Sometime in late 2013 Wells Fargo quietly launched the following two new credit cards:
This started off as targeted offers and sometime in 2014 they opened applications. Despite them having a sign up bonus of 40,000 points (propel world) and 20,000 (propel 365) after $3,000 in spending within the first three months, I wasn’t that interested. I figured that Wells Fargo points would be basically worthless and thus a waste of time. PFdigest had a post asking why more bloggers weren’t blogging about this offers so I decided to delve a little deeper and found that these new cards and especially the propel world card are actually gold mines. Here is a quick snapshot of each card:
Contents
Wells Fargo Propel World American Express
- 40,000 points after $3,000 in spend within the first three months
- up to $100 in reimbursements for airline incidental charges (e.g food and beverage on a flight, baggage fees)
- 3x points on all airline purchases, 2x points on all hotel purchases
- No annual fee first year, then $175
Wells Fargo Propel 365 American Express
- 20,000 points after $3,000 in spend within the first three months
- 3X points at U.S Gas Stations, 2X points at U.S restaurants, 1X points on all other purchases
- No annual fee first year, then $45
Relationship Bonus
Both cards also come with a relationship bonus where you can get up to 50% extra base points if you have a qualifying checking or PMA account with Wells Fargo. You earn 10% if you have a checking or savings account with them, 25% if you have a PMA account with less than $250,000 in combined deposits and 50% if you have a PMA account with more than $250,000 in combined deposits.
The relationship bonus is pretty average because of the low interest rates that Wells Fargo offers. The most basic checking account is $7 monthly (waived if you receive a direct deposit of $500 or more or have a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more). The PMA account has a monthly fee of $30 which is waived if you have combined totals of $25,000 or more. I don’t really value the relationship bonus, at most I’d take advantage of the 10% extra when I was completing a Wells Fargo checking account bonus, but that will just mean an extra 0.1 points on all purchases.
[Read: Wells Fargo currently has a $100 checking account bonus on offer]
How Much Are Wells Fargo Points Actually Worth?
Wells Fargo points are worth an absolute minimum of 1¢, this is because you can redeem them for cash at that rate. Either in the form of a statement credit on your credit card or a check (you can also redeem them to selected Wells Fargo products like mortgage, checking or savings accounts.
It’s also possible to redeem them at the 1¢ for gift cards for major retailers like Amazon.
Things get a bit more interesting when redeeming them for travel, they are supposed to be worth 1¢ each when you do this as well, but multiple people have reported (1, 2) being able to get closer to 1.5¢ when redeeming them for airline tickets. It’s important to note that you pay a $24 fee for every ticket that is booked so you’d need to be booking tickets worth $48 for this fee to be worthwhiled.
People have reported that the flights are sometimes a bit more expensive than what you can find from other travel portals, but this was usually a minimal difference and easily made up form the extra 50% in value you’d get.
If you can get 1.5 cent per point in value, that means that the Propel World card has a sign up bonus of $600 (+$100 for airline incidental charges) and the Propel 365 has a sign up bonus of $300. Even if you just redeem your points for cash you’ll be getting $200 in value for the Propel 365 & $400 with Propel World.
Our Verdict
Neither of these cards are great for every day spend and probably aren’t worth the annual fees, but the sign up bonuses are great because they can so easily be converted to cash. I’m going to sign up for the Propel World card immediately to get a $400 cash sign up bonus (possibly even use it for some flights if I don’t have the miles needed for specific flights) and $100 airline incidental. I’ve added this card to “how I make money in 2014” and added both of these cards to the master list of credit card sign up bonuses.
I’ll probably cancel it before the second year fee hits, but that depends on what type of retention bonus they’ll offer me (if any) or if they are willing to waive the annual fee.
Update: I applied for this card and was initially put as pending. I called the Wells Fargo reconsideration line on 1-866-412-5956 and was told I needed to fax them my two most recent pay stubs. After that my application was approved.
What do you think of these cards? Will you be signing up for either of them? Why/why not?
Hat tip to PFdigest
View Comments (2)
hi. how do you redeem the rewards please?
https://mywellsfargorewards.com/ log in there and then select the rewards you want.