You can now get up to $2,500 for upgrading to or opening a Wells Fargo Premier account, just by depositing money. The best play is to first open a regular Checking account for the $400 bonus, then upgrade and go for the $2,500. This offer expires on July 7.

  • Wells Fargo Premier $2,500 account bonus (deposit $250,000 within 45 days of account opening; maintain it for 90 days)
  • If the link does not open, paste this URL directly into your browser: https://accountoffers.wellsfargo.com/premierupgrade/

This is actually a very solid bonus. It works out to an extra 1% over 90 days, or about 4% annualized. I’ve also added it to our high-yield account bonus ranking!

Also, if you currently have Premier Checking, logging in and applying for one of their credit cards (or going to a branch) can get you extra offers:

The regular Checking bonus is currently $400, and the Direct Deposit requirement is not high at all: just $1,000 total over three months. This offer also ends on July 7.

The bonus requirements are as follows:

  • You must deposit at least $25 when opening the account;
  • Within 90 days after account opening, complete Direct Deposits totaling at least $1,000; (LemFi transfers can handle this directly)
  • You must keep the Checking balance above $0 before the bonus posts
  • You cannot currently have a Wells Fargo Checking account, and you must not have closed one within the past 12 months

For other large bank bonuses, see our roundup here:

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company is a U.S. multinational financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California, with offices throughout the United States. By market capitalization, it is the world’s fourth-largest bank; by total assets, it is the fourth-largest bank in the U.S.

One major black mark on the bank is its past scandal involving employees misusing customer data and opening many credit cards without customer authorization. Another odd thing is that its credit cards have often been limited to permanent residents or U.S. citizens. That said, there are also data points suggesting that people who hold a Wells Fargo Checking account may still be able to get approved for a credit card.

Wells Fargo Checking

Account bonus

See the beginning of this article.

Direct Deposit

If you do not want to use payroll, or do not have payroll available for DD, you can try some unofficial methods such as ACH transfers or withdrawals to meet the $1,000 requirement (source: DOC). The usual method is to add Wells Fargo as an external bank from another bank and initiate a transfer. Or you can link Wells Fargo to an investment account or PayPal account and simply withdraw money into it.

  • ACH transfers: Chase, Discover, AMEX serve
  • Investment accounts: Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood
  • Other: PayPal, venmo
  • Because Wells Fargo data points have been somewhat inconsistent, I recommend checking DOC’s summary

Based on reader reports, the bonus usually posts within a few business days after the DD requirement is met. So if yours does not post, you can try a different workaround method.

You can also open the account at a local branch. From the links above, you can select in-branch to get a promo code. If you are an F1 resident, you may be able to open online directly, though you might need to provide additional documents, such as a driver’s license/State ID, student visa, passport, credit card statement, and so on.

Fees

Everyday Checking has a $10 monthly fee, which can be waived by meeting any one of the following:

  • 10+ debit card purchases or payments per month (regular card swipes and online purchases both count)
  • $500 in Direct Deposits per month, which can be across multiple deposits
  • At least $1,500 daily balance (the end-of-day balance must stay above this amount every day)
  • Link this account to a Wells Fargo Campus ATM or Campus Debit Card
  • No monthly fee for ages 17-24

Also, none of these three checking accounts has an early termination fee, which means that in theory you could close the account after receiving the bonus. That said, I still recommend keeping it open a bit longer.

Savings (currently no bonus)

There is now also a $525 savings account bonus. It requires a $25 opening deposit, plus $25,000 deposited within 30 days and maintained for 90 days. Existing customers may also have a separate link available. However, these offers require opening the account at a local Wells Fargo branch. This is a pretty good deal: annualized, it works out to roughly 8.4%. If you have idle cash, it may be worth considering. Ideally, you could line up checking, savings, and Premier Checking together. If you do the Premier Checking bonus, the money in savings also counts toward the balance requirement. So you may be able to pick up the savings bonus at the same time.

Although the savings account has a $5 monthly fee, the waiver requirements are easy to meet. The easiest one is simply maintaining at least a $300 daily balance.

  • Maintain at least a $300 daily balance. $300 minimum daily balance
  • Make at least one automatic transfer of $25 or more from a linked Wells Fargo checking account to the savings account each fee period. 1 automatic transfer each fee period of $25 or more from a linked Wells Fargo checking account
  • Make at least one automatic transfer of $1 or more from a linked Wells Fargo checking account to the savings account on each business day within the fee period. 1 automatic transfer each business day within the fee period of $1 or more from a linked Wells Fargo checking account
  • Make at least 1 transfer using Save As You Go® from a linked Wells Fargo checking account. 1 or more Save As You Go® transfers from a linked Wells Fargo checking account. A qualifying Save As You Go transfer is an automatic transfer of $1 from your linked Wells Fargo checking account to your Way2Save Savings account each time you (or any authorized signer or joint owner) use your debit card for a one-time purchase or complete a Bill Pay transaction through online banking, and the one-time debit card purchase or bill pay transaction posts to the account. We reserve the right to determine through our sole discretion if a particular transaction is a qualifying transaction.
  • Primary account owner is 24 years old or under. Primary account owner is 24 years old or under. (When the primary account owner reaches the age of 25, age can no longer be used to avoid the monthly service fee.) Customers 12 and under must have an adult co-owner.

Wells Fargo Premier Checking

Based on the official description, there are not many truly meaningful perks here; it is mostly a bundle of convenience, advisory, and investment-related services for higher-asset customers. The account does pay interest, though. The current APY depends on your deposit amount: 0.25% for balances of $0–$99,999.99, and 0.50% for $100,000 and up. Better than nothing.

  • Interest on the Premier Checking account is compounded daily and paid monthly. The amount of interest earned is based on the daily collected balances in the account. The following Annual Percentage Yields (APYs) are accurate as of November 25, 2022. The account pays an APY of 0.25% if the balance is $0–$99,999.99 and 0.50% if the balance is $100,000 or more. Rates are variable and subject to change without notice. Fees could reduce earnings on this account.

This account has a $35 monthly fee, which can be waived if your total balances at Wells Fargo reach $250,000 or more. That includes checking, savings, CDs, FDIC-insured IRAs, and investment accounts.

  • The Wells Fargo Premier Checking account has a $35 monthly service fee which can be avoided each fee period with $250,000 or more in statement-ending qualifying linked (a) bank deposit account balances (checking, savings, time accounts (CDs) , FDIC-insured IRAs) and (b) investment account balances (brokerage available through our brokerage affiliate Wells Fargo Advisors, applicable bank fiduciary and custody accounts, annuities, and eligible foreign exchange transactions) .

My take

If you can successfully open the account, the bonus is very good, and the direct deposit requirement is not difficult. If you are interested in other account-opening bonuses, you may also want to check out the offers below:

Checking account bonuses are taxable. The bank will send a 1099INT the following year, and you can report it as interest income.

Application link