Yesterday Wells Fargo reported their Retail Banking Customer Activity for February. There were two interesting pieces of information:
- New consumer credit card applications down 4% LM, and down 0.2 million, or 55%, YoY
- Consumer checking account opens down 3% LM, and down 0.3 million, or 43%, YoY
Basically consumer credit card applications are down 55% year over year and consumer checking account opens are down 43% year over year. This is despite Wells Fargo offering incredible generous promotions on it’s consumer checking accounts. This is the sixth straight month that Wells Fargo have reported declines on credit card/checking applications, not entirely surprising given they were fined $185 million and fired 5,300 employees due to opening accounts illegally.
As mentioned earlier, we’ve already seen a generous sign up bonus on the checking account and I’m hoping that these continued drops in credit card applications will force them to offer better credit card bonuses and rewards in the near future. As mentioned they recently sent out a survey with some interesting options such as a 50,000 point sign up bonus and 3x categories on dining/travel & gas. According to Financial Times they have plans to step up their targeting of “…new credit card users, piloting unsolicited mailshots as part of a step up in its marketing efforts”. Fingers crossed they release something big soon.
Hat tip to /r/churning & reader Simon
I can’t stand their clear racism towards people who aren’t permanent residents. They basically insist they apply for the secured credit card, even if we have 10K+ cards from Amex, Chase, etc elsewhere.
Is it true that you have to wait 15 months between any two wells fargo bonus cards? or 15 months wait time is for getting the bonus on the same type of card.
This is the language they use
Eligibility for introductory rate(s), fees, and bonus rewards offers
If you opened a Wells Fargo credit card account during the last 15 months from the date of this application you will not be eligible for the introductory APR(s) or bonus rewards offers until the 1st day of the calendar month after the 15 month anniversary.
Not enforced AFAIK
Yes it is.
More info?
maybe we will actually get approved more easily! i aint opening any new personal tradelines until it has been a full 6 months since my last ( december…) cuz thats what 3 reps said. the last 6 months are what matter most! propel world here we go!
Well, I’d love to churn another two-fitty — just tell me where to sign up!
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf steped down due to the scandal… with a $133 million pay
http://fortune.com/2016/10/13/wells-fargo-ceo-john-stumpfs-career-ends-with-133-million-payday/
So much for that advice on us just being cool about shutting down Wells fargo checking accounts after getting bonus. Seems to me us not being cool is causing Wells to lose customers and now in a panic they are going to aggressively try to lure customers in with bonuses. Hell I received a phone call from Wells a couple days ago trying to get me to sign up for a credit card. I don’t even Bank with them anymore. This is the first time a bank has called me to try and open a credit card with them, at first I thought it was a random cold call but they knew my name and knew i had had an account with them in the past and we’re trying to win me back as a customer.
WF is stewpid; they confiscate your points in the middle of a statement period when you MS. They should atleast give you what you have already earned.
I wonder how much of the drop off in applications is due to the negative press versus the actual impact of employees not opening fraudulent account anymore. If the fraudulent accounts were opened last year, they would be in the comparable year over year comparison numbers.
Fake account openings wasn’t a recent thing and shouldn’t be reflected in last years numbers AFAIK.
Last year’s numbers are from fake accounts, I thought. That’s why it’s a big drop.
Concur with the negative sentiments above — I sincerely like most of my local WF reps — but still not forgetting the 3rd degree I once got from an overly nosey manager… (sic — creepy, yes, no doubt he’d be one of the ones opening up accounts behind our backs too) Will I ever trust We’llGoFar with your $$ again? Why should we?
We’llGoFAr swallowed up another aggressive bank with an attitude — known in the east as “Walk-all-ovia” — two of a kind. Any and all such banks should have been broken up…. but instead, managers get ma$$ive rewards to resign, and we’re left holding the bag waiting for trinkets….
ok Doc, we’ll watch for special deals that might come along — run with them, and then run far away. But loyalty? Heck no.
I never recommend loyalty, unless it’s loyalty to your own wallet 😀
The other day I dragged my husband to Wells Fargo branch in order to apply for Propel World. We were treated like royalty and the banker said he will follow up with a phone call to make sure everything is set (the card went to pending, unfortunately). I’m pretty certain that at the moment they are incentivized to get people to apply for credit cards. Works for me! Fingers crossed we’ll see some sweet offers in a near future.