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When discussing top-value rewards programs, Wells Fargo Go Far Rewards is typically not the first program that comes to mind. However, if you love the convenience of booking airfare without hunting down award space, enjoy paying low or no annual fees, and crave the simplicity of a basic two- or three-card rewards strategy, Wells Fargo can offer a ton a value.
Similar to the fixed-value points' strategies offered by Chase and Citi, Wells Fargo provides a varied lineup of credit cards, each featuring different bonus categories and perks. The cards also feature different redemption values. Moreover, while there is currently no way of transferring Go Far Rewards points into airline miles, if you put together the right combination of cards, it’s possible to achieve returns of 2.25% on everyday non-bonus spending, and as high as 7.5% return on spending in bonus categories when redeeming points for airfare. That’s without paying a single annual fee!
Earn and Redeem Wells Fargo Go Far Rewards for Max Value
For a cost-effective but powerful rewards card combo, we recommend a two- or three-card strategy consisting of the Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa® card and/or the Wells Fargo Propel American Express® card, combined with the Wells Fargo Visa Signature® Card. Why these cards in particular?
New account holders can extract a ton of value from these cards, earning up to 5x points per dollar spent in bonus categories! None of these cards charge an annual fee, and you can achieve between 1.5¢ and 1.75¢ per point when redeeming for airfare depending on how much you charge on your cards each year.
Wells Fargo Propel American Express® card
Wells Fargo Propel American Express® cardAnnual Fee$0Welcome Offer
Earn 20,000 bonus points when you spend $1,000 in purchases in the first 3 months - that's a $200 cash redemption value
- Earn 3X points on eating out and ordering in
- Earn 3X points on travel including flights, hotels, homestays and car rentals
- Earn 3X points on gas stations, rideshares and transit
- Earn 3X points on popular streaming services
- Earn 1X points on other purchases
- Earn 3X points on eating out and ordering in
- Earn 3X points on travel including flights, hotels, homestays and car rentals
- Earn 3X points on gas stations, rideshares and transit
- Earn 3X points on popular streaming services
- Earn 1X points on other purchases
The Wells Fargo Propel Amex earns 20,000 Go Far Rewards points after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months. Cardholders can redeem these points as $200 cash back, or at a rate of one cent each towards airfare, hotels, and cruises through the Go Far Rewards travel portal. What makes the Wells Fargo program unique is that you can increase the value of your points to 1.5-1.75 cents each, making the sign-up bonus worth up to $350+ if you also hold the Wells Fargo Visa Signature.
The Wells Fargo Propel Amex features some of the highest-earning rates of any no annual fee card available today, providing a return typically seen only on premium travel cards charging astronomical annual fees. This card earns:
- 3x on travel – including services such as VRBO homestay
- 3x on dining – including delivery websites like GrubHub
- 3x on streaming services – including Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix, etc.
- 3x at gas stations
- 1x on all other purchases
Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa® card
Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa® cardAnnual Fee$0Welcome Bonus
Earn a $150 cash rewards bonus after spending $500 on purchases in the first 3 months
- 1.8% cash rewards on qualified digital wallet purchases, like Apple Pay® or Google Pay™, during the first 12 months from account opening
- Unlimited 1.5% cash rewards on purchases
- 1.8% cash rewards on qualified digital wallet purchases, like Apple Pay® or Google Pay™, during the first 12 months from account opening
- Unlimited 1.5% cash rewards on purchases
The card is marketed as a cash back card, but we're going to use it as a points-earning machine. The Cash Wise Visa doesn’t feature complicated bonus categories, nor do you have to make a specific number of purchases to get the best returns. You’ll earn 1.5% cash rewards on purchases in every category, every day of the week. You can redeem points for a penny a piece as cash back for a 1.5% return on spend, or, transfer those points free of charge to an account that holds a Wells Fargo Visa Signature® Card, and redeem points for airfare at 1.5¢ per point, for a 2.25% return on everyday spend.
The Cash Wise Visa also offers an introductory 1.8% cash back on every dollar spent in digital wallet purchase such as Apple Pay and Android Pay, for the first 12 months you have the card. When transferred and redeemed for flights at 1.5¢ per point, you get a return of 2.7% on digital wallet purchases. The annual fee on this card is $0.
Wells Fargo Visa Signature® Card
Wells Fargo Visa Signature® CardAnnual Fee$0Introductory Offer
5x rewards points earned for up to $12,500 spent on gas, grocery, and drugstore purchases for the first 6 months and 1x points on other purchases - enjoy 5 years to use the points you earn
The Wells Fargo Visa Signature earns 5x points on up to $12,500 spent on gas, grocery, and drugstore purchases for the first 6 months, and 1 point on all other purchases. When redeeming points earned on the Wells Fargo Visa Signature for airfare, you’ll get 50% more value than redeeming them for cash back (for example 20,000 points is worth $300 towards airfare) making points worth 1.5¢ each, increasing the return on spend for the 5x categories to 7.5% for the first six months.
You can achieve even higher redemption value by spending $50,000 on the Wells Fargo Visa Signature in a year, which bumps the redemption value up to 1.75¢ per point towards airfare. So the base rate 1.5% cash back earned on the Cash Wise Visa effectively becomes a 2.625% return on everyday spend, and the 1.8% on digital wallet purchases translates into 3.15% return towards airfare. The returns on the Wells Fargo Propel Amex are even more pronounced, turning your 3x earn rate into a 5.25% return on bonus spending! Those are amazing returns and in line with top-tier rewards programs.
