Just wondering if anyone had/has the similar experience with WF's Fraud Prevention. As expected, I had quite a few declined transactions in my first month. But I only received about one automatic Fraud Prevention call out of three declines. So for the other ones I had to call in to verify the transactions, which is definitely not good as it invites eyes on my activities.

Am I supposed to receive the automatic "verifying transaction" call for every declined (suspicious) purchase? Thanks!

It's unpredictable and disorganized. I never get a callback after declined transactions and have to manually callin, while I would often get a call 5-10min after a GC purchase that went through.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I wonder if they changed their procedure recently because a friend of mine just got done with this card and he received automatic Fraud calls after every declined transaction.

Dumb question - If Serve / external account payments do free up your credit limit to the extent that you can actually spend that money, even if doesn't show up in "Available Revolving Line of Credit," what's the big deal? Does it matter for statement closing time?

I haven't attempted to spend on my line unless the CL shows that amount as available. Transactions may go through fine without any hitch or the system may get flagged and a human gets notified. Sure I could complain about them holding my CL but that would be stupid, at least in my opinion. I wrote a post earlier about Serve and my large payment. The CL was initially raised on the day of payment, then the CL was reduced the next day (as if no payment occured). Mind you the payment was still accepted, they didn't reverse it. Two days later the CL was raised again. If I have to wait a few days to see the correct CL in the available line, I'll do it. No need for prying eyes. Let sleeping dogs lie.

I think I'll apply for this card on 3/5/15. I've already maxed my scarlet birdies for February, and since it's 6 months from account opening, that should give me time to get the September load too, assuming the birdie lives that long.

Just an update: My statement posted while a Serve payment was "tied up." Statement balance acted as if payment was accepted and it was listed on the list of payments on the statement.

Now that I'm only getting ~1.3% cash back. This card is a breeze to use. I just call ahead before making purchases.

Last month of the promotion was a pain in the a** for me. Glad I don't have to go through that again. One time, I was on the phone with Fraud Dept. rep and she blurted out something to the effect of 'people are going crazy doing cashback promo'. I just smiled and didn't say a word.

Amex is by far the best card when it comes to making large purchases. I do call ahead time to time, but never had issue... Except for the last day of OBC.

Similar experience. A large ACH payment from another bank posted but only $500 of my CL was released. It's as if they're on to us. ;)

I can also confirm a similar experience. I paid $5K from Bluebird, and it posted on 2/14. I think I may have gotten $500 bump in CL, but that is it. I plan on letting this dog sleep until it corrects. I was done MS this month anyway.....

I also suggest something is added to the wiki about this outside payment issue.

application info
 

So, here's some info on my situation if anyone is interested:

1. opened a WF checking account in Nov. no prior relationship with WF.
2. applied a few weeks ago using a 2BM for the Propel and this 5% card.
3. I applied for the Propel about 10 seconds ahead of the 5%, and know it was processed first because the application # (I didn't get instant approval for either) was slightly less.
4. after a few days, was approved for both on same day automatically ($15k CL on the Propel; $5k on the 5%).
5. could see both cards online but only the bonus on the Propel.
6. got card today, and called the rewards desk. they confirmed that i did NOT have the 5x "because you have another WF card", but proceeded to confirm the bonus on the other card with no prompting.
7. i only got one HP total from WF for both card applications.

I'm not too disappointed since I wanted the Propel more (do enough of the "easy" MS on Citi cards, and the PITA factor), but b/c of only 1 HP, didn't lose anything with the 5% application. I thought there would be a great chance WF would not "see" the 5%

The one thing I wonder about for those of you trying for a second that might be relevant, is I'm wondering if the fact that both cards were automatically linked with their rewards program was what triggered the exclusion of the 5% bonus. So, those trying for a second may want to try to "delete" yourselves from their reward program while your old card is active or even afterwards. I don't know HOW you'd do this, but maybe the system seeing any other card in your rewards profile is how it knows the 5% isn't your "first" WF card.

I am now a week out from a $5K Bluebird payment posting and still the credit line is tied up. Just how long doses this take? Granted, I plan on waiting another week to hammer the 5X again.....

Changes to the rewards program
 

Received a brochure today in mail "Changes to the rewards program"

relevant sentence to us is 'Some rewards currency may be taxable income. We will report the value of the rewards currency as income to IRS'

10 Business Days. I learned the hard way too, and don't use BB to pay this card.

Actually not relevant at the moment on a CC. But there could be other account types contributing to the rewards account, tax rules can change, and lawyers put this stuff in to cover their butts.

I got this card in late December and got the "change in terms" brochure this week. Seemed strange since it was the same one people previously talked about. Even has the changes taking effect Jan 15th.

The 877-575-0462 phone # for fraud in the wiki is no longer in service. I don't think I have enough posts to fix it.

Looks like they may be taking the new clauses in the T&C about not rewarding points on GC purchases seriously -- my card is still open but all my existing rewards are frozen (less than 1000) and all pending rewards are still pending despite statement closing in the past few days (redeemable date is about a month out).

Also, I say that my card is still open but despite not having a balance, no available credit was freed up after my last payment. So I'm effectively shut down without having the card closed. In the past they would have just shut down the account immediately -- this is a different tactic.

Edit: Nevermind, looks like I am closed down. They did it only a day before statement close -- that's scummy of them.

Questions:
1. How many months did you have the card before being shut down?

2. When was the last time you spoke to a human over the phone regarding your account, whether fraud alert or inquiring about something else - or had anyone contacted you, left a message, etc?

Me, I've had had the card for 5 months, doing a little over 20k/mo. So far ok but yours is the first word of a shutdown I can remember reading.

