As in? They stopped paying cashback for certain merchants over a year ago.
Not merchants . . . . types of expenditures.
Look, I do not have handy the old language. Only know what is in this letter, effective the dated date of the letter, 9 April, a letter I only received today, 18 April, with charges already on the books.
I do not do conventional MS. But I have to think these terms are worrying to people who do. My own version of MS is right on the bubble of these term and, yeah, it is a concerning situation. They could easily find me in contravention of their terms and deny me my rewards . . . . which are substantial each month and likely burdensome for Alliant.
Just thinking out loud, maybe Argyll has the right approach . . . stepping down to the 2% card. That would reduce my annoyance to Alliant. Yeah, I need to think hard about that remedy.
So it’s the same old pretty standard boilerplate terms we see most everywhere…
They could’ve found you “in contravention of their terms and deny [you] rewards” all along. As they did with many people starting way back in February 2018. It’s old news; if you werent panicking yesterday, there’s no reason to panic today.
Well, I dunno. Like I wrote I did not go back and look at the old terms and then compare.
Thing is, the wording in the letter strikes me as an excuse for a “reset”. Call it that, or call it a reevaluation of everyone’s charges vs. Alliant’s terms, or whatever. They label it a “clarification”.
Riiiiiiiiight!
So they would be like:
Yeah, those types of charges you have been making right along were fine before we clarified our terms and conditions. Now, subsequent to that, we will no longer pay rewards on those charges.
So Sorry
Again, they “reset” over a year ago. It’s called a “clarification” because it’s tweaking the language to better reflect the policies they’ve implimented over the past 15 months. It’s nothing new, and there is zero effect on you going forward that wasn’t already effecting you weeks/months ago.
At the moment, even with the $99 fee, the Alliant Signature is worth it for me.
At $19,800 annual spending, you are getting 2% cash back if you subtract the fee. At $25,000 it’s 2.1% and, at $33K 2.2%. Frequent travelers should note the Signature has no foreign transaction fee.
`Thanks. Appreciate it. Surely hope you are correct.
Look I realize, hauling in the kind of money I do month after month, there has to be a bullseye on my back at Alliant and quite a few other places as well. They nailed me at NFCU and the so-called “Singapore rules”, if implemented here, would collapse my entire enterprise.
What I do, in many instances, creates sweet interchange fees for the card issuers and helps their bottom line, making me a profit center for them. But when the reward is as high as 2.5%, as with Alliant Visa Signature, I become a cost center instead. This is because, following Argyll’s Rule as I do, the interchange fees are all any card issuer ever makes from my charging activity.
More I think about it, more it might be wise to step down to the Alliant 2% card. Say this not on account of the annual fee saving. Say this, instead, because “pigs go to slaughter”.
If you are going to get “slaughtered”, it’s going to be due to your purchase activity, not .5% of rewards.
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OK…Think Ill call it a day with Alliant. Was stopped maybe 18 months ago for rewards on GCardmall purchases…but it lasted for a few months on 2k monthly… Then… bang… did not close card tho. I use the card about 30x per month and have 875.00 in rewards due for the past 5 months in total. I do maybe 1 or 2 creative grocery store purchases monthly and so far so good. hard to MS on this card…I will make a 2200 charge this week for a new awning and when the points post…Ill close the card in July. My anniv…date is in Aug. I figured stuff out and with my creative spending…as posts above state…not worth it for me. I can use my slew of Amex OBCash cards for 5% in groceries and drugstores.and . Gas 5% with penfed / and utilities and fast food 5% with USBank. I have the Amex gold which is a 250 fee per year… but 4% in groceries and $120 back per year via Grubhub/Seamless.The 25k cap on groceries makes it much better then Alliant. Thats 1k back on groceries minus fees =800.00 I will use my Citi 2% card for other stuff. But I spoke with Alliant and was told you can keep the savings acct w/o the cc. I use it for a “hub” to xfer funds to new checking accts for bonuses. Always codes a direct deposit. Dont see how anyone would want this card going forward… AND if you can get the Discover Miles card via an Amazon link… you get unlimited 3% at the end of the 12 months period. Amazon link is good for 75.00 bonus with ANY purchase. Tell me Im missing something.
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I appreciate your having raised this once again. I had forgotten. Forgetting is an “occupational hazard” at my age.
Anyway, I recall now it has been mentioned in the past that Alliant warns before they lower the boom on a cardholder. In my view a warning is as much as any CC user can ask from any CC issuer. They do not all warn. I surely wish they did.
As for me . . . no warnings so far from Alliant. It’s a relief. If I should receive a warning I certainly will change my ways pronto.
BTW, why cut out Alliant entirely? Why not, instead as Argyll suggested, just step down to the 2% Alliant card? That way you hang onto your credit line and help your utilization for FICO purposes, even if you never use the 2% card.
And of course there is no annual fee for the Alliant 2% CC.
thanks for that info. I will probably do that. Thanks again.
si I guess thats called a product change… never thought of that. Thanks
I changed mine to the 2% card. Even with the $59 fee I don’t spend enough vs the 2% no fee cards. They said I would forfiet the $11 of unredeemed cashback, but the $11 showed up in my savings account, so that’s pretty cool.
Did it keep the same credit bureau history?
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Has anyone inquired about the option to reject the change?
Wish I could get in this credit union.
You can. Anyone can join.
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Go to the membership eligibility part of their website…a $5 donation to Foster Care for Success will do it and actually they pay the $5…lol
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When I joined a long time ago, they even put in the $5 required in the savings account.
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I think everyone gets that $5, but you can never withdraw it.