Introduction

Wells Fargo used to be relatively inactive in the credit card space. Most of its credit cards had no annual fee, and the welcome offers were not especially high. In the past few years, however, Wells Fargo’s credit card lineup has changed significantly, with products such as Active Cash, Autograph, Autograph Journey, Reflect, One Key, Choice, and Signify Business Cash being rolled out one after another. The Autograph family now supports transfers from Wells Fargo Rewards to airline miles and hotel points, which means Wells Fargo has officially joined the competition among points ecosystems such as AMEX MR, Chase UR, Citi TYP, and Capital One Miles. Although the transfer partner list is still not especially extensive, the overall program has become much more interesting than before.

Wells Fargo credit card applications remain relatively strict. In addition to considering credit history and banking relationships, Wells Fargo now has a 4-month application spacing rule and 48-month welcome offer restrictions on some products. Also, some credit cards provide decent cell phone protection, but the coverage amount and detailed rules vary by card.

Applications

1. Wells Fargo does not publish a total-card limit, but you need to provide a U.S. address, a tax identification number, and identity information when applying. As long as your credit history, income, and total credit limit meet the requirements, you can continue applying, though of course the more cards you hold, the harder later applications may become. Older terms once stated that only U.S. citizens or permanent residents could apply, but the currently published credit card terms no longer contain this restriction. Wells Fargo’s official credit-building guidance for newcomers also mentions that an SSN or ITIN can be used when applying for credit. However, whether a specific credit card allows online applications with an ITIN still depends on the application page and identity verification results at the time.

2. Having a Wells Fargo checking account or other bank or investment accounts may help with credit card applications. Based on previous application experiences, users with a Wells Fargo banking relationship usually have a smoother time applying for credit cards. Premier or private banking clients may also see exclusive credit card versions or targeted offers in the app, but this is not a requirement for approval for regular credit cards. Wells Fargo currently also offers credit card prequalification, allowing you to see cards you may qualify for without affecting your credit score. However, seeing a preapproved offer does not mean final approval is guaranteed.

3. Wells Fargo has minimum credit limit requirements when approving credit card applications. If the bank believes it cannot provide the minimum credit limit required for the relevant product, the application may be denied. The currently published minimum credit limits for several cards are as follows:

If the application is not approved outright, you may sometimes be able to ask customer service to move part of the credit limit from an existing Wells Fargo credit card to approve the new card.

4. Wells Fargo’s own personal credit cards currently have a 4-month application spacing rule. According to the current terms for cards such as Active Cash, Autograph, Autograph Journey, and Reflect, if you have opened a Wells Fargo-branded consumer credit card within the past 4 months, you may not qualify for another new Wells Fargo personal card.

You may not qualify for an additional Wells Fargo-branded consumer credit card if you have opened a Wells Fargo-branded consumer credit card in the last 4 months.

This looks at whether you opened a credit card within the past 4 months, not whether you received a welcome offer. The terms use “may not qualify,” so the bank still retains some discretion in review. To be safe, however, it is recommended to space two Wells Fargo personal cards at least 4 months apart. Recently there have also been data points suggesting Wells Fargo is reviewing applicants with many new accounts in the past two years more strictly, and some people refer to this as a 5/24-like rule. However, this is not a fixed published restriction. Some people over 5/24 are still approved, so it should not be treated as exactly the same as Chase 5/24.

5. Some Wells Fargo personal cards use a 48-month same-product welcome offer restriction, while co-branded cards use their own rules. The current terms for cards such as Active Cash, Autograph, Autograph Journey, Reflect, and Attune contain similar language: if you currently hold the same product, or opened the same product within the past 48 months, you may not be eligible for a new welcome offer, Intro APR, or other new-customer promotion, even if the old account has already been closed and has a $0 balance. This 48-month period is calculated backward from the date of the new application and mainly looks at the account opening date of the same card, not the date you received the welcome offer or closed the card. Co-branded credit card rules may differ. For example:

  • Choice Privileges and Choice Privileges Select: if you opened either of these cards within the past 15 months, you may not be eligible for a new welcome offer; you can hold only one of these two cards at the same time.
  • One Key and One Key+: eligibility is reviewed according to the bonus eligibility terms on each card’s application page, so the Choice rules or Wells Fargo’s own card rules cannot simply be applied to them.

Therefore, before applying for a Wells Fargo credit card, you should always check the terms for the specific product. It is no longer accurate to simply group all personal cards under the same 6-month or 15-month rule.

6. Wells Fargo business credit cards currently can no longer all be analyzed under the old 12-month rule. Older business credit card terms once stated that if the same company already held a Wells Fargo business card, or had opened or closed a business card within the past 12 months, it would not be eligible for the welcome offer or low APR. However, the currently published terms for Signify Business Cash no longer contain this unified restriction. Therefore, whether a business credit card is eligible for a welcome offer should be determined according to the specific offer shown at the time of application. Official Signify Business Cash terms

7. After applying for a Wells Fargo credit card, you can check the status online or call to request manual review. The current credit card application status phone number is 1-800-967-9521. Existing Wells Fargo Online users can log in directly to check; other users who receive an application confirmation email can also use the access code in the email to check. If your application is denied or is pending, you can contact customer service to ask about the reason, provide additional identity or income documents, and ask whether part of the credit limit from an existing credit card can be moved to approve the new card. However, manual review does not guarantee that the original decision will be overturned.

8. Each application may result in a hard pull, and multiple hard pulls on the same day are not guaranteed to be combined. There have been data points where someone applied for two Wells Fargo credit cards on the same day and the credit inquiries were ultimately combined, but this is not a rule the bank publicly guarantees. The second application could also be identified as a duplicate application, or be affected by the 4-month application spacing restriction. We do not recommend applying for two Wells Fargo credit cards back-to-back on the same day solely for the purpose of trying to combine hard pulls.

