Wells Fargo Bonus Promotions: Nationwide $200 New Checking Account Bonus (January 2022)

Banks need accounts. You need more cash.

How about getting a $200 sign-up bonus to make a Wells Fargo Everyday Checking account your main bank account?

That’s right, Wells Fargo will give you money for opening an account. Open an account and within 90 days, receive a total of $1,000 or more in qualifying direct deposits into the new checking account within 90 days from account opening. It’s reported as interest, so you’ll owe taxes on it, but that’s a nice little bonus to switch banks.

This looks similar to other high dollar bank promotions. Check them out after reading through this article.

Definitely worth a look if you’re in a state where the offer qualifies (there are a few restrictions, listed below) but you can apply online so you’re not even required to change out of your jammies to visit a branch!

Read on to figure out how you sign up for the offer as well as how long it takes to see the bonus. I’ve also compiled other Wells Fargo bonuses and promotions you can take advantage of below the $200 bonus review.

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How to Earn the $200 Bonus?

Editor’s Note: As of January 1st, 2022, Wells Fargo is no longer offering this new account bonus. For other bank bonuses, check out our post on the best bank bonuses and promotions or click here to sign up for our email newsletter and get notified of new bank promotions. While there are no bank bonuses, there are a few credit card bonuses worth checking out!

This is what you need to do to earn the $200 Bonus:

1. Open an Everyday Checking account online or in a branch by 12/31/2021.
2. Make a minimum opening deposit of $25 to fund your account.
3. Next, receive a total of $1,000 or more in qualifying direct deposits into the new checking account within 90 days from account opening (the “qualification period”).

After the 90 day qualification period, you’ll see the $200 bonus deposited into your account within 30 days if you met all the offer requirements.

Click the green Learn More button below to find out more:

Learn more about the Wells Fargo offer

You cannot be an existing Wells Fargo consumer customer and you are limited to one bonus per customer per 12 months. You also cannot be an employee of Wells Fargo. If you don’t qualify for Everyday Checking but can get an Opportunity Checking account, this offer still applies.

Does Wells Fargo Really Give You $200?

Yes, Wells Fargo will give you $200 because they’re trying to get new customers and this welcome bonus is a nice little carrot. This is one of the simplest bonuses to get and you only need to open it with $25 and receive a total of $1,000 or more in qualifying direct deposits into the new checking account within 90 days from account opening.

They can afford to do this because it’s like any other kind of marketing. They can buy ads or they can simply offer a promotion and rely on word of mouth to get people’s attention. You found this $200 offer today not because of an ad, right? 🙂

How to Get an In-Branch Sign Up Coupon Code

If you want to open your account in a branch or simply don’t like opening bank accounts online, you can get a promotional code emailed to you.

Click the orange button above and on that next page, you want to click on Open In-Branch (I drew the green box to show you where it is. It won’t have a green box on the actual page and the page may look slightly and enter your name, email, and ZIP code to get a promotional code via email:

Once you click “Get My Code” you will be redirected to a page with your unique code, it looks like this:

You will also get an email with the subject “Your $200 bonus offer code is here” with the code in the body of the email. Then you just go to the nearest branch and open the account.

NOTE: You do NOT have to open the account in person. You can do it entirely online.

Learn more about the Wells Fargo offer

Who Is Eligible for this Bonus?

New checking customers are eligible and all consumer checking accounts are eligible. There does not appear to be a geographic restriction.

The following people are NOT eligible:

• Current consumer checking account customer (if you only have a business or mortgage account, it appears you are eligible)
• You have received a bonus for opening a Wells Fargo consumer checking account within the past 12 months
• Wells Fargo employees

How to Avoid Checking Account Fees?

The account has a $10 monthly service fee. You can avoid it quite easily.

To get the fee waived, you need to do only one of the following each “fee period” (statement period):

• $500 minimum daily balance
• $500 or more in total qualifying direct deposits
• Primary account owner is 17-24 years old. (When the primary account owner reaches the age of 25, age can no longer be used to avoid the monthly service fee.)
• Linked to a Wells Fargo Campus ATM or Campus Debit Card.

Check the full details when you click through to the promotional page.

Take Advantage of Account Perks

The account itself is pretty standard for a checking account.

They do promote three features that are quite rare:

• You can turn off your debit card in the event you lose it, so it’s not an outright closure unless you’re 100% sure you’ve lost it. If you are 100% sure, you need to report it stolen. If you’ve misplaced it (say at a bar or something) and you know where it is, you can disable it until you get it back.
• Access ATMs without your card by requesting a one-time access code via the app.
• Overdraft Rewind lets you avoid an overdraft fee if you overdraft your account but receive a direct deposit the following day that replaces the amount you overdrew by.

>> Related: Here’s how to find your Wells Fargo routing number

How Does This Offer Compare?

Wells Fargo has one of the better offers at this moment. $200 is simply much higher than any of the other banks and Wells Fargo has a huge geographic footprint so almost everyone qualifies for it.

Here are how a few other offers stack up:

Make sure to review this guide on bank account bonuses to ensure you know what to watch for when it comes to these types of offers.

Worth a look if you want to go full Wells Fargo or just need to up your cashback credit card game.

Frequently asked questions

Wells Fargo $200 Bonus

9

Product Rating

9.0/10

Strengths

• Very high dollar amount bonus ($400)
• Nationwide geographic footprint
• Easy bonus requirements

Weaknesses

• Direct deposit required (but low amount)