Alliant Credit Union: high savings rates

If you want to save money and collect interest on it, Alliant Credit Union has good interest rates.

Regular savings earns 2.00%. Contrast that with the 0.05% offered by, for example, Wells Fargo. The Alliant minimum is $100 to earn that rate, and $5 to have an account/be a member. You can withdraw this money at any time. Or add more.

Alliant does not handle cash. They will write you a check. Or you can go to an ATM or Patelco CU to get cash. I think that’s odd, but I’ll bet they save a lot of money on security that way.

Their certificate rates are also good. You can pick the exact time you want your certificate to mature. That could be useful if you have a known expense coming up, like college tuition, and want to get high interest and safety while you wait. Currently, they are offering 3.0% on 48 to 60 month certificates.

Alliant CU started out as the CU for United Airlines in Chicago. The first item on their fee schedule is “airplane loan fee.” They’ve absorbed several other credit unions including KaiPerm. So all Kaiser Permanente members are eligible to join. Other Oakland organizations that I recognize are Allen Temple Baptist Church, Bay Alarm Company, CH2MHill, Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. The “local PTA” is probably the loophole for anyone not otherwise covered. Check with your local school — Crocker Highlands Elementary’s PTA only cost $5 and they’d let anyone join.

Previous post in this series: Provident CU: Super Rewards Checking.

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