18 Things Everybody Should Know About Wells Fargo Credit Cards

Wells Fargo didn’t used to be a big player in the credit card space, then they introduced their 5x cards and the Propel series and have been steadily getting more popular. They are quite strange when it comes to credit cards, so read this before you think about applying for one of their cards.

Contents

The List

  1. Wells Fargo usually want you to have an existing relationship with them before approving you for a credit card. The easiest way to get a relationship with them is to set up a checking account with them, you can currently get a $100 bonus for setting one of those up.
  2. Wells Fargo won’t normally approve you if you’re not a permanent resident. Not sure why, but another one of their quirks.
  3. If you’re denied for a Wells Fargo card, call their reconsideration department. It’s not the easiest card issuer to turn a denial into an approval, but still worth a try (especially if you’ve followed #1 & #2). Tips for dealing with reconsideration departments can be found here.
  4. Wells Fargo cards are churnable, we have at least a few data points this is the case. They don’t have a lot of cards worth signing up for, so the fact you can get the bonus more than once is great.
  5. They will merge multiple inquiries if made on the same day. Although it’s usually difficult to get approved for two cards on the same day anyway.
  6. There isn’t a hard limit on the number of Wells Fargo credit cards you can have.
  7. They do not offer a referral program. Referral programs seem to be more and more out of favor with credit card issuers, probably due to compliance issues.
  8. Wells Fargo has now added a pre-qualified checker.
  9. Wells Fargo allows you to request a credit limit increase. I’d recommend doing this by phone and finding out if it’s a hard or soft pull before doing it, as there have been mixed reports in the past.
  10. Reallocating credit limits with Wells Fargo is unfortunately always a hard credit pull.
  11. Wells Fargo doesn’t do a true product change, instead they close your existing card and open the new card. In essence this means no hard pull is done, but you don’t keep your account history/age when doing a product change
  12. As far as I know, they don’t offer any type of retention bonus for cards with an annual fee.
  13. Wells Fargo reports your statement balance as your credit used to the credit reporting agencies. Credit utilization is one of the major scoring factors for the FICO score, so make sure to pay large balances before your statement closes.
  14. Wells Fargo lets you change your statement closing date by calling in. Might be useful with the above information (e.g if your pay falls at a certain time and you want to pay off your card before the statement closes).
  15. For minimum spending requirements, the time you have to reach that requirement is based on card approval and calendar months. (more recent DP says you have 95 days)
  16. Wells Fargo says that they don’t report balances from business credit cards to the credit bureaus which is useful for keeping your credit report cleaner.
  17. You can check your credit card’s application status online.
  18. If you’ve opened a Wells Fargo card in the last 16 months, you can’t get the sign up bonus on another card. It’s important to note you can get one personal and one business per 16 months.

Things We’re Aren’t Sure About

Final Thoughts

This is our last post in this series, we’ve now covered all the major credit card issuers. If you’d like to see similar information about smaller credit card issuers or you know some information we’ve listed above that we aren’t sure about then please let us know in the comments below. If you’d like to discuss any of these, don’t refer to them as their numbers as these sometimes change. You can view other posts in this series by clicking the links below.

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101 Comments
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Stephen
Stephen (@guest_1752942)
December 6, 2023 21:47

WF insists on obtaining your mobile number when you apply. You can’t provide only a home phone number.

JH
JH (@guest_1634021)
June 14, 2023 00:22

Wells Fargo does have a referral program as of 2019. #7

Andrew
Andrew (@guest_1529702)
January 9, 2023 17:20

For 10) I was able to reallocate my credit lines when I closed accounts and there was no hard pull involved. They did mention it “May” be possible. But I moved 4 credit limits around with no pull.
For 11) I did 2 product changes in 2021. I changed the Cashwise Visa to the Active Cash and the Platinum card to the Autograph card. My CL and age of accounts are still the original.

fdic
fdic (@guest_1507264)
December 11, 2022 22:29

Are there any data points on how long you need to wait between Wells Fargo credit card applications?

Bertrand
Bertrand (@guest_1385376)
May 25, 2022 17:39

In the past, WF has pulled my Experian report (I am in NY). I saw a DP from back in 2018 of someone freezing Experian and getting an Equifax pull. Yesterday I froze my EX before applying for the WF Business Platinum card. My application went pending review, and this morning I was alerted that my EQ had been pulled. So it appears that WF will pull another credit report if the one they want to pull is frozen.

 William Charles

Hunt
Hunt (@guest_1299222)
December 14, 2021 11:24

A few updates:
-It appears they now have some capability to product change cards without closing old and opening new. It might be limited, however. The provide an online option for certain old credit products to product change to the new Active Cash card at least.
-It appears you can now request a new statement due date online – not just by calling in.

Amy
Amy (@guest_1383087)
May 19, 2022 02:06

I agree with this. I had no problem changing from my Platinum to my Active Cash.

Rakesh
Rakesh (@guest_1066298)
October 1, 2020 21:32

After Nov 20, 2020 Wells fargo, Cash rewards is being available to non-permanent residents according to a mailer.Please note @William Charles

raakii
raakii (@guest_1068741)
October 6, 2020 05:12

Done

Ravi
Ravi (@guest_1408277)
July 13, 2022 09:42

Is this true? Am recent DP @William Charles

TJ
TJ (@guest_1041233)
August 22, 2020 14:53

I’ve always had issues with Wells. I got denied for wahtever card offered $500 when they intiitally started really marketing credit cards 5-6 years ago. When I called recon, they had an issue with my historical “high balance”, but I always pay in full unless there a 0% BT offer. It was the oddest experience, I had never been declined up to that point.

I just tried for he Propel card and got a pending (and this time I have an active deposit account), I’ll be surprised if they approve.

DH7
DH7 (@guest_905604)
February 11, 2020 12:09

The links at the bottom don’t include all of the other Things to know pages, might be worth just making a list and linking each article to that list?

arch
arch (@guest_862654)
December 29, 2019 15:46

Per a CSR today, on my biz card the Cash Advance limit is the Credit Limit and CA can’t be lowered w/o lowering CL