Update 8/27/24: Bonus is up to $200 now. (Previously this was either $100 or $120.) Hat tip to readers Justin and SD
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:Â
$100$120 - Availability:Â Nationwide, must be new member
- Direct deposit required:Â No
- Additional requirements:Â Open $1,000 CD
- Hard/soft pull:Â Soft
- ChexSystems:Â Yes, some reports of chexsystems sensitivity in the comments but lots approved as well
- Credit card funding:Â None
- Monthly fees:Â None with eStatements
- Early account termination fee:Â Unknown
- Household limit:Â None listed
- Expiration date: Unknown
The Offer
- Rakuten shopping portal is offering $100 or 10,000 points when you click through the portal and open a certificate of deposit with Alliant Credit Union.
The Fine Print
- Cash Back is only available for new customers, one per person.
- Customer must fund a minimum deposit of $1,000.00 on a new Alliant Certificate.
- The account must remain open for a minimum of 60 days.
- This offer and any payouts are from Rakuten, not Alliant Credit Union.
- Posting Time: Cash Back will be automatically added to your Rakuten account within a few weeks.
Avoiding Fees
There aren’t any fees to be concerned with when you get eStatements.
Our Verdict
Looks like it’s possible to open a 3 month certificate and get the $100 bonus. The interest rate I’m seeing now is 4.25% which isn’t too bad. Could be a good deal, especially for someone who values Membership Rewards highly.
You might want to opt out of auto-renew on the CD.
Separately, there’s also a $100 bonus for opening an Alliant savings account and another $60 potential stack on that from Swagbucks. I’m not entirely sure if those deals can stack with this CD deal. (Maybe you can do this deal first and then do the savings deals, or vice versa?)
Hat tip to Christopher Robin
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet)Â (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Offer History:
- Update:Bonus down to $100, better to wait for it to be $120 again.
- Update 7/15/24: Rakuten offer increased now from $100 to $120 (ht Karsten)
When opening a CD for $200 cash back, I happened to open a duplicate CD inadvertently with a maturity date of 08/27/25. What is the best way to cancel the CD, please? And what would be the consequence if I cancel the CD prematurely at this point?
Presumably it’ll be whatever the early withdrawal penalty is for the cd itself (there should be a place on Alliant’s site to check cd terms/penalties)- for most FIs, the CD penalty is usually equal to x days’ interest earnings (usually depends on how long the CD term was and/or how long it’s already been open).
Does it make sense to keep savings open or close it?
I set mine to not auto renew which matures on November 28th. After that, can I just withdraw and zero out the account?
(I guess, same question for Checking and Savings as well)
TIA!
On the website you can change the options for what happens to the money from the CD at maturity. I set mine to transfer to my Alliant savings account (I don’t think you can choose external banks). The default option might be to mail you a check.
On my CD’s maturity date, the money was transferring to my savings account, and the CD no longer exists. I pushed the money from Alliant savings to an external bank on the same day.
I’m planning to keep the Alliant savings account open for at least 6 months, just as a general guideline. (If you did a bonus offer for savings/checking, I don’t know if those require keeping the accounts open for a specific time.)
Last time I closed an Alliant checking account, I sent a message online (after withdrawing all the money). Likewise for the savings account, but since that has $5 that I can’t withdraw myself, they told me to send another message with an address to mail a check, and a reason for closing the account. (I’m not sure if I could’ve told them to transfer the $5 via ACH to an external bank.)
Thanks for the response! I’ve set my CD to transfer to Alliant Savings after maturity. How long before you closed the account?
I submitted a ticket to Rakuten 61 days after opening the CD. Today (102 days after opening the CD), Rakuten gave me the $100.
Submitted a ticket 1 day after opening CD. October 21st (54 days after open), it posted for $200 for the CD. I also did the other 2, got paid for the Checking ($100) 1 week after, and currently still waiting for the Savings to post in which they told me a minimum of 60 days.
DP: P1 was auto approved, ebates didn’t track. P2 was not auto-approved, but ebates did track. Ebates is waiting on a response from Alliant for over 30 days for P1. Not super hopeful. On the plus side, rates have gone down so the 4.75% is more competitive.
Update: paid out after 54 days!
How long does it take for the pending cash back to be confirmed?
For which account? For Savings, I was told from CS “The account must remain open for a minimum of 60 days per Alliant Credit Union before Cash Back can be added to the account. We cannot research your missing credit until 60 days after opening this account, since this is the Alliant Credit Union’s allotted processing time.”
I got my Checking bonus. And I’m still waiting for my CD bonus.
how long does it take for Rakuten cash back to be confirmed?
Dead again
opened CD on 8/29 still sees nothing. Is there anyway to contact service team?
All these sites have ways to report missing cashback, start with the Help section. All of them are pretty unreliable, but Rakuten is usually one of the better ones. I am also waiting and I am afraid I’m SOL on this one, not holding much hope but you never know.
Was told to wait 90 days after submitting a missing cashback report, ugh.
did you talk to anyone?
Is Alliant churnable? I did the $100 checking bonus about a year ago and have since closed the account. Not sure if they will approve another application.
Help… Can’t find offer on rakuten
It’s been dead for a week or so.