Considering joining Alliant CU....

[pinkandgrey]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@pinkandgrey wrote:

Heyo everybody,

I’m currently not a member of any credit unions and I have heard mixed (but mostly positive) things about Alliant. Their VS card is basically my ultimate goal card, but I’m certainly in no position to go for that one ATM. So, my thought was to join to build up some positive history with Alliant and app for the Signature down the road. Is this a good plan? Suggestions? Advice? Warnings lol? 

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Alliant was my first credit union, but the credit card I had with them -- a non rewards platinum -- has become worthless due to high interest rate, cash advance fee, and addition of balance transfer fee, and their customer service is very blah. I much prefer NFCU, PenFed, Langley, Unify, Digital, Affinity FCU, and Vantage West.

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Good to know. I figured someone would come in praising Navy lol. Thanks for the info!

[Chelow]

I joined Alliant a month and half ago and it was super easy. I used Freelancers Union membership so no fees there.

No hard pulls if you don't opt in for overdraft protection. That's what i was told by one lovely MYficoer and indeed no hard pulls for me. I was able to fund checking and savings acount withing a cpl of days. ACH works well and is fast. If you do it before 11am on a business day the transfer gets done by the next business day.

I can't speak for their other products yet, as i haven't applied for any, but i did receive a phone call from them like 20 days in. Rep was welcoming me to the Union and asked if he could be of any assistance. I told him i just opened the accounts to build a relationship for future car and personal loans. He proceeded to tell me he was indeed one of their Loan Officers  and could put any application for me on the spot. I calmly denied and repeated that i wanted to build a relationship first and would apply for services as i needed them. He was very kind and said he was gonna email me with his business contact info and if i needed anything i could contact him directly. Got the email within the hour.

As of now everything looks fine. Will post further applications down the road by the end of the year. 

Hope this helps. 

[coldfusion]

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@Revelate wrote:

If you can do anything more than that like use them for your primary financial clearing house like I use Chase (vis a vis direct deposit and route all money from there), I think that'd help, but I'm not sure it's really necessary.

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This is one thing that Alliant does a good job at; they charge no fee for inbound or outbound ACH transfers and it's pretty straightfoward to schedule regular recurring transfers into accounts elsewhere.  In many cases the receiving institution sees and flags the transfer as a DD which can be useful if trying to fulfill the requirements of a promotion.

[Anonymous]

The UW on the VS is crazy. They flat out tell you upfront that they want customers who spend $50K or more a year on their cards and the approvals I have seen tend to be upper income levels. 

Their regular 2% card looked somewhat appealing but I would rather go with SDFCU if I want another 2% card. 

I decided to pass. I like NFCU and DCU. 

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The UW on the VS is crazy. They flat out tell you upfront that they want customers who spend $50K or more a year on their cards and the approvals I have seen tend to be upper income levels. 

Their regular 2% card looked somewhat appealing but I would rather go with SDFCU if I want another 2% card. 

I decided to pass. I like NFCU and DCU. 

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Dunno, approvals seem to be right at the 2014 average household income line which while a solid income in many places in America isn't absurd nor is it spending 50k annually.

Without two gigs I don't think I could even hit that spend and I'm above that average household, and can't pay the mortgage with Plastiq VISA so it is close to 4k/month slush fund... giggity.

[Anonymous]

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@Revelate wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

The UW on the VS is crazy. They flat out tell you upfront that they want customers who spend $50K or more a year on their cards and the approvals I have seen tend to be upper income levels. 

Their regular 2% card looked somewhat appealing but I would rather go with SDFCU if I want another 2% card. 

I decided to pass. I like NFCU and DCU. 

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Dunno, approvals seem to be right at the 2014 average household income line which while a solid income in many places in America isn't absurd nor is it spending 50k annually.

Without two gigs I don't think I could even hit that spend and I'm above that average household, and can't pay the mortgage with Plastiq VISA so it is close to 4k/month slush fund... giggity.

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There are far more denials than approvals though so it’s hard to say. Their website, however, flat out says what they’re looking for. 

• Exclusively designed for those spending $50,000+ a year on their card

[Revelate]

Yeah I just took a look through the approvals board rather than anywhere else to get an idea of their UW standards.

If they had this card on their business side I would absolutely take a swing, personal while it would be nice for diversification purposes I really don’t need another tradeline on my consumer report right now. Inquiries for PG’s I’ll deal, but I may need to get out of my new account scorecard for next year and as such nothing new.