Using the Cards

9. The spending period for a welcome bonus starts on the day the account is opened, and eligible net purchases must officially post within the required time frame. Most current Wells Fargo welcome bonuses require you to complete the spending requirement within 3 months after account opening. The clock does not start when you receive or activate the physical card, and you should not simply interpret the deadline as 95 days. It is especially important that purchases officially post to the credit card account before the deadline. If a purchase made close to the deadline is still showing as pending, it may not count toward the welcome bonus requirement, so we strongly recommend not cutting it too close.

10. Annual fees, interest, cash advances, and cash equivalents do not count toward welcome bonus spending and do not earn points or cash back. Under the current publicly available terms, the following transactions generally are not considered eligible purchases:

  • Annual fees, monthly fees, interest, late fees, and similar charges
  • Cash advances and ATM withdrawals
  • Balance transfers and SUPERCHECKS
  • Money orders, traveler’s checks, and prepaid gift cards
  • Person-to-person transfers and wire transfers
  • Digital currency transactions
  • Gambling, lottery tickets, and other transactions that do not qualify under the terms

Returns, refunds, and statement credits may also reduce eligible net purchases. When calculating progress toward a welcome bonus, leave enough of a buffer and do not rely only on the card’s total spending number.

11. Credit limits can be reallocated among Wells Fargo credit cards, but limit reallocation should be treated separately from requesting an overall credit limit increase. Current official terms expressly allow cardholders to contact customer service to reallocate credit limits among some of their own Wells Fargo credit cards, subject to restrictions such as card type, account status, and available credit. When you apply for a new card, if an existing credit card has no balance and has not been used in the past 6 months, Wells Fargo may also proactively move credit limit from that card in order to approve the new card. Simply moving credit limit between existing cards is generally not the same as requesting new credit, but it is best to ask customer service to confirm whether a credit report will be pulled before submitting the request. Requesting an increase to your total credit limit may result in a hard pull, and the system or representative will generally notify you before final submission.

12. Wells Fargo has built its own points transfer system, and points from the Autograph family can be transferred to airline miles and hotel points. Wells Fargo Rewards can be redeemed for cash, statement credits, gift cards, or travel at a rate of 100 points = $1. If you have the Autograph, Autograph Journey, or an eligible premium Autograph card, you can also use transfer partners. Current transfer partners include:

  • 1:1 airline partners: Aer Lingus AerClub, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Avianca LifeMiles, The British Airways Club, Cathay Pacific, Iberia Plus, JetBlue TrueBlue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and Virgin Red
  • 1:2 hotel partners: Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards

If you hold a cash back card such as Active Cash and an Autograph card that supports transfers, you can combine eligible cash rewards into the points card and then transfer them to airline or hotel programs. Points transfers are usually irreversible, so be sure to check award flights or hotel availability before transferring points out. Choice points earned from the Choice co-branded cards and OneKeyCash earned from the One Key cards belong to their respective co-branded rewards programs and are not the same as regular Wells Fargo Rewards.

13. Some Wells Fargo credit cards offer cell phone protection, but the coverage amount varies by card. To use this benefit, you usually need to pay the full cell phone bill from the prior month with an eligible credit card, and coverage then takes effect the following month.

  • Active Cash: up to $600 per claim, with a $25 deductible; up to two claims per 12 months, for a combined maximum of $1,200.
  • Autograph Journey: up to $1,000 per claim, with a $25 deductible; up to two claims per 12 months, for a combined maximum of $2,000.

Phones that are simply lost, cosmetic scratches, and screen cracks that do not affect normal use are generally not covered. Benefits can change across different credit cards, so you should review the latest Guide to Benefits for your own card before filing a claim.

Closing Cards

14. Some Wells Fargo credit cards can now be product changed, and not every product change involves closing the old account and opening a new one. Eligible accounts may see a “Switch My Credit Card” option in online banking or the app, and you can also call customer service to ask. For example, some older Wells Fargo Visa credit cards can be converted to Autograph. A true product change usually preserves the original account opening history and is not treated as a new credit card application, but whether the card number changes depends on the specific product. Product changes also generally do not receive the new card’s welcome bonus, intro APR, or other new-account offers. Not all credit cards can be converted to each other, and options are especially limited for co-branded cards, business cards, and certain special products. If customer service says the only option is to close the old account and apply for a new card, then that is not a normal product change.

15. Before closing your last credit card that participates in Wells Fargo Rewards, handle the rewards in the account first. As long as an eligible credit card account remains open and in good standing, regular Wells Fargo Rewards generally do not expire. If a Rewards account has multiple eligible Wells Fargo credit cards, rewards usually remain after closing one of them. However, if you close the last credit card participating in Wells Fargo Rewards, unused pending and active rewards in the account will generally be forfeited. Therefore, before closing the last card, it is best to combine, redeem, or transfer the points first. New York accounts may qualify for a cash check exception in certain card-closure situations that do not involve fraud or abuse. Points or rewards from co-branded credit cards such as Choice and One Key are handled according to the rules of the corresponding loyalty program and do not fully follow the regular Wells Fargo Rewards card-closure rules. Wells Fargo currently does not publicly promise one uniform annual fee refund window for all credit cards. If you plan to close or downgrade a credit card with an annual fee, we recommend keeping it for at least one full year and contacting customer service soon after the new year’s annual fee posts to ask about an annual fee refund, a retention offer, or product change options.

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