Pros Explained

• Membership is open to many people: Anyone with an SSN or ITIN can join Alliant, even if you’re not currently living in the U.S., by meeting any of the broad membership criteria or joining the Alliant Credit Union Foundation (which doesn’t cost anything).
• 24/7 live customer support: Alliant offers live chat support and its phone lines are open 24/7, making it easy to reach someone when you need help.
• Decent checking and savings account options: Multiple savings account options for adults and a kids’ savings account make it easy for families to save. Alliant’s free checking account offers interest and $20 in ATM fee refunds each month.

Cons Explained

• No branch locations: Although Alliant existed before the internet, it’s an online-only credit union today. It’s based in Chicago, but it offers no physical branches you can visit in person.
• Loan rates a bit on the high side: Alliant offers decent rates for its deposit accounts, but it charges rather high rates if you need to borrow money. They’re not obscenely high, but an abundance of cheaper personal and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:auto loan options are easy to find if you’re looking. 
• Doesn’t offer the highest savings rates: There’s a lot to like about Alliant’s deposit accounts, but if earning the highest interest rates possible is your priority, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:look elsewhere.

Who Is Alliant Credit Union Best For?

If you live outside of the U.S. or work odd hours that prevent you from getting help when you need it during normal banking hours, Alliant is a great choice due to its 24/7 call-in support center and wide-open membership requirements. It’s also a solid choice if you’re looking for a good flat-rate 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:cash-back rewards card or an interest-paying checking account with no monthly fees or minimuဣm balance requirements.

Bank Accounts Offered by Alliant Credit Union

All🃏iant only offers one option for adults and one option for young people for most of its everyday deposit accounts. That’ll fit the needs of most fa𝓡milies across the following categories:

• Checking accounts
• Savings accounts
• Certificates of deposit (CDs)

Checking

Alliant offers two checking accounts, one for adults and one for teens.🍰 They’re essentially the same account, except that the teen version is set up as a joint account with a parent or guardian who receiv꧑es a debit card and can opt in to spending alerts. Teen accounts also come with strict daily spending limits: $500 in cash withdrawals or debit card purchases.

Alliant’s checking account is a great option if you use ATMs often. It offers access to 80,000-plus free ATMs, but if you happen to use one that’s not in-network, Alliant will refund you the ATM fee at the end of the day (up to $20 per month). These accounts also offer a relatively decent interest rate for a checking account, considering that checking accounts at most banks aren’t interest-bearing. That said, it’s easy to find 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:higher checking account rates, too, if that’s your main priority. 

You’ll only earn that APY if you meet the monthly qualifications, which are about as straightforward as they come: Simply sign up for electronic statements and make at least one electronic deposit into your account each month. Many banks require direct deposits, such as payroll, to gain access to extra benefits, but Alliant also counts ATM deposits, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:mobile deposits, and transfers from other institutions.

Savings

Alliant offers good—but not exceptionally high—r💧ates on its savings accounts. It offers two versions for adults: the High-Rate Savings account and the Supplemental Savings account. You can actually open and name up to 19 Supplemental Savings Accounts, which are essentially clones of the High-Rate Savings account that a✤llow you to track your progress toward separate savings goals, like an emergency fund or a vacation. You’ll need to deposit at least $5 to open each of these accounts.

Alliant’s 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Kids Savings Account is av🔥ailable for any parent, guardian, or grandparent to open with their child. Again, it’s basically the same account as for adults, just availabജle in a joint version for children 12 and under. Alliant will pay the $5 initial deposit to get your child started.

As long as you’re signed up for electronic statements on these 🥀accounts, there aren’t any monthꦜly fees (otherwise, it’s $1 per month). One stickler is that while you can open these accounts with just $5, you won’t earn any interest until your balance is $100 or more—a tall prospect for many children.

Certificates of Deposit

If you’re looking to earn high rates on savings that you won’t need for a while, Alliant’s CDs, which it simply calls “certificates” (or “share certificates”), are an excellent choice. You just need $1,000 to get started. If you have big pockets, a jumbo CD is an option that re🍌quires a minimum deposit of $75,000, as opposed to the typical $100,000 required by many other banks and cre🤡dit unions.

Your money can grow fast with these certificates, given the high rates Alliant offers, comparable to some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:highest-yielding CDs availabꦓle toda☂y. Jumbo CDs pay a bit more, but not much. 

Other Products Offered by Alliant Credit Union

In addition to deposit accounts, Alliant also offers a decent selection of products to choose from when you need to borrow 🧜money. While it offers a few options in most of these categories, they’re not really anything to writ🤡e home about, featuring relatively high rates for some loan types compared to your other options. 

• Credit cards
• Mortgages
• HELOCs
• Personal loans
• Car loans
• RV loans

Credit Cards

Alliant offers two flavors of credit card: a cash-back credit card and a low-APR credit card that charges as little as 0% interest on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months (rates based on your credit score). Both cards🥀 charge no annual fee and offer decent benefits compared to similar credit c🃏ards.

