Wells Fargo $525 Savings Bonus With $25,000 Deposit (In-Branch)

Update 1/13/25: Extended through 2/25/25 (updated the link below)

Update 10/3/24: Extended until Jan 08 2025

Update 8/21/24: Extended until October 1, 2024

Update 7/10/24: Extended until August 20, 2024

Offer at a glance

• Maximum bonus amount: $525
• Availability: Nationwide, branch visit required
• Direct deposit required: None
• Additional requirements: $25,000 deposit
• Hard/soft pull: Soft
• ChexSystems: Mixed reports, likely doesn’t pull
• Credit card funding: None
• Monthly fees: Avoidable
• Early account termination fee: None
• Household limit: None
• Expiration date: June 27, 2023

The Offer

Direct Link to offer for new savings customers | Link for existing savings customers

• Wells Fargo is offering a $525 bonus when you open a new savings account and deposit $25,000 within 30 days. Must maintain the balance through Day 90 from account opening.

The Fine Print

• This offer is for new savings customers only. All Wells Fargo consumer savings accounts are eligible for this offer with the exception of Time Accounts (CDs) and savings accounts offered by Wells Fargo Private Bank.
• You must use your bonus offer code at account opening when you apply for a new eligible Wells Fargo savings account.
• You are not eligible for this offer if:
  • You are a current owner of a Wells Fargo consumer savings account
  • You have received any other consumer savings offer bonus or promotional rate that required a bonus offer code within the past 12 months.
  • You are a Wells Fargo employee
• To receive the bonus, you must: 1) Open a new Wells Fargo consumer savings account with a minimum opening deposit of $25 in a Wells Fargo branch by June 27, 2023. All account applications are subject to approval. 2) Bring $25,000 or more in new money to your new savings account by Day 30 and maintain at least a $25,000 balance through Day 90 after account opening. New money is money that is new to the customer or new to Wells Fargo (deposited into the customer’s new savings account directly from outside of Wells Fargo and Company and all affiliates, or from a Wells Fargo account not owned by the customer).
• We will deposit your bonus into your new savings account within 30 days after you have met all offer requirements.
• The new savings account must be open at the time we attempt to deposit any earned bonus payment. Please note that an account with a zero balance may be closed by us without prior notice, as further described in the Deposit Account Agreement.
• 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.

Avoiding Fees

The Wells Fargo Way2Save Savings account monthly service fee is $5. Minimum opening deposit is $25. The monthly service fee can be avoided with one of the following each fee period:

• $300 minimum daily balance
• Automatic transfer each fee period of $25 or more from a linked Wells Fargo checking account
• Automatic transfer each business day within the fee period of $1 or more from a linked Wells Fargo checking account
• 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. (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.

Initial monthly service fee waiver (pdf): “We’ll waive the monthly service fee for each fee period ending within the first 64 days of opening.”

Our Verdict

You’ll lose out on $200-$300 in interest by using this savings account which doesn’t earn much interest versus a high yield savings account. Still might be worth it for the $525 bonus + .15% interest that the account earns. Update: readers note that you can have the banker enroll you in this Platinum savings account which has a decent interest rate.

I see this as more interesting in conjunction with the Wells Fargo Premier checking $2,500 bonus offer which requires $250,000 in assets transferred. Far as I can tell from the fine prints, the two offers should work in tandem, and the $25,000 savings account will count toward your $250,000 threshold needed for the checking/investing bonus. Seems like a nice way of sweetening the pot a bit on that $2,500 Premier checking bonus, and it should be possible to bring in both promo codes to the branch and open both accounts at the same time. Update 3/24/23: multiple readers heard from their banker that the $25k won’t stack with the $250k offer. Update 11/24/24: In reality it probably will stack.

We’ll add this to our list of Best Bank Signup Bonuses.

Hat tip to reader nik

Post history:

• Update 5/31/24: Back until July 9, 2024.
• Update 4/2/24: Extended until June 25, 2024
• Update 1/10/24: Extended until April 1, 2024
• Update 10/2/23: Deal is back until January 9, 2024
• Update 6/28/23: Deal is back and valid until July 3, 2023. For existing users.
• Update 5/29/23: There’s a new offer link for existing Wells Fargo Way2Save savings account holders to get the  $525 bonus as well. It still requires a branch visit to attach the offer to your account. (ht Eric)
• Update 3/24/23: multiple readers heard from their banker that the $25k won’t stack with the $250k offer.