Wells Fargo To Lower Fee-Waiver Balance Requirement To $500; Removes Debit Card Waiver Option

Wells Fargo personal checking accounts come with a $10 monthly fee unless one of a few conditions are met. Previously the minimum daily balance requirement to get the fee waived was $1,500, but beginning October 8th that’s being lowered to $500.

They are also removing the option to have the fee waived with 10 monthly debit transactions, beginning October 8th.

The other 3 options remain the same: $500 in monthly direct deposits, customers age 17 – 24, and having a linked Wells Fargo Campus ATM or Campus Debit Card.

A lot of people bank with Wells or have an account open to enable them to apply for certain Wells cards which require a checking account open for a year before applying. Some will enjoy the new, easier $500 deposit requirement, especially given the low interest rates going around these days. But others might miss the debit card option.

You can view these changes here. Image:

Hat tip to SaveMoreWorkLess
    Chuck
  • On September 8, 2020, 15:04
Tags: wells fargo

View Comments (44)

  • Note that this is effective for statement dates on or after November 9, 2020. For example, if your statement date is 11/4/20, you will be charged a monthly fee on that statement if you drop your balance below $1,500 before 11/4/20, because your fee period began 10/5/20. The changes are "effective with the FEE PERIOD BEGINNING after October 8, 2020" (emphasis added). The fee period is the month leading up to your statement date.

    I have a feeling a lot of people are going to screw this up.

    • HSBC has been counting as monthly DD for me on a personal acct for about a year (check box on statement). However, I also meet the daily min balance so not sure if that affects anything.

      • HSBC Real-time Transfer (via the app) does not count. Normal ACH should, I'll find out this month ...

  • This indeed is a welcome change. We had ticketed our long held family account for closure, and this change will cause pause there.

    Am wondering though about the business checking accounts..... much, much higher minimum balances to keep free checking ($7500 or so) and/or the onerous 10 debit card transactions (actually positing before last business day of month.... a frequent source of irritation esp. amid the pandemic)

    I checked with one on-line WF representative, and she kindly alerted me that changes will go into effect for business accounts too as of Oct. 8th...... but as yet I don't see just what the changes will be. (the link she provided to such accounts, "addenda" makes no sense)

    Anybody have the scoop yet on W/F business accounts ?

    • I've heard others mention that changes are coming to business checking too, but I don't know if it's been sent out publicly or where to find it.

      • I received a notice on my last business statement of the previously mentioned $500/$1000 balance change.

      • This document from FL does describe the forthcoming changes to reduce the balance to $500
        https://www.wellsfargo.com/assets/pdf/small-business/ADD-FL-EN.pdf

        NOTE: the document you posted also has the language. Just search for 500 in the document itself and it will take you to that section.

        Effective with the fee period beginning after October 8, 2020, the options to avoid the $14 monthly service fee with 10 or more posted debit card transactions, when linked to a Direct Pay [2] service through Wells Fargo Business Online®, with a qualifying transaction from a linked Wells Fargo Merchant Services account [3] , or with $10,000 in combined balances will no longer be available,
        and the average ledger balance option will be lowered to $1,000.

        Once these changes are effective, the monthly service fee can be avoided with one of the following options each fee period [1] :

        • $500 minimum daily balance
        • $1,000 average ledger balance

        For fee periods ending on or after November 9, 2020, if you do not meet one of the revised options above each fee period, the monthly
        service fee will be charged.
        [1] We will waive the monthly service fee for each fee period ending within the first 64 days of opening the account to allow you to meet the
        requirements to avoid the monthly service fee.
        [2] The Direct Pay service through Wells Fargo Business Online® can be linked to one Business Choice Checking account to qualify for a monthly
        service fee waiver.
        [3] A qualifying transaction from a linked Wells Fargo Merchant Services account is a payment card transaction (e.g., Visa®, MasterCard® or
        Discover® Network) from a Wells Fargo Merchant Services product that is deposited to a linked Business Choice Checking account at least
        once during the fee period.

  • In my experience, if you open a checking account at Wells they will open several credit cards for you with even requiring an application.

    • i read that they proactively applied covid forbearances to mortgage customer accounts, which lead to legal issues for some customers who were going through bankruptcy court. wf seems to have it backwards. they appear to provide service when the customer doesn't ask for it, and in my case, when you ask for a callback about a mortgage preapproval, you never hear back.

  • i normally just do a dd from a bank each month and pull the money out. they're sort of my hub bank. the good thing about them is that for their bonuses, i've noticed that they're primarily concerned w the date that you recvd the bonus and not so much when you closed your acct. smart move on their part.

  • Direct deposit minimum of $500 remains the same. It my experience they are somewhat strict about what counts as a DD.

    It’s the minimum daily balance being reduced from $1500 to $500. Eliminating the minimum 10 debit card transactions for the fee waiver doesn’t seem very pro-customer especially during the current economic slowdown. But classic Wells Fargo.

    • They have a rule that you can only get one bonus every 15 months, but if you have two people, you can each get a bonus and pool points. Visa Signature gets you 5X on supermarket, drug store, and gas station spend for 6 months, so you can get 62,500 points. Points are worth 1.5 cents when you buy flights through their portal (similar to CSR). Propel has a 20,000 SUB (used to be 30K) on $1000, with some 3X categories. Even if you only do 1X purchases, you can get 21,000 points. Move points to P2's Visa Signature and you'll have 83,500 points good for over $1200 in air travel. After 15 months, switch and do it again. Both cards have no annual fee.

    • Propel is pretty solid for a no-fee card.

      (If you're in the game and have some combination of CSR, Platinum, Altitude, Hilton Aspire, etc., it's only good for it's $200 signup.)

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