Transfer Wells Fargo Go Far Rewards to Another Account
The key to extracting maximum value from Wells Fargo Go Far Rewards lies in the ability to transfer points to anyone without any fees attached. While other programs, for example, Membership Rewards, impose harsh restrictions on transferring points between members, Go Far Rewards has a simple points transfer interface that allows you to transfer between member accounts free of charge, even when one member holds a cash back card and the other a points-earning card.
Cash rewards are transferred as cash but received on the other end as points.
If you hold the Wells Fargo Visa Signature, you can redeem points earned across all your Go Far Rewards cards at 1.5¢ per point towards airfare which opens up some excellent earning opportunities. For instance, individual family members can apply for a selection of Go Far Rewards earning cards at different times to take advantage of the generous introductory bonus categories, and combining all the points earned free of charge into an account that holds the Wells Fargo Visa Signature. This allows you to redeem all points earned across your Go Far Rewards cards at 1.5¢/1.75¢ per point towards airfare.
This could be an exciting way to help someone plan a dream trip — or perhaps to fund family vacations in the long run. By combining points, you'll never have to worry about points being left behind.
Final Thoughts
At first glance, Wells Fargo Go Far Rewards doesn’t offer a ton of value. Points are worth a set 1¢ each, and the selection of cards doesn’t offer the same high-value perks as popular travel cards from Chase, Citi, and Amex. However, when you dig into the mechanics of the program and start putting together combinations of cards, you can extract a considerable amount of value and all without paying an annual fee.
Earning Go Far Rewards at 1.5% cash rewards on purchases in every category on the Cash Wise Visa and 3X points for eating out, gas stations and travel on the Wells Fargo Propel Amex, and redeeming for flights at 1.5¢ per point via the Wells Fargo Visa Signature provides a top return on every dollar you spend, and that’s before you factor in other Wells Fargo program features that can earn you up to 40 points per dollar spent!
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Paying cell phone bills seems to be the only attractive benefit during these extraordinary times.
I don’t have any of the Wells Fargo Go Far Rewards credit cards (though I’m targeting to apply for the Wells Fargo Propel American Express card in late September/early October), but my understanding is Go Far Rewards can be used for cash back. The primary limitations are no direct deposit is available and rewards can only be redeemed in $25 increments. However, the WF Go Far Rewards cards, particularly the WF Propel or if you are a new cardholder the WF Visa Signature (5x points at grocery stores for the first 6 months), do appear to provide significant benefits if you don’t already have a cash back card that earns a higher cash back percentage in the applicable categories.
I use propel card to pay my cellphone bill so it qualifies the cellphone protection.
With the travel situation, my Wells Fargo card has fallen into disuse. I still recommend the card as you’re able to request a check for the value of the points. Way better than what I’m getting from my hotel / airline branded cards.
In this situation in which we are all at home, adding 3X for services such as Netflix, Spotify and Apple Music is a very interesting benefit.
Are cards are everyday spending cards now and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
At least these offers are outside the Chase 5/24 limits!
The Propel has a once a lifetime rule though.
Wells Fargo Propel Amex is a great card for this! Additionally we use it to charge our monthly cell phone bill as one of the benefits is cell phone coverage up to $600 per phone twice a year. It gives a little extra peace of mind for not much effort on our part.
They actually had better offer of 40,000 points when you opened new accounts
Thanks for that bit of offer history. Such perspective always helps evaluate the offer at hand and informs the decision to apply or hold for a possible better offer down the road.
Writeups like this are why you guys are awesome. It’s easy to do a cost benefit analysis of hold a CSP vs a CSR vs a Platinum card vs the United Explorer card. But while the earn rate is easy, factoring in the burn is hard and maximizing point value isn’t always discussed. Thanks for this!
In this time of Covid 19, I just wanted to leave a data point. I booked a flight on United in early March using WF Go Far Rewards points. Because of the Coronavirus issues going on, I had to cancel. My United app referred me to my booking agent, so I called the WF rewards desk. The hold was only 35 minutes (actually better than yesterday’s hold for the United premier desk, which was 1hr 10 min), and her instructions were clear:
1. they do not re-send an email confirming any of this (same as United yesterday)
2. they cancel the trip, but leave it open in their system (they do not redeposit the miles)
3. I have until 12/31/2020 to use the credit for United
4. I have to call the same number to book the flight (save your itinerary emails!!)
5. Any excess in fare needs to be paid with cash/cc, NOT using WF points.
Hope this helps someone!
Thanks very much for sharing. It’s worth noting that most fixed-value points redemptions book into paid ticket classes. On the plus side, you earn miles and elite credit for the flight. On the negative side, you’re subject to the same rules to cancel and refund a ticket. Generally, airlines issue a voucher for the ticket value (after cancellation fees). You’ll have a limited amount of time to use that value, and will need to cover the fare difference for the new flight with money.
It’s definitely frustrating they weren’t more accommodating based on what’s going on with COVID, but any cash or fixed-value rewards program will likely have similar rules for cancellations or changes during normal times. Southwest is a great alternative program for situations where your travel plans are likely to change.
To be fair though, no one of the airlines were required to waive change and cancellation fees so they are going above and beyond there. This isn’t in regards to this story but I’ve heard MANY people super upset about not getting refunds when they elected to cancel their trip and booked nonrefundable tickets…
Wow.
Not everyone wants to travel again by the end of the year!
Thanks!!! I just recently joined on with Wells Fargo for banking.. will start looking at their credit options soon.
I was not really familiar with the Wells Fargo cards before. Thanks!