposit is defined as a direct deposit, payroll deposit, ATM deposit, mobile check deposit or transfer from another financial institution."

[Beast26]

I would like to know too @longtimelurker.. I just looked at their auto loan rates and they have a really low APR.  IF I were to get this card the actual credit union would be just as useful as the credit card itself.  Atleast I can't say the same about AOD.  I wouldn't care as much about the credit union side of things besides putting in a couple dollars to keep some activity showing.  

But on the other hand one thing that gets me is you have to have an average daily balance of $1,000 in the checking account.  That basically ties up $1k to keep up the 2.5% rewards if I am looking at it correctly.

[coldfusion]

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@coldfusion wrote:

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If I remember right this card also has, or at least had, an elevated mininum SL - $15K comes to mind - but that needs to be fact-checked.

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I remembered right.     Should still be confirmed if this is still the case before annointing the card as a FOTM candidate.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Alliant-Credit-Union-Visa-Signature/m-p/53...

[longtimelurker]

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@Beast26 wrote:

But on the other hand one thing that gets me is you have to have an average daily balance of $1,000 in the checking account.  That basically ties up $1k to keep up the 2.5% rewards if I am looking at it correctly.

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As long as you actually have the $1K, this isn't a big cost.  As in the comments on DoC, it earns 0.25% and even if you can earn 2% elsewhere (and 1% is pushing it!) that's only $17.50 a year cost, which needs only $3500 spend to beat a 2% card.