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Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $500
- Availability: MT, ND, SD, MN, WI
- Direct deposit required: Yes, three consecutive months of $500+ a month
- Additional requirements: $25,000 savings deposit
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Mixed reports, likely doesn’t pull
- Credit card funding: None in branch
- Monthly fees: $10, waivable
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date: March 22nd, 2019
Contents
The Offer
- Wells Fargo is offering a bonus of up to $500 when you open a new checking and savings account. Requirements are as follows:
- Open a new checking account with an opening deposit of $25 or more and within 150 receive at least 3 consecutive monthly direct deposits of $500 or more
- Open a new, eligible consumer savings account with a minimum deposit of $25 and within 10 days, deposit at least $25,000 in new money and maintain a balance of at least $25,000 for 90 days
The Fine Print
- We will deposit the bonus into your new checking account within 45 days after meeting all offer requirements.
- The new checking account must remain open in order to receive any earned bonus payments.
- You are responsible for any federal, state, or local taxes due on the bonus and we will report as income to the tax authorities if required by applicable law. Consult your tax advisor.
- A qualifying direct deposit is the customer’s salary, pension, Social Security, or other regular monthly income, electronically deposited through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network by your employer or an outside agency.
- Non-qualifying direct deposits for purposes of this offer include transfers from one account to another (for example, transfers between your own accounts, or person-to-person transfers using a transfer service such as Zelle®**), or deposits made at a branch or ATM, or through mobile deposit.
- This is an exclusive, non-transferable offer. A valid bonus offer code will be provided to each customer while meeting with a banker. You are not eligible for this offer if:
- You are a current owner of a Wells Fargo consumer checking account or savings account
- You are a Wells Fargo team member
- You have received a bonus for opening a Wells Fargo consumer checking account or savings account within the past 12 months
- Offer is only available to customers in the following states: Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin.
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
The Everyday Checking account comes with a $10 monthly fee. Get the fee waived with one of the following:
- 10 debit card purchases and/or payments each statement cycle from this checking account, OR
- Direct deposits totaling $500 or more each statement cycle, OR
- Maintain a $1,500 minimum daily balance, OR
- Link checking account to a Wells Fargo Campus ATM or Campus Debit Card
f you have a Wells mortgage, you might be able to get a higher-level account with no fees.
Early Account Termination Fee
There is no early account termination fee.
Our Verdict
The standard best bonus we see from Wells Fargo is $200 for their checking account, either an online offer or an in-branch offer. This is a $500 bonus but also requires $25,000 be deposited for 90 days, this is fairly similar to Chase’s combined checking & savings bonus (although it’s worse due to the lower bonus, higher balance requirement and more direct deposits).
It’s probably still worth doing for a lot of people, think of it as a $300 savings bonus for $25,000 deposited. That’s effectively a 4.8% APY rate for those 90 days. We’ve also seen this same offer available before, but this time we have a direct link and it’s available in different states.
Big thanks to reader, Curmudgeon and JohnnyBoyJr who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Direct mail letter, no website given, has 6 character bonus offer promo code to give to the banker. Fine print says exclusive, non-transferable offer.
Open by 8/30/2019.
Can you send me a pic?
Is there anyway to know if the $500+ DD worked/counted after the 1st month? Or do you have to wait for all 3 months to see if the bonus came through then if not, do for another 3 months with a different ACH push? Or maybe you would be screwed because it’s not within 150 days.
So this might be a 1 shot DD requirement? It looks like a lot of the Wells Fargo DD triggers have been crossed out lately and the good ones only have 1-2 data points. Makes me a little nervous if not a way to verify that the DD counted the 1st time.
This is risky bonus… may end up not getting the $500 and losing interest on the 25k…
Can you transfer $5k in and out 5 times will that count for the $25k deposit? And would an ach transfer from Capital one 360 trigger direct deposit?
I’d say no. As you proposed, that isn’t $25k in new money.
Definitely no. “deposit at least $25,000 in new money and maintain a balance of at least $25,000 for 90 days”