Alliant recently launched a new credit card (Alliant Cashback Visa Signature Credit Card), the basics of the card are as follows:
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3% cash back on all purchases in the first year
- 2.5% cash back on all purchases second year on wards
- Annual fee of $59 is waived first year
- 0% foreign transaction fee
Readers had two questions about the card and I’ve got the answers for you.
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Q: If I product change an existing Alliant card to this card, will I receive the waived annual fee & 3% cash back rate in the first year?
A: “[I]f our members upgrade from a different Alliant Visa to the Visa Signature, they will receive 3% cash back/annual fee waived in the first year.”
Q: If I make a purchase in a foreign currency, will I receive 3%/2.5% cash back?
A: “Cardholders earn cash back on all purchases, even those made in foreign currency”
Does anyone know if I can churn the 3% 1st year bonus? Coming up on the end of my first year. Was thinking about downgrading and then upgrading at a later point.
William Charles Think this would work?
The procedures used by Alliant are quite difficult:
Become a member – Need three forms of ID to submit.
Get credit card – Need three forms of ID (again), Need to submit pay stubs for income verification, Max credit limit $25k.
Use credit card – Many declines at first.
Transfer money from your bank to their high yield savings account – Limited amount per day.
Transfer money out of Alliant Savings – Limited to 25% of amount you can transfer in.
Great credit card but …….
My first statement just closed and I only got 2.5% instead of 3%. Ugh, hopefully it isn’t hard to get them to fix this…
Let me get in touch with my contact at Alliant and see if they have a recommended course of action for yourself and other readers in this situation.
Decline due to debt/income ratio too high
DP: ( I got the card)
Called and applied for membership.
No verification of eligibility.
Asked for verification of identity.
Scanned DL, SS card, and Utility bill.
Received email saying I was accepted within 24 hours.
Called and got membership number.
Called back and asked for Lending Services.
High income and High credit score. Other cards with high credit limits.
Verified identity again by scanning DL, SS, and Utility bill.
Verified income with 2 pay stubs.
Said I needed 2 more pay stubs because amounts of pay were different.
Sent 2 more pay stubs via scan.
Said max credit limit for new cards is $25k. Can apply in 6 months for more.
Approved and received card in 7 days $25k limit.
NOTE: They use a mortgage approval type system that keeps sending emails saying they either have all the documents they need or that you are approved. – Not Correct.
You need to call and walk them through the process.
Important Note: Need to call during working hours in Chicago.
Calls outside those hours are routed to other offices that have no authority.
Love The Card – Glad I got it. 3%.
They would not drop my cash advance limit to $0. Said it could not be lowered at all. Maybe one of the ways they recoup costs?
I cajoled the initial rep into sending it back to underwriting. I was put on hold while that happened and never spoke to underwriting directly.
This was my first experience in being declined for a credit card. I was declined for “too much unsecured credit” despite the decline paperwork showing an 822 credit score on a TU pull. I do have a lot of cards but not nearly as many as some people and the overall utilization is probably 3% or less. I haven’t paid a dime of credit card interest in 20 years. Stated income was above $150k and I asked for $15k as that’s about the average I have received on other recent approvals.
In trying to figure out what would be approved I asked what their guidelines regarding unsecured credit would be. I would be willing to close some dormant accounts if needed for this account but when the rep said “typically $30k-$40k” I told the rep “uh…I have a $30k line on one account alone”.
I also said that when I joined Alliant last month I put $10k on deposit but the rep told me that didn’t count for anything. I was very surprised about that.
After recon I was conditionally approved for $10k but only after providing proof of income (2 check stubs + W2). Account shows up in my online accounts list now.
Did you get conditionally approved with initial recon rep or you went to underwriting? I was denied and shot down by initial recon rep. Haven’t tried further. They seemed not to like the fact that I had so many AUs on my credit report, though there really isn’t much new there (all old stuff, just one or two recent new cards or AUs).
Interesting, if after mentioning that I put a $10k deposit and he retorted like that, I would’ve made my frustration very audible and mention, “If that’s the case, I’ll be taking my $10k to LMCU where they’ll give me 3%. Loyalty goes both ways”.
Reposting from the other blog post for readers
Negative DP: I applied with an AU for a total income of $80k+. I was rejected because my INDIVIDUAL income was less than the $100k threshold. They offered the plat rewards and after 6 months I could do a product change to the visa signature. However, it is totally dependent on my income still from what the CSR told me. I took the rewards plat since I wasted a hard pull already.
If you want to do a reconsideration product change or get approved on the initial application, your income stated should be $100k+. From the DP by JakeFromStateFarm, they don’t request income verification, but YMMV
I make less than $100k and stated so on my application and was approved. The guy did give me trouble telling me I would be declined and he wasn’t going to even run the application. I told him to run it anyway and I was approved for $10k CL. They tried to push the plat rewards to me as well before running my application but I was not interested in that.
Are the Alliant checking or savnngs account required to get this credit card? What activities are required with those accounts? DD? Minimum number of debit or other transactions per month or year?
I joined Alliant earlier this week to get the CC. Pretty seamless process. I think having a savings account is required but its no fee (no minimums and no activity required) and they deposit the $5 themselves for you to get started.
No minimum activity on the card either.
I think I opened the account on Monday, and got the card the following Monday (I live in California). Their iOS is pretty good too; pending transactions are listed right away, although it doesn’t support alerts yet.