Wells Fargo bank is offering a $2500 bonus for opening a premier checking account. To avoid large fees, deposit over 250K in a linked wellstrade account. Or deposit 250K in cash, which is not a good idea because of low interest rates.
You have to go in to a branch to hear a sales pitch.
Need to open the account by January 9, 2024.
This is an automatically-generated Wiki post for this new topic. Any member can edit this post and use it as a summary of the topic’s highlights.
I spent half an hour at the banker yesterday, while she printed out many page agreements, and I electronically signed that I agree with them.
It is basically just a checking account with very large fees if you do not carry a $250k balance in the account or with a “linked” account.
I opened a Wellstrade account on January 1 but apparently the software takes a few days for it to circulate through the system and they were not able to link it to the checking account. They told me to call in a few days.
I found that I could access the linked accounts on the Wells Fargo website at the following location
Premier checking account > View benefits > Managed linked accounts
Sure enough the Wellstrade account is not listed there as of yesterday.
I have to say I’m not impressed with them. The banker was nice enough, but their system stinks. I guess it’s worth jumping through the hoops for $2500 but I don’t think I’ll keep the account open.
Edit.
I was able to link the Wellstrade account to the premier checking on their website. Initiated the transfer to Wellstrade. Let’s see how it goes.
I did the same thing with Chase+ JPM. Old fashioned call in type of trading.
Wish the big banks would just offer a HYSA and be done with it.
Just wait until you deal with a Fifth Third account bonus. 
They LUV to talk about KYC and the fifth third “experience”. Trust me - the Ed Norton experience would be way better.
I initiated the transfer on January 3, and it finally showed up on the Wellstrade website yesterday, January 10. Slow but possibly acceptable. Let’s see how long it takes them to transfer the cost basis.
Edit. Unless they renew it January 9 was the last day to open an account.
Edit. They renewed. Now it is April 1, 2024.
Edit. The cost basis showed up today January 12
Could see doing this with their 3-month 4.5% CD. Sure, it’d be losing about 1% interest for 3 months vs prevailing short term CD rates but the bonus of essentially 4% APY on $250k makes up for it.
You can also buy T bills at auction with no fee. The three month T-bill rate is currently 5.36% with no state tax
I transfered a stock position. With stock, you have to allow yourself enough margin so that the balance does not drop below $250K with market fluctuations. Most brokers base their bonus on the amount when transferred, but Wells Fargo does it on the balance throughout the qualifying period.
Wellstrade gives you access to Fidelity institutional money market accounts that pay a pretty decent rate.
That’s a good point. I’m usually buying them from TreasuryDirect but the 13-wk ones would be perfect to wait out the 90 day period for the bonus without losing much at all vs. the top CD rates. I’d probably do that if I had $250k lying around or maturing soon.
$2500 Bonus came through.
How many additional accounts did they open “for” you? 
The deal started with opening a premier checking account. I added a wellstrade account and linked it to the Premier checking account. In the wellstrade account, I opened a fidelity institutional money market account
LOL, that wasn’t the question. I guess when they pay such nice bonuses, you forget their recent transgressions.
Recent? That was ancient news…
That news is not even vintage yet