Look what came out in e-mail 
Thanks all, decided to pull the trigger on membership. I'll update the thread with my experience on account opening, etc!
(OK, here's my experience so far w/ account opening:
1) Unfroze TU and completed application on 1/5 (am). Asked for a copy of my DL to be uploaded. Went to 'under review' as expected.
2) A couple hours later, received an email asking to upload a copy of a utility bill.
3) Received email on 1/6 (pm) stating my request was completed.
4) Received welcome emails, e-sign for application, etc. My "personal contact" Yvette emailed me with a welcome email and asking which CC I wanted and what limit. (I replied the Signature Cash rebate w/ $20K)
5) Was abe to get signed in to online banking, sent message requesting mobile deposit be activated. (This isn't automatic, you have to request it.)
6) 1/9 (am) - Couple emails back and forth with Yvette with questions for my visa application.
7) 1/9 (pm) - Chatted online to get status of app. They countered at $10K, which is more than enough, so I accepted. Had to send POI (paystub) and 3 references (thought this was odd, but saw other people with this experience).
Pretty painless, very friendly staff. Chat, email, and phone interactions have been very positive.
Couple of other observations:
1) I helped my parents and partner open this account over the holidays, and neither have received debit cards. So be very patient
2) ACH transfers are available to other institutions, but not right away. Apparently you have to wait until the first month you "earn" the high yield (as opposed to the first "free" month), and then it will appear as an option in online banking.
3) The app is OK - Alliant's is far nicer. CCU's looks like it's just an interface to the mobile website.
4) I'll be curious to see if an ACH transfer from Alliant counts as a DD. (no data point on doctor of credit)
Received a couple more emails from my rep at CCU regarding the card:
1) References can't live with you. So had to provide an alternate.
2) Interest rate is 12.24%, which is the lowest offered on this card.
3) Asked me about payment protection, which I declined.
Finally, she said that she'd gotten the card finalized, and I should see it in 7-10 days!
All in all, pretty easy. I'll update again once I've received the debit and credit cards and I begin spending to see how the tracker is working.
@austinguy907 wrote:Look what came out in e-mail
<<promotional 1.99% APR email>>
I saw that, and they reminded me a couple times as I was going through the app process. I'm kind of tempted to take an advance w/ no fee, then let it sit in my checking account earning 2.6% above what I'm paying them
@Anonymous wrote:Congratulations!! you made it!! Some of the CCs ask for reference(apart from CCU, AMHFCU one of them!!), and I think it's not a big deal as they don't call those references.
As long as you show some usage on the card, you will get auto CLI in about 3 months.
Excellent! I was curious about CLI's. I'll put $1K on per month at least. I only got it for the interest rate bump. It's not spectacular otherwise - 3% at grocery stores will be decent, 2% for gas won't help much (plug in hybrid = fill up every 6-8 weeks . I figure between that, and the 1% on the other purchases, coupled with the higher balance allowance and 1.5% extra interest that I'll come out ahead at the end of the year vs spending that 1K on other rewards cards.
I've been eyeing this CU closely - with the death of Sallie Mae the Visa Signature Cash Rebate card will become one of the best rewards rates for grocery spend out there.
I have a couple of observations (and some napkin math) to contribute to the discussion:
1. If you shop at Amazon, you can reload your gift card balance from a debit card. Minimum transaction is $0.50. 12 of these and you've "spent" only $6 to qualify your account for rewards, done.
2. Grocery spend is capped at $6,000/yr for 3% on the Visa card. That works out to exactly $500/month. So using grocery spend to achieve the $500 reward tier would be the goal - trying to get to $1000 that way would result in half of the spend only earning 1% (over the course of a year). Since I would put ONLY grocery spend through it (because I'm planning on getting the Penfed Cash Rewards for 5% on gas, and I already have 1.5% for non-category), It would really only make sense to plan on making the second, rather than the 3rd rewards tier on checking.
So here's my math on the cost of earning 3.59% APY on $15,000 (the second rewards tier) for one year:
$72 (the total I would be adding to my Amazon balance via debit) * 5% (the amount of rewards I would be giving up by not spending that money on my Prime Store Card) = $3.60
That's the total - $3.60
A $116.51 average balance earns $3.60 in interest over a year at 3.09% (the base tier)
At 3.59% (the second tier), I earn that amount with a $100.28 average balance
I can guarantee my average balance would be quite a bit higher than either of those figures, so already I'm in the black
Then there's the rewards on $6,000 annual grocery spend at 3% - $180
Overall a winning proposition - I'm probably going to sign up as soon as I can afford the pull
(Please feel free to comment if I've missed something in my math - it was very 'quick and dirty')
Have you gone to Amazon and checked the box to force the card as credit? If not, it'll default to debit and not count.