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.
This card is no longer offered by Alliant.
Points are now worth a penny each again, which means this is effectively a 2% cash back card once again. They must have received many complaints. Thank you Alliant! Great news for cardholders!
This is no longer a 2% cash back card. Upon asking why I couldn’t redeem my points for their full value, I received the following message from customer support:
“The Alliant Visa Platinum Rewards point value changed effective January 4th, 2021 from roughly $0.01 per point to about $0.0067 per point. Please note that there is no change to how cardholders earn points, as they will continue to earn 2 points for every dollar spent on qualifying purchases.”
I also discovered the same thing the other day, and verified it this morning. There was no information I could find in any of their literature to make this clear. I had to call to confirm, and expressed disappointment with them in the lack of transparency. This effectively renders the card a rewards rate of only 1.34%, which pales to other cards with fewer restrictions.
What’s particularly distressing is that points that were previously earned suddenly reduced in value, without them having providing any advance notice to their customers about the change. According to their terms of conditions, they claim that they are not required to provide any advance disclosure to any changes to the value of their rewards, and they can change at any time without notice.
They’re still a great credit union, but it’s very difficult to recommend use of this card any longer.
Thank you to Darc & Jake for reporting all the facts above. It is really disappointing that the once mighty Alliant would not notify all of is who have this credit card in advance of the decrease in the value if we cash out the rewards.
I received a $59 annual fee for the Platinum Rewards card which was converted from the Cashback signature card. Sent a secure message asking why there is a fee when the card is marketed as having no fee and they said they will reverse it. Hopefully it does not become an annual chore.
William:
You write “We will also be adding this card to our list of the best cards for every day spending.” but when I click on the link to that page, the Alliant Visa Platinum Rewards is NOT listed.
I agree it seems competitive enough now to be listed there.
Added it, thanks for reminding me 🙂
I signed up with Alliant and got a checking acct – I’m hoping to receive an email about an offer code. Have others received an offer shortly after they open up an accontt? I’m thinking this card (with a sign up bonus) a better offer than the 3% Alliant Cashback Visa Signature card. But this card has a 1% foreign transaction fee and the 3% card has 0% – is that confirmed? I’m abroad a lot and do a lot of daily shopping abroad. I am looking for a great cash back card with low/no foreign transaction fees.
I’m thinking this is the best card if there is a good sign up bonus. Otherwise do the 3% for the first year and then transfer to this card for second year.
I’d appreciate other’s thoughts.
I know it’s unrelated but can you do a review of the AAA Member Rewards Visa with 3x Rewards for any travel purchases and a $100 bonus if you spend $500 from Bank of America? This card hasn’t been moved to us bank, I called the contact number and it’s Bank of America still, https://www.applyonlinenow.com/USCCapp/Ctl/entry?sc=BAABBM#b
just got email targeted this card for $200 signup bonus
Can you give more information? When did you join Alliant? Any reason why you might have been targeted? Can you fwd it to [email protected]
Does this card have a foreign transaction fee?
Like Amex, Citi is incredibly generous with its return protection. For this reason alone I’d recommend the DoubleCash over this.
Yes, the advantage of this card would be if you were targeted for a high sign up bonus or if you were downgrading from the 3x card.
Actually, I find that the advantage of this card is that it’s Visa (for Costco in-store, which doesn’t take Citi Double Cash’s MasterCard). But yeah, Citi Price Rewind rocks!
Oops, forgot about Costco’s own card. Never mind, haha.