[Expired] $50-$150 Wells Fargo Checking Bonus In-Branch, No Direct Deposit Required [YMMV]

This offer has expired, if anybody gets the offer with an expiry past December 31st, 2016 please let us know in the comments. In the mean time you can view the best checking account bonuses here.

Some people are now getting targeted for a $50 offer, yuck.

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $100-$150
Availability: Nationwide (requires Wells Fargo branch visit)
Direct deposit required: Optional (see what counts here)
Additional requirements: 10 debit card transactions or direct deposit
Hard/soft pull: Soft
Credit card funding: None in-branch
Monthly fees: $10, waivable
Early account termination fee: None
Expiration Date: ~~October 14, 2016~~ December 31st, 2016

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

Receive a $100 sign up bonus when you open a Wells Fargo checking account and complete the following requirements:

Open a new consumer checking account with a minimum opening deposit of $50 in a Wells Fargo branch by December 31st, 2016
Complete one of the following: 10 debit card purchases/payments OR establish a qualifying direct deposit of $500 or more

[Read: How To Meet Minimum Debit & Credit Transaction Requirements]

How To Get The Offer:

To receive this offer, go to a Wells Fargo branch and make a transaction using a non-Wells debit card. After the transaction, it will ask you if you want a $100-$150 coupon for opening a Wells checking account. Select ‘yes’ and it will print your an offer coupon with a unique coupon code. (Picture of bonus coupon below.)

Note: Not all areas will offer you the $150 coupon. All areas should offer you at least $100 coupon. The $150 coupon was confirmed in California by my friend Dawn; I tried in NJ, and it came up with the $100 offer.

Bear in mind that you’ll get hit with a $3 ATM fee from Wells for the withdrawal and also a fee from your bank for using their debit card outside of their chain. Use a debit card without any fees, and, if possibly, one that even reimburses the Wells fee. Another option is to just do a balance check instead of a withdrawal and hopefully the coupon offer will still come up. If you do the balance check option, there probably won’t be any fees from your bank (that’s my guess), but there still might be a Wells fee (I don’t know).

The Fine Print

Purchase/direct deposit requirement must be completed within 60 days of account opening
We will deposit the bonus into your new checking account within 45 days after eligibility and qualifications have been met
All consumer checking accounts except Teen CheckingSM and prepaid WellsFargot EasyPay card are eligible for the $100 bonus
You cannot be: a current owner on a Wells Fargo consumer checking account, a Wells Fargo team member, or a recipient of a consumer checking bonus in the past 12 months
A qualifying direct deposit is your salary, pension, Social Security, or other regular recurring monthly income of an accumulated $500 or more
Offer can not be paid without providing a valid U.S. taxpayer ID (W-9)

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fee

The Everyday Checking account comes with a $10 monthly fee. Get the fee waived with one of the following:

10 debit card purchases and/or payments each statement cycle from this checking account, OR
Direct deposits totaling $500 or more each statement cycle, OR
Maintain a $1,500 minimum daily balance, OR
Link checking account to a Wells Fargo Campus ATM or Campus Debit Card

If you have a Wells mortgage, you might be able to get a higher-level account with no fees.

Early Account Termination Fee

There is no early account termination fee.

Our Verdict

The $150 offer from Wells via the ATM is uncommon; the $100 offer we’ve seen many times before. As noted, not all areas will have the $150 offer, but you’ll hopefully always be able to get the $100 offer. Let us know which offer you got.

Getting the bonus is very easy since it just needs 10 debit card transactions which is simply done by using the self-checkout at the grocery or via Amazon reloads.

Aside from the $150 bonus, another reason that people are interested in the Wells Fargo checking accounts is that Wells usually wants you to have a deposit account relationship with them before approving you for one of their credit cards. They have three cards most people are interested in:

Wells Fargo Propel World: $400+ sign up bonus
Wells Fargo Propel 365: $200 sign up bonus
Wells Fargo Cashback Card: 5% cash back at select categories for six months (read this post before applying)

The downside to this bonus is that it can’t be done online and it requires a bit of money/effort to keep the account fee-free until the bonus hits. Despite that, we’ll add this to our list of the best bank bonuses as it’s relatively easy to meet the bonus requirements and it also opens up the Wells Fargo credit cards to you.

Hat tip to Dawn from Sharetraveler for tipping me off to this bonus