Alliant’s Cashback Visa is a good choice if you’re looking for a cash-back card and already use an Alliant High-Rate Checking account. Most flat-rate cards offer only 1.5% cash back, but you’ll get 2.5% cash back on up to $10,000 in purchases per billing cycle if ꦛyou meet these requirements with your High-Rate Checking account in the preceding month:

• Opt in to e-statements
• Have at least one electronic deposit posted to the account (direct deposit or other deposit)
• Maintain an average daily balance of $1,000 or more

New cardholders, however, will earn t𝄹he𝔍 2.5% rate on their first $10,000 in spending each month for the first 100 days after card approval.

Mortgages

You can choose from fixed-rate o♑r adjustable-rate mortgages, with a few loan types available:

• Conventional
• Refinance
• Jumbo

Alliant allows you to make a down payment of as little as 5% of the loan amount in most cases, although first-time homebuyers can buy a home with 0% down as long as the purchase price is $650,000 or less. Low or no-down-payment loans do make🍎 for higher monthly costs, however. Newly minted doctors and dentists may also qualify more easily for mortgages up to $850,000. 

Another benefit is that Alliant mortgages come with 90-day rate locks, longer than the industry standard of 30 to 60 days. Alliant also offers 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:home equity lines of credit (HELO🐈Cs).

Other Loans

Alliಌant’s rates on other loan types tend to be a bit on the high side compared with the best lenders out there. There are big discoun🍸ts to be had here and there—for example, buying a car through Alliant’s Car Buying Service can net you a 0.50% APR discount on a car loan. Unfortunately, you don’t have the option of using collateral for Alliant’s personal loans in order to get cheaper rates. 

Mobile App

Not surprisingly for a credit union that operates digitally, Alliant Credit Union offers mobile apps for both iPhone and Android users. Its apps are well-received, too, with an average rating of 4.7/5 stars in the Apple App Store and 4.5/5 stars and more than 100,000 downloads from the Google Play Store. 

The app offers 🃏standard features like mobile check deposit, but it also offers a few nice perks, too, such as easily tracking your ATM fee refunds and Face ID login.

Customer Service

Alliant only offers a few ways to get in touch with member support staff, but they’re very convenient for people who work odd hours or live far away from traditional ban🌼k branches. It maintains a 😼24/7 call center, and you can reach agents by telephone or live chat. 

Customer Satisfaction

Alliant Credit Union scores rather poorly when it comes to reviews left by actual people who’ve worked with the credit union. On Trustpilot, the credit union has an average rating of 1.6 stars, but it's based on only 60 reviews. It’s a similar scenario on the Better Business Bureau website, where Alliant has an average rating of 1.14 stars based on fewer than 50 reviews. Members have also lodged over 1,000 complaints about Alliant Credit Union since 2011, when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau began tracking official complaints.

Alliant Credit Union Membership Requirements

Like all credit unions, Alliant is only open to certain groups of people: current and former employees of partner businesses, family members of current Alliant members, people living in the Chicago area, or—a handy catch-all bucket for everyone else—people who join the Alliant Credit Union Foundation.♑ Alliant will even provide the $5 required for membership in the Foundation, so you can join the credit unio🌱n at no cost. 

How to Bank With Alliant Credit Union

In order to join Alliant, yo༒u’ll need a few things on hand. You’ll need an SSN or an ITIN, a copy of an official government-issued ID, and a copy of an official piece of mail, such as a utility bill or loan statement, showing your♒ address. Alliant will do a soft credit check if you’re just applying for deposit accounts, such as a checking account, which won’t affect your credit score.

You can open an account online, over t𒉰he phone, or by prin𝓀ting out a paper application and mailing or faxing it to Alliant’s headquarters. You’ll get a chance to select which deposit accounts you want when you sign up for membership. 

Alternatives to Alliant Credit Union

The Bottom Line

Alliant Credit Union caters to a new diওgital audience, and it does a fairly good job. It’s widely accessible to most people, and it’s easy to get ahold of customer support at any time of day. Some of its products, such as its cash-back credit card, are very competitive with most other banks and credit unions. It also offers a good range of account and loan types to choose from. 

However, Alliant’s rates leave a little to be desired—both for its loans and its deposit accounts. While they’re generally better than average, it’s still easy to find higher rates on deposit accounts and lower rates on loans online.

Methodology

Investopedia is dedicated to providing consumers with unbiased, comprehensive reviews of banking institutions. We researched 19 institutions, reviewing account types, rates, fees, minimum balance requirements, rewards, customer service, and mobile apps. Our research and editorial pro𝄹cesses are designed to ensure that our reviews help users make informed decisions for their banking needs.