I’m surprised at the lack of publicity for the new Wells Fargo cards. They’re not amazing, but they’re at least worth a mention. And one of them in particular, the Propel World American Express, has a very good sign-up bonus. Consider:
- It’s 40,000 points. And these are legitimate points, not the ersatz KeyBank or PNC type of points.
- A $3,000 minimum spend. Given the trend toward increased spending requirements, that’s not too bad.
Let’s take a moment here to point out the Barclaycard Arrival offers 40,000 points with a $3,000 spend and many bloggers have spilled much ink over it. But wait, there’s more!
- You get $100 in incidental airline expenses reimbursed.
In your face, Arrival! (Though of course this card does not earn 2%, alas.) But wait, there might actually be more to this story. Some folks on Flyertalk pointed out that you may be able to get more than 1 cent per point of value on Wells Fargo redemptions. Ibleed0range wrote:
I just looked up a flight that I’ve been watching. It is currently at $221. Wells Fargo has it for 14,734 points + $24 processing fee.
$221/14,734= 1.5 cpp
($221-24)/14,734= 1.33 cpp.
…and then followed up with this:
I tested another flight, priced out at 1.5 cpp but the cost was $4.50 higher than pricline. Looks like it tops out at 1.5 cpp X 43000= $645-24(per ticket)= $621 for a single ticket.
…though moderator mia pointed out the Wells T&Cs contradict this:
15. For airline ticket redemptions, the number of Points required to be redeemed is equivalent to the ticket costs divided by .01, rounded up to the nearest whole Point.
So I’m not really sure what’s going on and frankly it wouldn’t surprise me if Wells didn’t know either. Worst case you’ve got a $500 bonus, best case you’re around $700. Interested yet?
One reason that people who ought to be talking about this card aren’t is that they’re talking about other cards that give them referral bonuses. I have a just a few worthwhile referral links, so if you’re applying for any of the cards below, please keep me in mind. In case you think I’m getting rich off this stuff, here’s my blog income statement from last month:
Google Adsense Income: $117.19
Credit Card Referral Income: $0
So…. yeah, not quitting my day job. I also got a few credits to my Republic Wireless statement (thanks to anybody who signed up using my link!). When you sign up for credit cards, try to be cognizant of whose referral link you’re using, if anybody’s. Try to reward your favorite bloggers, whether that’s me or anybody else. Or if you don’t like any of us, find a non-affiliate link and use that.
With that said, here a few good cards I have referral links for:
- Barclaycard Arrival: 40,000 points, 2X points per dollar spent, annual fee waived the first year. A good workhorse card.
- Upromise Card: This won’t be a good card for most people, but I’m including it because you can get 10% cash back on online purchases at Staples. Remember what’s on sale at Staples right now? You get 5% back on the card and 5% back from Upromise. Other people have had bad experiences with Upromise, but I’ve had no problems in my (limited) experience thus far aside from cashback taking a while to post.
- US Airways Premier World MasterCard: 40,000-miles sign-up bonus. Note that there is another offer for 30,000 miles + 10,000 miles a year from now with no annual fee. My link has an annual fee. I personally think the 30K + 10K is better, but there’s my link in case you feel differently. Read Freequent Flyer for more on that debate.
- Premier Miles and More World MasterCard: 50,000-mile sign-up bonus. Note that these can be used for domestic flights on United.
Thank you all!
When it was first posted about (yesterday I think) I put it on my list of cards to review, I figured the points were crappy and weren’t worth at least 1c. Thanks for kicking me into gear, I’ve put this on the top of my to do list. I’m also surprised that your blog income is so low, I’m a massive fan of your site (and all of saverocity) and thought you’d be doing a lot better financially.
Send me your e-mail address and I’ll give you a little tip as my way of saying thank you!
Thanks for killing the deal!
Thanks for the tip Nick. I am adding it to my list of great credit cards and also my personal list to apply for my next app-o-Rama.
It was Flyertalk’s fault.
I have never heard of Propel card. This is a very good offer, no doubt. On an unrelated note, your Adsense income is great! I actually had 1 card approval and some video ads income from March, and combined total is less than what you made! Yeah, people who are just starting in miles and points blogging, thinking they will get rich, are kidding themselves.
Used your link to sign up for Republic. Really like the blog
Thank you! Much appreciated.
+1
I was wondering… can you transfer Lufthansa miles to your United account? thanks, Lee
No, you have to book the flights via Miles and More. Here’s a MMS series from last year on that topic:
http://millionmilesecrets.com/2013/05/22/use-lufthansa-miles/
I should’ve listened when several people told me Wells Fargo was a dishonest institution. After they stole $280 from me, I got the message. Tread carefully in WF shark infested waters. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Nice mention for you in VFTW when Gary admits he learned about the card from you!!
http://boardingarea.com/viewfromthewing/2014/05/03/bits-n-pieces-may-3-2014/
Gary’s a good guy.
We are all forgetting something here… this card is by Wells Fargo. I don’t trust Wells Fargo as far as I can throw them! They charge insane fees, and they’re always looking on ways to rip off their customers. Living in MN where Wells Fargo has a dominant presence, many residents in this state do NOT trust Wells Fargo.
I understand where you’re coming from… BUT keep in mind the goal is to have a relationship where Wells gives more money to you than you give to them. That’s not too hard if you know the basics of credit cards. I don’t get mad at banks, I get their money.
Are we talking 40k MR points or are these Wells Fargo “points”?
Thnx for a gr8 post!
Wells Fargo could never offer me enough to get any of their products. When my father was in hospice someone there opened an account in his name that never had any money deposited in it. Nevertheless, they charged monthly fees to this account even after he passed away. Then they offset these fee amounts against my account because he had put my name on his real account, the only account that EVER had any funds in it, to pay his bills for him. After I thought I had it cleared up, they started in all over again months after his death and threatened to “ding” my credit report. This whole time they kept refusing to talk to me because only his name was on this phony account that some dishonest employee probably opened surreptitiously to get a commission or bonus.
Nevertheless, the stock has done very well. How can this be?
WF points, but should be worth $.01 each
So Claire knows it too. Read the BOLD print folks..WELLS FARGO IS A DISHONEST (SCAM) BANK!
I suspect that most bloggers weren’t interested in this card simply because they didn’t know about it. At least, that was true in my case. Thanks for letting us know.
I wasn’t trying to single out any blogger or group of bloggers for criticism, it was more befuddlement on my part as to why nobody was talking about it. I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with either me or with the sign-up bonus that nobody had mentioned it.
I guess I shouldn’t assume *everybody* reads my every blog post the second they go live…
Definitely a new card to me as well. I’ve seen several WF advertisements for their Visa’s but not a single advertisement from them about their Amex card. In fact on their main page for WF cc’s they show the visa’s and dont even list the 40k points as an asset of the Amex card, until you click through. Its almost as if its a side note (yea, just 40k points, whatever, but 3X at Airlines!!!) https://www.wellsfargo.com/credit-cards/
Thanks for pointing it out. It’s going on the ‘sign-up-for’ list.
Back to the Future: Turns out you were right. WF just fired 5k employees for doing that.