Alliant offers a Visa Platinum Rewards credit card (not to be confused with the cashback Visa signature card that earns 3%). Let’s take a look at this card to see if applying makes any sense.
Card Overview
- No annual fee
- Card earns two rewards points on every dollar spent
- 0% introductory APY for 12 months on balance transfers and purchases
- Sign up bonus of 5,000 points after $500 in spend within the first three billing cycles
- Introductory rate and incentive offers, including bonus points, are not available to those members who in the previous six months have had (i) an open Alliant Visa credit card account, or (ii) an outstanding balance on a closed Alliant Visa credit card account.
How Much Are Points Worth
Whenever a card earns points, my first question is how much are those points actually worth? Points can be redeemed for the following:
- Travel
- Merchandise
- Cash back
- Charity
You can look through the reward catalog here. They have a wide variety of gift cards starting at $50 denominations and all points are worth 1¢ (e.g $50 gift card = 5,000 points). Travel and cash back also seems to get you 1¢ in value so really cash back is the only option you should consider. This makes this card another 2% cash back card with no annual fee.
Sign Up Bonus
This card currently offers a sign up bonus of 5,000 points after $500 in spend. They do sometimes send out targeted offers on this card, for example:
- [Targeted] Alliant Credit Union $350 Credit Card Bonus
- [Targeted] Alliant Credit Union $400 Credit Card Bonus
- [Targeted] Alliant Credit Union $350 Credit Card Bonus Or 0% APY For 18 Months
I have no idea how they target people for these offers, but you do need to be an Alliant credit union member to be eligible.
Eligibility
To be eligible for this card you need to be an Alliant member, we outline that process here. There is also additional benefits to becoming a member such as the ability to increase your credit score by using the secured loan technique.
Our Verdict
This card is definitely interesting and I think there are two main reasons why:
- This could be a good downgrade option for people that don’t have a 2% cash back card with no annual fee after you’ve received the first year 3% rate and no annual fee on the Visa signature card. Keep in mind you’d need to spend $11,800 on that card year two onwards for it to be better than a flat 2% card.
- If you get a targeted sign up bonus. Obviously if you can get a targeted sign up bonus of $350+, that’s fantastic and one of the best cash sign up bonuses available. You could then upgrade this card to the 3% card as well.
We will also be adding this card to our list of the best cards for every day spending. It should also be noted that this card used to earn at the 1x rate, so it looks like Alliant is aggressively trying to get into the credit card market.
