I noticed a new checkbox today when transferring funds (from an existing, linked account). I read the terms and did not see anything unusual. Anyone see anything to be concerned about?
After the discussion about “exposed” and “unexposed” checking accounts on the high APY thread, I started playing around a bit with Alliant’s Bill Pay service.
I have to say, I am generally impressed with it. In my tests with Chase and BoA, payments have been hitting my accounts with the biller the next morning, without fail. The Sunday night service for payment on Monday morning is a particularly useful trick to have in one’s bag, thanks Shinobi for pointing that out upthread.
My only previous experience with their bill pay service was with the HOA in the community we previously lived in, and that generated a paper check despite the money being sent to a PO Box lockbox run by US Bank. It led me to distrust the whole ordeal with Alliant where billers always show as “paper check” until the first payment is sent.
I’ve been funneling money over to a different institution to pay bills with ACH pulls, leaving Alliant as the “unexposed” account, but I think I am going to try sticking with this for a bit and see how well it works for me.
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If your primary concern is exposing your checking account information, you should send a billpay to yourself. I think most use a generic clearing account for billpay checks (move money from your account to their account, then pay the bill from their account), but some may still put your account info on the check that is mailed so that it is drawn directly. And that’s a question I’d never trust asking a CSR, the only reliable answer will be to look at the actual check that is sent.
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You are certainly most welcome. I have been using Alliant’s bill payer for many years on the bases you mentioned without a single failure to deliver next day crediting for those payments done electronically. And that of course includes Alliant’s Sunday evening service.
Now in a more general sense:
As everyone is aware, Mr. Mooney retired. I am a very long time Alliant member but Mr. Mooney became Alliant president years before I joined. He was a superb president and I personally have benefited a great deal from the way he ran Alliant. This praise is particularly applicable to the things mentioned by sullim4 and to Alliant’s overnight ACH service, too.
Now we have Mr. Devine as our president, a person who came in from the for-profit banking industry:
Devine previously was president of consumer banking at Cleveland-based KeyBank (NYE: KEY). Prior to KeyBank, he was group executive vice president at Citizens Financial Group (NYE: CFG). He has also held senior leadership roles at PNC Bank (NYSE: PNC) and McKinsey & Co.
Devine, in my view, got off to a wrong-footed start when he devalued Alliant credit card reward points with no notice to members. This was an unforced error and not the sort of thing we ever would have expected from Mr. Mooney. But it is certainly consistent with for-profit banking practice.
So keep your eyes open and be ready for anything at Alliant. Our credit union is under new management.
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Thankfully, that one recurring biller I had from years ago confirms that Alliant disburses from a generic account. I believe it is from Wescom Credit Union, who runs their bill pay service.
I agree with this sentiment. I’ve never been a huge fan of Alliant’s credit card products, so thankfully this change did not impact me. However, there are other types of changes (ACH timing or limits, sudden unpredictability of how items clear your account, etc.) that would be cause for great concern. Hopefully this change to their credit card rewards system is not a harbinger of things to come.
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You are correct. Nothing to worry about in my opinion.
If anyone wants to know more, you can see the check sent in bill pay history.
Has anyone noticed a change in Alliant’s ach transfers as of this month?..The last transfer i did was at end of January using their system and it was one day…I did one on Monday of this week…the funds were pulled from my other bank on tuesday and as of today (wednesday) still has not posted to Alliant…
So if it finally hits tomorrow that will be 3 days on the transfer…wonder if they changed their policy…
I use the service constantly, almost daily. Everything remains on an overnight basis for me.
Most recent experience:
Initiated, at Alliant before noon CT, pull from PSECU yesterday. Funds were in my Alliant account this morning and gone from PSECU (I always check to be sure).
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The only change I noticed. Required me to check X on bottom of a new ACH transfer before it moved.
Nice to see you back craig10x. 
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Thank you, Patty…nice to be back! 
And thanks shinobi for the confirmation that they are still on one day transfers…apparently something went wrong so i put in inquiries to them on the two transfers i did and explained they had been pulled from the other banks yesterday but have not posted to Alliant…
probably related to that website redesign. 
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I have just completed an experiment. Yesterday, on the Alliant website at around 10.30am ET, I submitted a pull request for a small amount (<$100) from a linked external account. Usually the amount would have been credited to my account by this time of the day. But it didn’t this time (7.45am ET). And the money has already left the external account.
Something fishy is going here. My last transfer was 3 weeks ago, and that worked fine.
Other than craig10x, did anyone else experience this?
PS. This is the first time an Alliant transfer has failed to perform an overnight transfer for me, after being a member for more than 10 years.
You guys are giving me a fright.
Yesterday, prior to noon CT, I initiated three ACH transfers on the Alliant website, all going to different financial institutions. Two were for a buck each. The other one was for over $500.
I just checked. All three of my transfers arrived this morning and have been correctly credited to the accounts I was targeting.
But I remain a bit on edge. Overnight ACH transfers are perhaps the most important reason I maintain my Alliant membership. They are crucial to my personal financial management.
The issues mentioned thusfar have involved pulling funds into Alliant. With this very limited info, it’d appear that Alliant has stopped crediting deposits in anticipation of receving the transfered money, and is starting to wait until they receive the funds before crediting them to your account. It’ll be interesting to see if things continue to follow that pattern.
Temporary technical issues are always a possibility, too.
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That’s right. The issues so far are for PULLS submitted on the Alliant website.
I just submitted another PULL from a different external linked account. Will see if that posts tomorrow.
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Pulls. OK, guys, here are my data points:
Yesterday a pull for over $500 was received overnight.
Last Monday a pull for close to ten grand was received “overnight”. Actually that pull was initiated, at Alliant, last Friday. The money arrived, as anticipated, in my Alliant account last Monday, which was the next business day.
I’m concerned about this stuff because, as I wrote up thread, Mr. Mooney retired. And overnight ACH is not something at all commonplace in the for-profit banking world whence came our new Alliant president.
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I do have to report that i discovered that Alliant didn’t mess up…i did! (LOL)
I realized that i hadn’t done the two transfers into my Alliant Checking but rather my main Alliant SAVINGS account (i also have a supplemental savings account)
And when i checked the SAVINGS transaction list the two transfers had posted TUESDAY…same day they made the pull (i had set them up Monday)…
So…my error and i did get 1 day service transferring in…
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That’s interesting. I checked and double checked. No, the money that left Marcus is nowhere to be found on Alliant. I checked through all the Alliant accounts.
Could it be that Alliant retroactively posted the transaction to the account between last night and this morning?
It wouldnt even have to be “retroactively”. It could be a shift from “real time” crediting the pending transaction, to waiting until it posts with the nightly batch cycle. Same end result when you look back at yesterday’s activity, except it didnt show as available through the day wile pending.
Since you are expecting the deposit today, it’d be worth checking periodically through the day to see if/when it is credited.
Update:
I submitted an inquiry to Alliant at around 10.10am ET, asking them why the credit didn’t post.
10.20am ET: The money posted to the account.
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