mailer from WF pertaining to our existing card

Anonymous · ‎08-26-2017

So we've had a WF card for years that the cash back goes toward our mortgage balance. It was stuck at $1000 CL for YEARS. I recently requested a CLI, was declined, then out of the blue, got an increase to $1800 about 3 weeks later. We rarely even use this card, which leads to the mailed piece I got yesterday...use the card 25x before the end of the year, get a $25 bonus.

I'm not particularly enthused about this offer...$1 a swipe, if I use it 25 times in 4 months? I'm taking it as s subtle hint from WF that they'd like to see some spend on the card.

HeavenOhio · ‎08-26-2017

I think it's a pretty solid bonus, especially when you consider that you don't have to spend much to earn it. As a comparison, you'd have to spend $1,667 on a 1.5% rewards card to earn $25.

Anonymous · ‎08-26-2017

Each purchase needs to be a minimum of 1 cent, net of returns, so in theory I could really game the system and make a whole series of tiny purchases, but I couldn't do that with a straight face. My integrity is worth more to me than a bonus from WF.

Anonymous · ‎08-26-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Each purchase needs to be a minimum of 1 cent, net of returns, so in theory I could really game the system and make a whole series of tiny purchases, but I couldn't do that with a straight face. My integrity is worth more to me than a bonus from WF.

You have a very weird sense of what integrity is.

If doing 25 tiny purchases was "unethtical" or something they didnt want you to do, they would have a larger minimum purchase. There is literally nothing wrong with making 25 $0.05 purchases to take advantage of this offer.

They want you to get more use to using their card in the hopes that you will continue to after the 25 purchases. They know it doesnt work with every person. This is literally calculated on their side, and determined that the offer is long term beneficial to them.

Not taking advantage of a free $25 by following the rules because you think the rules are too easy is not called "integrity", its called "stupidity"

Appleman · ‎08-26-2017

I would recommend you take WF up on the offer. I applaud your Integrity but given the criminal action (accounts and insurance without consumer permission) of WF there is no need to avoid taking advantage of this offer.

If you have an Amazon account you can use the credit card to load $5 at a time (for that matter $1). WF is certainly hoping you will do normal shoping on the card and you can if you like. A 2% card like Blispay would require $1,250 in spend to earn the $25, you have the opportunity to do it for much less.

Good luck!

Anonymous · ‎08-29-2017

OK, you sold me.

I hit my AMEX BCE threshold to get my statement credit, so I parked that for a little while and I'm going to use the WF Home Rebate to get those 25 swipes. Spent $3.19 at McD's this morning, for instance.

I'm a little nervous about WF, given all the well-deserved bad press they've gotten, but aside from being tight with CLIs I haven't had any issues with them.

Anonymous · ‎08-29-2017

Everyone goes to Amazon and just charges $0.01 25 times to top off their credit balance on the site.

My WF checking account requires 10 charges a month to prevent a $15 fee so I just hit Amazon 10 times for $0.10 ($1 total) after the statement cuts so I don't have a fee next month. Useless, stupid requirement. I only keep the account for emergencies because they have "no card" ATM access in case I lose my wallet. I can tell the local ATM that I am coming (from my phone) and withdraw $500 in emergency cash. I probably should just give them $1500 in checking to waive the fee but they offer no interest on that and I get $11 or something from other banks for the $1000 difference (annually).

HeavenOhio · ‎08-29-2017

I don't think you have to go out of your way to do this. Figure that if you spend $500, you're still getting a 5% reward. You're likely to pull this off by spending much less than that. $3.19 at McDonald's is a good start. Last week, I charged 70 cents to plug a parking meter. You can use it for coffee at Starbuck's. Or your $10 trip to the grocery store. If you want to splurge, you can use it when you buy half a tank of gas.

Anonymous · ‎09-11-2017

Well, I went ahead and did it...got an email Saturday that we hit the threshold and a $25 check was being cut.

Today I got an email about a 2.9% 12 month BT...obviously not going to do that one, but I'll be curious to see if WF keeps courting our business and throwing offers at us.

MrDisco99 · ‎09-11-2017

For stuff like this, I like to make a run to Target and then use the self checkout to charge each item as a separate purchase. Takes a while, but gets the job done.

This is my plan for whenever I'm short of the 30 monthly purchases I need on my Amex EDP.