The news: Alliant Credit Union is trying to build deeper relationships with future mortgage customers with its Journey Home Savings program offered jointly with Neighborhood Intelligence, per a press release. 

The program follows consumers from saving for a down payment through buying and moving into a home.

• Journey Home Savings offers a 3.01% APY, well above the national average of 0.64%. Alliant will match the interest earned up to $1,500 for homebuyers who get a mortgage with the credit union—effectively doubling the APY. 
• Journey Home also connects consumers with home search and moving resources when they’re ready to start the process. 

Why it matters: Alliant is trying to acquire mortgage customers before they're mortgage customers. And the program’s distribution—through both Alliant and Neighborhood Intelligence partners like Bed Bath & Beyond, The Container Store, and Overstock—can help get its target consumers’ eyes on its brand earlier in their homebuying journeys.

The strategy gives Alliant something beyond a mortgage rate to compete on. By connecting savings, home search, financing, closing, and other services, the credit union is trying to make itself part of the entire homebuying process.

Will it work? Getting in early doesn't guarantee Alliant will keep the relationship. The additional savings reward requires customers to finance their home through Alliant, and prospective borrowers will still have an incentive to compare mortgage rates and terms when they're ready to buy. 

Plus, Alliant isn't the only financial institution building relationships with consumers before they start a mortgage application.

LendingTree launched a ChatGPT plug-in that lets consumers explore mortgage and refinance rates through natural-language conversations. 

And Amplify Credit Union embeds itself in the workplace, offering financial education as an employee benefit through its Collab program, per Austin Business Journal.

Implications for banks: The competitive window for major financial relationships is shifting earlier. Waiting until a consumer searches for a mortgage or any other product can mean entering the race after another provider has already spent months—or even years—building the relationship.

That makes the value delivered during those early interactions especially important. Alliant isn't simply advertising mortgages to people who might buy a home someday; it's giving prospective borrowers a reason to save with the credit union while they work toward that goal.

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