Alliant Visa Platinum Rewards Card Review
2019.9 Update: The $250 offer is expired. The regular offer is $50.
2019.8 Update: The new offer is $250. Offer ends on 2019.08.30. Note that the bank says the $250 offer is “pre-approval offer, only for current members who meet the card’s qualification criteria” although it can be publicly seen.
Contents
Application Link
Benefits
- 5k offer: earn 5,000 points after you make at least $500 in purchases within the first 90 days.
- Earn 2x points on everything.
- The best way to redeem the points is to redeem for cash back at a 1 cent/point ratio, so the point here is basically equivalent to cash back.
- No annual fee.
Disadvantages
- It has foreign transaction fee, so it's not a good choice outside the US.
How to Join Alliant Credit Union
In order to finish the application process for an Alliant credit card, you have to join Alliant Credit Union. There will not be a hard pull for joining the credit union. Here is the eligibility for joining Alliant. Actually everyone can be eligible. If you are not eligible in any other way, you can become a member of (Alliant will pay a $5 membership fee to FC2S on the member’s behalf).
Recommended Application Time
- We recommend you apply for this card after you have a credit history of at least two years and you are very comfortable with the credit card game.
Summary
This is another 2% cash back no annual fee card, similar to Citi Double Cash (DC) (MasterCard), Fidelity Rewards (Visa), and Synchrony PayPal Cashback (Mastercard). I prefer DC among these cards because you can get it from downgrading a card that has a huge sign-up bonus. This credit card has a relatively low sign-up bonus, so it’s better not to apply for it directly even if you want this card. The best way to get it is to apply for Alliant Visa Signature which gives you 3% cash back in the first year, and then downgrade it to this card. The highest sign-up bonus $250 is quite decent for a no fee card.
Related Credit Cards
- Alliant Visa Platinum Rewards (this post)
- Alliant Visa Signature