Wells Fargo Propel World American Express® Card Review

Overview

APRs:

• APR: 13.99% to 21.99% based on your credit worthiness
• Introductory APR: 0% for the first twelve months
• Cash advance APR: 23.99%
• Penalty APRs: Unknown
  • Applies if you make a late payment
  • Can apply indefinitely
• Grace period: 25 days
• Minimum interest charge: $1

Note all APRs may vary based on the prime market rate.

Fees:

• Annual fee: $175, first year fee waived
• Balance transfer fee: $5 or 3% whichever is greater for the first twelve months, then 5% or $5 whichever is greater
• Cash advance fee: $10 or 5%, whichever is greater for SUPERCHECK advance, ATM advance or advance through Wells Fargo Online. $20 or 5%, whichever is greater for all other cash advances
• Foreign transaction fee: None
• Late payment fee: Up to $35
• Returned payment: Up To $35

Card Benefits

• No foreign currency conversion fees
• Up to $100 per year in reimbursements toward incidental airline charges
• 40,000 point sign up bonus after $3,000 in spend
• 3x on all airline purchases, 2x on all hotel purchases
• Complimentary room upgrades and more from the Luxury Hotel Program

Card Negatives

• High annual fee of $175 after first year

Application Information

This is a brand new card and as such there isn’t much (if any) information on it as of yet. We will update this section as more information comes to hand.

What Credit Score Is Required

	Credit Boards	Credit Karma
Lowest approved score	?	?
Average approved score	?	?

We currently don’t have any precise credit score information for this card, it is a premium offering by Wells Fargo and as such we recommend having a credit score above 720 before applying. We’ll update this page as more information comes to hand.

Common Reasons For Denial:

• Too many recent applications
• Income too low

What Credit Bureau Does Wells Fargo Pull For The Propel Card?

This will be dependent on which state you live in. We suggest using the credit boards credit pull application, entering “Wells Fargo” and then your state to get a rough idea of which credit bureau they will pull.

What Credit Limit Will I Receive?

Minimum Credit Limit	Highest Reported Credit Limit	Average Credit Limit
$5,000	$12,000	$8,250

Rewards Program

This card earns

Earning Rewards

This card earns Well Fargo points at the following rates:

• 3X points per dollar spent on Airlines
• 2X points per dollar spent on Hotels
• 1X points per dollar spent on all other purchases

You also earn an additional “relationship” bonus if you maintain an additional account with Wells Fargo, the bonus rates are as follows:

• Checking or savings account: 10% relationship bonus
• PMA package with a relationship balance of $250,000 or less: 25% relationship bonus
• PMA package with a relationship balance of $250,000 or more: 50% relationship bonus
• Wells Fargo Private Banking PMA Package client: 50% relationship bonus

This bonus is paid out on the 13th month billing cycle after you first opened your account and then annually after that. You do not earn this bonus on sign up points or bonus points (e.g if you make an $100 purchase with an Airline you’d receive 300 points and then an additional 10 relationship bonus points if you hold an eligible checking or savings account). There is currently a $100 sign up bonus for Wells Fargo checking accounts.

The most basic checking account has a monthly fee of $7 if you opt for paperless statements, which is waived if you receive direct deposits of $500 or more per month or have a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more. The most basic PMA package has a monthly fee of $30 unless you have deposits totalling $25,000 or more.

Wells Fargo doesn’t offer great rates on their checking & savings products so we wouldn’t recommend signing up for these, especially since the relationship bonus doesn’t count towards sign up and bonus points.

Mall

You can also earn additional points by shopping through the Wells Fargo mall portal. Unfortunately this doesn’t look like a great portal, we had a look at a few offers and were able to find much better offers through other cash back sites.

Sign Up Bonus

Current Sign Up Bonus

• 40,000 Wells Fargo Points after you spend $3,000 within the first three months

Sign Up Bonus History

• Sign up bonus has always been the same

Redeeming Your Rewards

Wells Fargo rewards points can be redeemed at https://mywellsfargorewards.com/. Points have a value of 1¢ per point when redeeming for cash or cash equivalents. They have the following things that you can currently redeem for:

• Cash, you can redeem for cash in denominations of $25 (1 point = 1¢). You can have this cash given to you in the following ways: statement credit on your card, check,  Wells Fargo mortgage, Wells Fargo home equity loan, personal Wells Fargo loan, deposit into a Wells Fargo checking account or deposit into a Wells Fargo savings account
• Gift cards (starting at 2,500 points for a $25 gift card). 59 different merchants currently available with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Fandago and host of other big brands.
• Travel. You can also redeem your points for airline tickets at a rate of 1 point = 1¢, although some people have found that when they actually go to book their tickets they end up getting closer to 1.5¢ per point.

Our Verdict

This card has a great sign up bonus, you can redeem the 40,000 points you’ll receive for $400 in the form of a check. You can also get $100 back for any airline incidental purchases, this brings the total sign up bonus to $500 which is one of the best currently available, the annual fee is also waived for the first year which means it’s pure profit and you don’t need to worry about redeeming for gift cards and then reselling those.

As an everyday card it’s nothing that special, it basically earns 3% cash back on airlines, 2% on hotels and 1% on all other purchases. The American Express Fidelity is a flat 2% cash back card, so you’d only be better off with this card for airline purchases. The 10-50% bonus isn’t really worth worrying about because it doesn’t count on bonus or sign up points and it’s annoying to keep your checking or PMA accounts fee free.

I’m personally going to sign up for this card just to get the sign up bonus. I’ll then call up to try and get the annual fee waived on the second year or get some type of retention bonus, if they don’t offer one I’ll just cancel it.

We Recommend This Card For:

• People looking for a high cash sign up bonus
• People who will rack up $100 in incidental airline expenses

We Don’t Recommend This Card For:

• People looking for a credit card for their every day purchases

Alternatives To This Card

• American Express Fidelity. For those who are looking for an everyday card this will be a better option as it earns a flat 2% cash back on all purchases.

F.A.Q’s

What counts as an airline incident charge that will be reimbursed for up to $100?

Read this post for more details.

Can I apply for this card if I’m not a permanent resident?

You can, but chances are you will not be approved. We’re not exactly sure why this is, but it looks like a rule Wells Fargo has.