Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:
- Availability: You reside, work, own real property, attend school or worship within any county in the State of Michigan.
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: Unknown
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: None listed
Contents
The Offer
- Alpena Alcona Area Credit Union is offering a bonus of $100-$250.
- Members that are 18 or older can earn $250 when they:
- New membership opened via our online application or in person at any branch
- Open a debit card
- New member signs up to receive e-Statements
- Be enrolled in our FREE Credit Monitoring Service
- Members that are 14-17 can earn $100 when they:
- New membership opened via our online application or in person at any branch
- Open a debit card
- New member signs up to receive e-Statements
- Members that are 18 or older can earn $250 when they:
- Can also get a $25 bonus to deposit a check
The Fine Print
- Offer limited to new memberships opened after August 22, 2024, and subject to change. AAACU membership with checking account, debit card and e-Statements required. Offer applies to consumer accounts only and is not valid for current members or previous members within last 12 months. Reward is paid as dividends to the account upon opening and will be available to you after 30 days. Account must remain in good standing. Must have valid U.S. taxpayer identification number to receive reward which will be reported as dividends on IRS form 1099-INT. All taxes due are the responsibility of the recipient. Reward may not be combined with other new member incentive offers. Federally Insured by NCUA.
- Offer limited to new memberships ages 14-17 opened after August 04, 2025, and subject to change. AAACU membership with checking account, debit card and e-Statements required. Offer applies to consumer accounts only and is not valid for current members or previous members within last 12 months. Reward is paid as dividends to the account upon opening and will be available to you after 30 days. Account must remain in good standing. Must have valid U.S. taxpayer identification number to receive reward which will be reported as dividends on IRS form 1099-INT. All taxes due are the responsibility of the recipient. Reward may not be combined with other new member incentive offers. Federally Insured by NCUA.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has no monthly fees
Early Account Termination Fee
Unknown if any EATF is charged.
Our Verdict
Fantastic bonus as no direct deposit is required, definitely worth doing and will be added to the best checking bonuses.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Pretty easy bonus to do — and this CU has some great features. I live in Texas but own property in MI. Had to complete a short phone call, but once account was open, the bonus was immediately deposited as a 7-month CD paying 6% APY. You can also open additional 7-month CDs at the 6% rate, up to $10k, minimum of $500 per CD, easily and quickly on the site/app. Good place to park some cash. Don’t know of any other banks offering 6% currently.
Update: Put in an application over the weekend. Banker called me Monday saying they had a ton of applications over the weekend. We spent probably 20 minutes on the phone with her going over my application, soft credit check, etc. Once through that, she sent me the info to access my account and it was another 10 minutes to set up myself online. You have to put $5 in the savings account, so I did a mobile deposit for that hoping that will earn the extra $25.
One thing I found out is that the $250 goes into a CD that is forfeited if the account is closed before 7 months.
Good to know about the 7 months. I just finished opening mine and the phone call took about 5 minutes. I’m going to guess it’s because I live in Michigan and had to answer fewer questions. We didn’t really go over my application. I was just asked about loans and credit cards I had and how I learned about the offer (I had pretty general answers for everything).
Oh interesting. Funny how much it varies person to person. (Welcome to MI by the way, also a transplant here.)
I mentioned the CD part in my original post but that information didn’t get carried over. At least it’s a good rate!
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/contact-us/#comment-2117794
To “own real property” as eligibility seems unique, though sensible, but Michigan has a massive amount of OOS property owners, especially north of the halfway point of the mitten. People love to own property here for hunting, fishing, camping, and vacationing in general. And all of the OOS landlords, which we recently have a massive amount of now as well, are also eligible. Really interesting, and perhaps this will be adopted more widely at CUs here in MI going forward.
Does anyone have experience if they ask for documents on property ownership?
Yes. I sent a screenshot of property insurance, but a utility bill was also acceptable.
Open a membership on mobile with Chex Frozen. The next day, I found that only the savings account was opened. So I added a checking account, but the page to order a debit card is 404. Talked to an agent through chat, and hopefully the debit card was successfully ordered.
Ran thru my the application on my phone, got to “Application submitted without verification. Click to return to home page”
I clicked and it brought me to a 404 page not found. I guess I wait and see before I attempt for my teenager.
He’s counting the check bonus in the amount
Ah, that makes more sense! Thanks for the info!
Extra $25 for depositing check
The name of an AAACU team member is required during application. Can any one provide a name?
It’s not required, I left it blank and was successful.
Did you apply as OOS or you are in MI?
Resident.
Just Google “AAACU employee LinkedIn” and you get several names.
The above text indicates the bonus will be dividends paid to the account, but that’s just for those 14-17. Their full fine print (two asterisks) is: “Offer limited to new memberships ages 14-17 opened after August 04, 2025, and subject to change. AAACU membership with checking account, debit card and e-Statements required. Offer applies to consumer accounts only and is not valid for current members or previous members within last 12 months. Reward is paid as dividends to the account upon opening and will be available to you after 30 days. Account must remain in good standing. Must have valid U.S. taxpayer identification number to receive reward which will be reported as dividends on IRS form 1099-INT. All taxes due are the responsibility of the recipient. Reward may not be combined with other new member incentive offers. Federally Insured by NCUA.”
Note that the offer for those 18+ has a single asterisk after “$250.00 Member Reward.” That leads you to fine print which says: “APY = Annual Percentage Yield. Rate is fixed for the term of the certificate. New Member Reward $250 CD offer valid as of 8/4/2025 and subject to change. Offer requires new membership account with a checking account with debit card, enrollment in eStatements and Savvy Money Credit Score Solution.All criteria must be met within 2 weeks of the account opening. The reward will be deposited into a 7-month CD once all criteria have been met. Early withdrawals are not allowed for the reward certificate. Accounts must remain in good standing and early closure of the account forfeits all earnings and the $250 new member reward. Rewards are reported as dividends on IRS form 1099-INT. All taxes due are the responsibility of the recipient. Offer valid for new consumer accounts only and is not available for business or entity accounts, current members or previous members within the last 12 months. May not be combined with other deposit rewards offers.”
That last line makes me wonder about the $25 mobile check deposit offer. Does it simply mean they can’t be done together (but later with the check deposit would be fine)?
The key to opening this account is applying on mobile. It did NOT work on my desktop. Approval was instant and enrolling in everything required was instant except for mobile check deposit which apparently takes a day. I forsee this being an easy $275.
THANK YOU SO MUCH DOC I LUV U <3
I am glad it worked for you. I tried applying on Mobile and same result. May be because my DL is OOS and it does not recognize it but I qualify a different a way for this CU (own property).
UPDATE: Even automatically approved accounts are manually reviewed. Got a call today from a banker to complete the sign-up process. She just confirmed some basic info and checked her boxes. They will text/email you forms to complete digitally to officially open the account. They do NOT accept any CC funding. I also confirmed the $250 CD bonus is attached and will be applied. I also confirmed that you CAN stack this with the $25 check offer. Everything looks good!
William Charles 
Chuck
UPDATE: $250 CD added to account today. I can see it in my dashboard. Also, this pays a whopping 6% APY! https://i.ibb.co/QF7HH71G/cd-stats.png
William Charles 
Chuck
I just did this. It’s a soft pull (TransUnion needs to be unfrozen though)
Does not open online. The system does not recognize the verification ( tried at least 5 times) and there is no manual review to submit application that I can find.
wdym “does not open online”
Try opening on mobile. That worked for me.