A World-Class Wells Fargo Wallet | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep303 | 4-25-25 | Podcast

By
Caroline Yoder
-
15

We tend to ignore Wells Fargo cards because there are so many other great credit cards out there, but they actually do have some compelling cards to consider. In today’s episode we’ll discuss which ones you might want in your wallet.

Main Event: A World-Class Wells Fargo Wallet

Watch the full episode below, or listen on your favorite podcast platform. You can click the timestamps below to navigate directly to a specific part of the episode within YouTube. For a transcript of this episode, click “Watch on Youtube” on the video below, then click the “…more” link in the video description. This will expand full video details. Scrolling down past the timestamps and chapters, you’ll see a “Show Transcript” button. If you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can touch and hold a podcast episode to reveal an option to view a transcript.

Watch here…

Or listen here…

Giant Mailbag

(01:47) – Re: Clarifying our “Beyond 100K Sapphire Preferred” episode, which you can read more about here.

Card News

(19:33) – Bigger Capital One VentureX Business Card offer via private banker

Listen to the podcast episode about the public Capital One VentureX Business card offer here.

Bonvoyed

(22:49) – Citi decreasing redemption rates on emirates starting 7/27

(26:24) – Read more about the OneKey Cash devaluation for Vrbo stays here.

(29:10) – A top up fee for priority pass lounge access

(32:10) – Read more about the Japan Airlines devaluation here.

Awards, Points, and More

(35:26) – More Japan Airlines (JAL) news

Learn about how to Book JAL with JetBlue points here.

(39:29) – More Bilt news

(44:55) – Learn how to use Bilt to pay student loans with points here.

(46:24) – United MileagePlus Showing More Awards After Changing Settings

(49:51) – Wyndham Points + Cash reservations now bookable with as few as 750 points

(51:12) – Learn more about Gondola here: https://frequentmiler.com/gondola/

Main Event: A World-Class Wells Fargo Wallet

(57:04) – Transferable points

(59:27) – Notable Wells Fargo credit cards which have transfer abilities

(1:01:07) – Notable Wells Fargo cash back cards, which can be moved to a transferrable point card

(1:04:33) – Here’s how you can build a world-class Wells Fargo wallet

(1:07:44) – Downsides (and fun hypotheticals)

(1:13:32) – See our current transfer bonuses resource here: https://frequentmiler.com/current-point-transfer-bonuses/

Question of the Week

(1:16:22) – How many of your millions of miles come from sign up bonuses vs credit card spending, and where does most of your credit card spend come from?

Read more about how to increase credit card spend here: https://frequentmiler.com/how-to-increase-credit-card-spend/ and watch our episode 197 about increasing spend here: https://frequentmiler.com/13-ways-to-increase-credit-card-spend-and-get-most-of-it-back/

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Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder

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Karl

You didn’t mention that that holding the WF Signature Visa allows you to use their points to book airfare through the WF portal at 1.5 cpp. The Signature Visa hasn’t been available for new apps for years, BUT it’s still available for product changes. 1.5 cpp that can be used on virtually any flight is pretty hard to beat.

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Greg The Frequent Miler

Thanks! We specifically discussed before recording whether or not to include that, but I wasn’t sure whether it was still available for product changes so decided to leave it out. That is a great one though! Do you know whether Wells offers reasonable flight prices? We also left out the Bank Of america premier rewards elite card That offers 1.25 cents value towards flights because whenever I shop for flights through their portal, the prices are way inflated.

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Karl

It seems to be dollar for dollar the same prices as Expedia. WF has a relationship with Expedia so it’s probably just an Expedia passthrough. But the portal software is painfully bad, it’s not always easy to see what inventory is available. There is no way to select basic economy. There is no way to see more than one fare class at a time. It’s better to find the flight you want in Expedia first, then extract the same flight in the portal by controlling all the possible search variables.

DPs on PCs are pretty hard to come by but I saw a reddit post this year of someone who got one.

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Nitpicker

Thanks for spending time on Wells Fargo. I really learned something new! I never laughed so much at a podcast as today’s ending. Thank you for that.

I have a JAL comment though. I’ve heard before on the podcast that transferable currencies don’t transfer to JAL. Why do you not consider Marriott a transferable currency? In fact SPG was the OG of transferables and offered JAL and probably more programs than any currency. Marriott of course has that feature. Maybe you can’t earn MR points quickly but the transfer rate is not bad, and JAL is sort of a sweet spot. Plus sometimes you can earn a large sign up bonus after consulting the FM Marriott Eligibility Cypher.

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Greg The Frequent Miler

Sometimes I remember to specifically say there are no one to one transfers to JAL and sometimes I don’t. I guess during this podcast I didn’t.

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Nitpicker

Oh. Sorry I didn’t realize that’s how you think of Marriott points. I felt it can still be a good deal for some cases. Thanks.

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Art

Nick said that if you overpay taxes, you will receive a refund in a few weeks. How do you receive a refund?

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Andrew

Overpay right before filing – so unfortunately that window just passed! You still have to be comfortable floating the money so that you’re not in a bind if your refund takes longer than normal.

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Nick Reyes

Andrew is correct and that’s an important point — I paid shortly before filing and the timeline from filing to refund was less than 3 weeks, though keep in mind that refunds are sometimes delayed, so don’t overpay by more than you could afford to float if need be.

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NK3

Another great episode! Just a couple more points I would add to the Wells Fargo discussion:

  1. While WF has been generous with product changes between their no annual fee products, at least the initial data points indicate it is not currently possible to downgrade from Autograph Journey to Autograph. Some of us were hoping to get the decent Journey SUB and then downgrade to a no AF transferrable points card, but it appears that is not currently possible.
  2. The definition of “travel” on the Autograph Journey is not as generous as Chase. It already has the 5x Hotels and 4x Flights, so the rest of travel is “timeshare, or vehicle/auto rental, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, campgrounds.” The no AF Autograph has 3x on gas stations and transit, and the latter includes “electrical vehicle charging stations, subways, ride shares, parking and tolls.” At least for me, I find I have more gaps with my other cards in multipliers for the “transit” category than I do with what they include in their travel section.
  3. To add to your discussion on transfer bonuses, most of the WF airline transfer options often have good transfer bonuses with the other programs. So if I got the full WF setup with the Attune, I could end up with 4x Virgin points for charging my EV. But I could also get 3x Citi TYP with my Premier, and then with a 30% transfer bonus and the 10% rebate from Rewards+ end up with a similar return. I would almost certainly pick the Citi option, since they have a better set of transfer partners.
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DaveS

Hate that Priority Pass lounge scheme in LA! Do not let the camel’s nose under the tent. I’d think the credit card companies would be aware this would be a huge devaluation of their PP benefit (not for one lounge initially but if the plague spreads), and a reason to reconsider holding a given credit card. I love Greg and Nick’s take on it. Absolutely correct!

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Fred

Can you buy gift cards with a DoorDash cash balance?

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Pierre

No

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Yashwant

I have the Wells Fargo Autograph that I got in March 2019. What are the rules around getting another SUB on it? Shall I upgrade to the Journey?

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Nick Reyes

According to our post about application rules by bank, it must be 48 months since your last welcome bonus to be eligible again. Seems like you should be eligible. I don’t know about whether you’ll be able to product change (see another comment above that notes product changes may not be available with these cards).

https://frequentmiler.com/complete-guide-to-credit-card-application-rules-by-bank/#Wells_Fargo

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