I'm planning to apply in the next week or so, and that's the level I plan to do, split between GCs and Target Grocery. I suppose even if I get one month in before shutdown, it's still worth a credit pull, but I'm just trying to put together my plan.

Would you mind to share a little more info such as your CL and how many payments you make during a month? Based on your rewards balance, so you are doing less than 20k/month?

If you don't feel comfortable to give out those here, feel free to PM. Thanks!

My statement just posted, my fifth month. I got all of the 5x rewards and have transferred them out. Have been doing 8- 10k a month (less than my credit limit), all in grocery & drug stores. Making payments from BB/Serve and remaining payment by writing a check at the branch.

Hello – I am able to load Serve with the cards I buy and that’s great. Buy paying off from Serve takes 4-8 days to clear and my CL gets tied up during that time. I have a decent balance sitting in my WF checking and typically pay it off so the CL clears but now I am stuck w/all these funds in Serve with no payments to make. Sure, I can pay off my regular credit card bills but they are nowhere close to the amount I MS.

How do you guys handle payments to WF? Just trying to see if someone has a better idea than what I am doing.

Transfer the money from serve to your bank account.

yep, just learned about the bank transfer a week ago. The two bank withdrawals I setup got declined for some reason. No error msg, no email, just declined. Will need to call Serve and find out what's going on. Is the limit for withdrawals the same as ATM Withdrawals, ie. $2000/month? Another way I can think of is to transfer funds from my Serve to a friend's Bluebird acc and then write a check to myself.

WF
 

Folks here make everything more complicated then it has to be. I laugh at all the BS in how to pay back card! I finished my 6 months about 4 months ago. No WF CA. Took 1500 in MO to any branch 2x per week (CT and NYC). Handed teller CC and MO's. Stated I want to pay this card. 2 minutes later walked out with payment receipt. Did this for 5 months. Payments posted within 48 hours. Done. But only did 3 MO at a time per week for 3K payment. Doing more will probably set off alarms.

IIRC, WF is pretty strict about the names on the account matching before they'll let you push money in. My paypal business account with lastname consulting would bounce, but personal account would not. I've only tried serve withdrawals with my name and they've all gone through - and it's definitely well above $2K a month limit.

I laugh at the dubious gall of someone bragging about how easy it was to do a pitiful $3K per week. 26 weeks and all you did was ~$78K? Many are/were doing that monthly...

I agree with this. The difficulties occur when you are doing the larger amounts, involving BB or Serve, etc + MO. I'm guessing he was not recycling his line. Of course there is no problem with that, that's easy! When you recycle your line, you have to coordinate payments, try to minimize how many payments, etc. However the rewards are much greater than playing it safe at $3k/mo. Greater rewards take greater efforts and there is greater risk. For me I am able to recycle 3x, have a 10k limit.


Also don't know why he wasn't just using BB or Serve. Why do MO? I do those after I have maxed out my Serve and Go Bank, so after about $8k, I would go get MO.

Most people cannot find places that so kindly sell MO for gift cards anymore. I know of only one place in my area.

WF
 

well I did state I paid 3k/weekly in MO, in person, but I also used BP from Citi and Astoria. The 3k weekly just freed up the CL a bit faster. The BP from other banks took about 6 business days to be credited and another 2-3 days for CL to go back up. Also was doing this across 2 cards... wife. And back about 8 months ago, only had 1 FA at the beginning on each card.

So I applied for the Visa Signature for the 5x rewards at 1.5 cents a point.

But they gave me the Visa Platinum, and I have already racked up $1,000 in rewards. At this pace, I will probably have $6,000 by the time the program is done.

The question — if I apply for the Visa Signature at that time and am approved, will I able to redeem the already-accrued Wells Fargo Rewards for travel at 1.5 cents each? The way I see it, the extra $3,000 in value is worth another hard pull. (Though I'm very annoyed at what's happened so far. I had no clue Platinum was worse than Visa Signature.)

Or weekly...

As an update, I got my closure letter in the mail and they state the reason for closure was because I had gone over my credit limit a couple of times. How their system allows me to do that is beyond me, but that's what happened.

Did you go over your credit limit in the sense that you paid down the bill and then charged more? It may not be that you literally went past the dollar amount. It may be that the total is over the CL. If that makes sense.

Was your card a Platinum or Signature?

Wells Fargo 5X rewards cap
 

I know general wisdom says not to overpay your balance; in other words, do not send a payment until charges post. I believe many people have gotten shut down by doing this.

When I send a payment from my Wells Fargo checking account, the payment shows as pending immediately; it takes about a business day to post, but my available credit increases immediately by the payment amount. Is it risky to charge to the CC while the payment is pending?

May be. Never done it. I've paid throught the WF Checking as well. For me the CL increase is immediate, and I mean immediate not even a business day. That being said, I do it on-line and have also done it via the app. I just use the transfer option, I believe, and the CL immediately jumps back up. That might not work fast if you go in to the branch however, but if pending for one day, will waiting one day really hurt your bottom line?

I've also paid off the CL other ways and none of them are as fast. After paying off the balance 5x in one stmt period, like another poster stated earlier, WF accepted payment of course but never raised the CL until a couple days before the statement closed, took about 2.5 weeks. I did not call. Although I know some of you out there would probably do that and invite scrutiny. Since I've gotten almost $4k in free cash back over 5 months I didn't think complaining was appropriate.

Or daily. Lightweights.

When using the transfer option, can you do it before purchase transactions post to your account? Like if you have $2k in pending payments can you transfer at any time from your checking to your WF cc and the CL will go back up?

(you can pay the amount that already posted), Do NOT pay the part of transactions still pending , that's an "over payment"
if transfer/payment still in pending, that part of credit line you can NOT use, that's an "over credit limit" if you do.
those two reasons are getting people shutdown.