About Ken Tumin

Ken Tumin founded the Bank Deals Blog in 2005 and has been passionately covering the best deposit deals ever since. He is frequently referenced by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications as a top expert, but he is first and foremost a fellow deal seeker and member of the wonderful community of savers that frequents DepositAccounts.


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History of Wells Fargo Bonus Payouts

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Wells Fargo has a long history of offering checking account bonuses. Have you participated in a past Wells Fargo checking promotion? If you have, did they pay the the bonus as promised? Please take my poll to answer this question.

Since Wells Fargo continues to come out with new promotions, I decided it would be useful to have a poll for readers who have participated in past Wells Fargo promotions. It asks if the bank has paid the bonus as promised. If they did pay, did you have to call or visit a branch to get the bank to pay? If they didn’t pay, was it the bank’s fault for not paying (You think you should have been paid since you met all of the bonus requirements.)

The results of this poll should help readers decide if current and future Wells Fargo checking promotions are worthwhile. If many people report not receiving the bonus, you might not want to waste your time on the promotion. It’s common for readers to leave comments when the banks didn’t pay, but it’s less likely for those who did receive the bonus to comment. Hopefully, the poll will encourage both sides to respond.

The new Wells Fargo checking account promotions do have requirements like debit card purchases. If the customer fails to meet these requirements within 60 days of when the account was opened, no bonus will paid. Some past promotions had very little requirements, and there were still reports of customers not receiving a bonus. One DA reader described his problems in a comment. Here’s an excerpt:

I tried this $50 bonus deal. After 4 months of no bonus (accruing ridiculous service fees), several phone calls to the specific customer service rep who created my account, and additional calls to the "Exec Office" I was never given the $50 bonus. They claimed I had exceeded the 45 day window to notify them if I didn't get the bonus. The fact that I had called 6 times (most assuredly at least once within that window) didn't seem to matter.

Even if you receive the bonus at Wells Fargo, you may not come out ahead in the long run. You have to be careful that you avoid monthly service fees.

Bank Bonuses

To view polls of other banks’ reputations with honoring bonuses, please refer to this list of bank promotion polls. These include banks like Chase and Bank of the West.

You can view my latest bank bonus blog posts in this bank bonus page. I and DepositAccounts.com readers often post on bonuses in the bank deals forum.

Related Pages: Wells Fargo Bank, checking account

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Comments
Anonymous
  |     |   Comment #1
I tried to open up a Wells Fargo Checking Package using Promo Code CK100 to eventually receive $100 using Promo Code CK100 last month using a link that didn't work.  A Wells Fargo CSR basically told me at the time that you had to be targeted.  The link I used appeared to be open for anyone because it took my zip code.
CC in CA
  |     |   Comment #2
I opened a WF checking account about 5 years ago when I got a mailing offering me $50 to open the account. BEWARE, though, that it is not easy to avoid a monthly fee for checking at WF.  I was only able to avoid the fee because I asked for "college checking" since I was enrolled in classes at a local college.

About 2 years later, I noticed on one of my online (paperless) statements--in fine print--that a monthly fee was about to be charged starting the next month.  In order to avoid the fee, I needed to confirm that I was still attending college.

To sum things up, I decided to dump the WF account since I was a little gun-shy over the small print fee disclosure that I almost missed.  I will NOT pay a fee for checking when several credit unions around here offer FREE checking.

Then, to top things off, I was always getting phone calls and emails from WF offering me "deals" and "special offers" for things I didn't want or need.  It was annoying.  But, one email asked me to complete one or more online bill payments for a credit of $10.  I figured, "sure, I'll do that."  After 90 days, I still never received the credit for having done the bill pays, and that was the last straw.  I called WF and they said they had no record of the bill payment offer, but I had a print out of the email offer and the URL was legit, so I figured WF was not meeting their end of the bargain.

So, I dumped WF.  Too many fees for EVERYTHING and you have to keep both eyes open ALWAYS to make sure they don't hit you with some hidden fee.  NO THANK YOU, WELLS FARGO.  Done with you forever!
Anonymous
  |     |   Comment #3
I was in the process of opening up one of Wells Fargo's checking accounts to receive a $100 bonus but apparently you have to be targeted.  I told a CSR to cancel out everything, but they continue to send me paperwork which I continue to trash.  They don't seem to understand the definition of the word "NO".
Anonymous
  |     |   Comment #4
Some time ago I went into a branch to open account with bonus and was accepted. The bonus never came. Branch manager subsequently told me would have had to deposit $25,000.00 (!) to get the bonus, when the published opening was for $500 which I brought with me initially. Had to bring in Regional Office to get it .And mention I knew their regulator, the Comptroller of the Currency, from my time in Washington writing banking law (true.) This is a bank for those with the IQ of hamsters.
VCS
  |     |   Comment #6
I opened an account the middle of May for a $200 bonus. All their requirements were met by November 3. No bonus ever appeared. I called and called and received one excuse after another. Today (November 23) I worked my way up to a supervisor. They've completed a form but cannot tell me when the $200 will be deposited. They think it will be within 2 weeks. If it's not, I'll close the account. This has been a totally, unnecessarily frustrating process.
luvcd
  |     |   Comment #7
Surprise, surprise! "If it's not (received), I'll close the account" Even if received why would you potentially go through this again...the logic is?

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