Wells Fargo is now offering 5% cash back on gas, grocery, and drugstore purchases for the first six months. No earnings caps–the T&Cs state “unlimited cash rewards.”
I’ll note this warning from the Fatwallet thread where I found out about the offer:
Wells froze my account for spending more than my credit limit in a month by paying off my bill when the charge hit and then spending some more. The very friendly and knowledgeable CSR said it was frozen because thats not how you are supposed to use a credit card.
And so it begins… Anybody getting a new credit card today?
The fine print in the T&C says indicates a 120K cap:
https://www.wellsfargo.com/credit-cards/rewards/terms/
“Annual Point Cap Maximums: Cardholders may earn a maximum of 120,000 points per calendar year.”
So basically you’re going to burn an inquiry, get no sign up bonus, and get $1200 (if they don’t shut you down) for $24K of spend.
That’s on the points version, the T&C on the cash version says unlimited.
Ah, that does make it more compelling. Then again their bolded terms reserve the right to unilaterally change the terms and forfeit points.
Banks change terms in their favor? That’s unpossible! 🙂
Comment from “Carl” over on FrequentMiler’s Quick Deals talks about being declined for the card because of “not having a relationship with Wells Fargo”, anyone else have a data point for this? I currently have no WF cards myself and don’t want to waste an inquiry.
Wells Fargo points are worth less than a penny per point. It takes 650 points to redeem for $5. So it’s not really 5% earning. It’s five times really poorly valued points. It’s still over 3.5% earning tho…
Wells Fargo is making a big push into credit cards, but only toward its existing customers. In an interview, CEO John Stumpf says that while they are getting more aggressive, “that doesn’t mean we want to create a monoline, one-product credit card business.” So if you’re not a checking or loan customer, good luck getting approved.
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/07/12/wells-fargo-eyes-a-credit-card-push/