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Jason
Jason (@guest_281571)
August 5, 2016 14:45

Hello, I see you added the wording [Expired] on the subject, however I just got the email from Alliant in less than an hour ago. They have the promotion code in the email so I just open up the high rate checking account with them. I’ll let you know whether they will still give me the $50 bonus. And I’m going to do the same thing for my parents’ accounts too even though the $50 won’t post, because I want to do the small loan.

William Charles
Admin
August 7, 2016 20:10

Interesting, thanks Jason! Anybody else get it?

Jason
Jason (@guest_334408)
January 5, 2017 15:26

Nope, didn’t get the bonus. I was just a few days late. Anyway, I do like their ACH pull/push that is done next day.

Phil
Phil (@guest_280905)
August 3, 2016 16:05

I got a pending message after applying. It says I need to wait for an email to arrive within 2 days…

Joseph C.
Joseph C. (@guest_280864)
August 3, 2016 14:00

Keep in mind too that Alliant has a 0% balance transfer CC for 12 months with no fee

SD
SD (@guest_280863)
August 3, 2016 13:59

I opened an alliant CU account a few months ago and randomly got a $50 bonus. This post explains it.

Anyway I also agree that their ACH service is the best I’ve ever seen (the second best I’d say is discover bank) so having an alliant account is a must if you are handling multiple accounts and need to move money often.

Me
Me (@guest_280929)
August 3, 2016 18:18
  SD

Same here!

CGID
CGID (@guest_280826)
August 3, 2016 12:44

There’s one more good reason to consider joining Alliant. If a person has no open installment loans (e.g. no mortgage, no car loan, no student loans, etc.) that will hurt his credit score. The folks at the myFICO forums figured out a clever way to circumvent this problem, where….

(a) You can open an installment loan
(b) Pay almost no interest on it (roughly $1 per year)
(c) Make it so that your installment loan reports as almost but not entirely paid off
(d) Make it so that it stays open for a full 5 years.

The lender they recommend is Alliant. If anyone wants to follow how this works in more detail, you can read about it here:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/m-p/4506756

CGID
CGID (@guest_280841)
August 3, 2016 13:24

Great. Look forward to it.

BTW, that thread I mentioned is one I started there. The only thing a person needs to read is the first three posts in the thread — the hundreds of follow-up comments are nice but totally not necessary. All essential info is updated as needed at the top.

CGID
CGID (@guest_280846)
August 3, 2016 13:33

Thanks for that kind word. Made my day.

CGID
CGID (@guest_280853)
August 3, 2016 13:45

BTW, I have cited your site (Doctor of Credit) a number of times in the discussion thread, typically when somebody says that they plan to call Alliant and ask them X or Y or Z.

I explain that they should make it their general policy to avoid bothering the CSRs unless absolutely necessary and I always cite this when I explain why:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/dont-call-the-bank/

Here’s the advice I give, directly colored by my experience on DoC:

“The approach as outlined above should enable you to do this painlessly and without involving a customer service rep at Alliant. (The exception being when you talk to the loan ofice for one minute a few days after you apply online.)

Avoiding bothering the CSRs is good policy when you can, especially when you are doing something clever like this. It’s absolutely fully legal and fully within Alliant’s loan terms, but it’s probably also a good idea to minimize the extent to which you are pushing it onto the CSR’s radar. Some people here have run into CSR’s limiting their options when they do that.”

William Charles
Admin
August 3, 2016 20:33

CGID, you should post for us with content like that :D.

CGID
CGID (@guest_281032)
August 3, 2016 23:08

🙂

Dan
Dan (@guest_280895)
August 3, 2016 15:20

I opened up one of those loans last month after reading your post there. Good stuff.

NinjaX
NinjaX (@guest_280912)
August 3, 2016 16:25

Its very critical to keep in mind that this is a tool strictly to raise credit scores under certain conditions and enforcing a savings discipline. This is a SECURED loan to yourself. NOT an unsecured one. Credit scores rate each type of loan differently in the mix. You are borrowing your own money and paying interest on your own money. Thats no risk to the bank. Only upside. You do not get EXTRA money that you didnt originally have like other secured loans when illiquid collateral assets are used. We want to make sure people understand this SSL technique before doing something stupid.

CGID
CGID (@guest_280934)
August 3, 2016 18:54

Yep, you are totally right Ninja. The SSL technique is terrible if a person is trying to actually raise cash he doesn’t have — it absolutely won’t work for that. Before you can get the $500 SSL, you have first got to deposit $500 in cash! The SSL is totally for the purpose of credit score building.

The first post in that thread goes out of its way to make sure people understand the many people and situations that the technique will NOT work for. Here’s a section from that post:

Who will not benefit from this technique?
* People who already have an open installment loan.
* People who need to improve their score very fast (e.g. < 60 days)
* People who do not have $510 to open a new savings account.
* People who hope for some magic bullet, something that will raise their score a huge amount.
These people should NOT use this technique. They will be disappointed.

NinjaX
NinjaX (@guest_281050)
August 4, 2016 01:23

Nice work writing all that up here and the FICO forums. You should guest post on blogs. Or have you own blog.

Your name sounds like Come Get It Dude… CGID… haha… Then I realized its actually CreditGuyInDixie…

Good work.

anthonyjh21
anthonyjh21 (@guest_280922)
August 3, 2016 17:31

Thanks for providing this valuable information. I read the first three posts and I still have one question (which I can’t find via any search function).

If I have an existing Alliant savings (I use it for ACH to satisfy DD requirements of another bank) can I just use this for this SSL? I prefer not to open another savings, if its even allowed, but will if necessary. TIA!

CGID
CGID (@guest_280931)
August 3, 2016 18:39

Sure. The existing savings account you already have should work. I am not even certain you CAN have multiple but identical savings accounts with Alliant. I am not an expert with Alliant but I can see no reason why you’ll have a problem. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me on myFICO (I read all the comments that are made on that thread) and let me know how it goes for you.

William Charles
Admin
August 3, 2016 20:31

Interesting, will likely do a post on this.

CGID
CGID (@guest_280822)
August 3, 2016 12:33

I joined Alliant and opened a savings account with them in February. There was no hard pull. Two weeks later I took out a Share Secure loan with them, and there was no hard pull for that either. I pulled my credit reports today and confirmed this again.

The folks at the myFICO forums track Alliant very closely, and all of the people who post there report the same thing: soft pull only (as far as the big three credit bureaus go). There is likely a ChexSystems inquiry as well, but that’s not uncommon when opening bank accounts.

Rob
Rob (@guest_280829)
August 3, 2016 12:46

Thanks CGID! Perhaps there’s another Alliant CU that the FWF thread is referring to, but you’re right myfico says Alliant hasn’t needed a hard pull for a checking account since about 2011.

Dan
Dan (@guest_280893)
August 3, 2016 15:17

There’s an Alliant Bank (http://www.alliantbank.com/), which is different from Alliant Credit Union. Maybe that’s what they were talking about. Who knows. I can also confirm a soft pull for me.

Wish I’d known I could’ve opened both savings and checking at the same time for only one Chex pull and still get the $50. I was waiting for a promotion to come along, and now I’ll get a second Chex hit. I’ve opened up roughly 10 bank accounts over the past year and I don’t want to end up with negative remarks on my report.

Rob
Rob (@guest_280819)
August 3, 2016 12:16

Chuck – Care to share your recent data point about whether Alliant does hard or soft pulls for new members? All throughout the main FWF thread I see everyone has had a hard pull done as part of becoming a member. I’ve long been debating moving to a new checking hub and haven’t pulled the trigger with either Alliant or Ally because of the hard pull required.

James
James (@guest_280808)
August 3, 2016 11:32

I signed up for Alliant checking about 1.5 years ago when there wasn’t any promotions running that I knew of. Didn’t use any codes either but got $50.

Had girlfriend sign up earlier this year. No offer used but also got $50.

Nicky
Nicky (@guest_280814)
August 3, 2016 11:59

Same here, did this about a month ago before I knew about the $50 offer. Didn’t put in any code, got the $50 after I deposited some money.

Nicky
Nicky (@guest_280920)
August 3, 2016 17:23

I did, I did an ACH transfer into the account from my Chase Checking as my first transaction on the account.

M
M (@guest_280806)
August 3, 2016 11:27

I have a savings account with them and asked about the “inactivity fee” and this is what they told me:

“The Inactivity Fee is applied if there is no deposits or withdrawals made with a Savings Account within one year. In the event an account remains inactive for 3-5 years (depending on the state) the account will be considered dormant. The funds in a dormant account are required to be forwarded to the state of IL, which would then be forwarded to the state you reside. The Dorman Account Fee would be applied at the time the funds are forwarded to the state. Please know that Alliant will sent out multiple notices by mail if/when an account is reaching dormancy.”

Frank
Frank (@guest_280803)
August 3, 2016 11:09

Alliant has really nice checking account and literally the best ACH transfer functionality. No hold of money, no black hole, instant fund availability after mobile deposit.

anthonyjh21
anthonyjh21 (@guest_280862)
August 3, 2016 13:57

Agree, fastest ACH there is. It’s become my primary “hub” bank, beating out Ally.

Phil
Phil (@guest_282459)
August 9, 2016 12:27

Fastest ACH for push or pull or both? If I wanted to transfer money from Ally to Alliant, how would you do it?