4.5/5
Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card
- Best for: People who want one no-fee card for all their U.S. spending
- What Sets It Apart: Flat 2% cash rewards with 0% interest on both purchases and balance transfers for 12 months; cell phone protection when the card pays your phone bill
- Cost: $0 annual fee; 3% foreign transaction fee; a variable APR of 18.74%, 24.74%, or 28.74% after the 0% period; 3% balance transfer fee (at least $5) for 120 days, then up to 5%
- Features: Visa Signature card; $100 bonus once you spend $500 in 3 months; up to $600 per claim in cell phone protection with a $25 deductible; rewards as a card or Wells Fargo account credit, gift cards, or PayPal checkout
- Pros: No categories to track; 0% on purchases as well as balance transfers; coverage for every phone line on the bill; rewards don’t expire while the account is open
- Cons: 3% foreign transaction fee; less than a category card pays in its bonus categories; balance transfer fee during the 0% period; no coverage for a phone that goes missing
Wells Fargo may withhold the bonus and the 0% rate if you have an Active Cash or opened one in the past 48 months, even one you’ve closed. It may also turn you down if your last Wells Fargo personal credit card is less than 4 months old.
Key Features
- No annual fee
- Unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases, redeemable as a credit to the card or to a Wells Fargo checking or savings account, for gift cards, or at checkout through PayPal
- $100 bonus once you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months
- 0% interest for the first 12 months on purchases and on balance transfers made in the first 120 days, then a variable rate of 18.74%, 24.74%, or 28.74%, depending on your credit
- Up to $600 per claim in cell phone protection when the card pays your monthly phone bill, with a $25 deductible and up to two claims in 12 months
Pros
- No categories to track or activate
- 0% on new purchases as well as balance transfers
- Phone coverage for every line on your wireless bill, at no added cost
- Rewards that don’t expire while the account is open
Cons
- A 3% foreign transaction fee, more than the 2% it earns, so take a card with no foreign transaction fee abroad
- Only 2% on restaurants, gas, transit, travel, streaming, and phone plans, where the Wells Fargo Autograph Card pays 3 points per dollar, each worth a cent in Wells Fargo’s estimate
- A 3% balance transfer fee, at least $5, in the first 120 days, and up to 5% after
- No coverage for a phone that goes missing with no sign of theft
Anyone who wants one card for U.S. spending gets 2% on all of it, so $2,000 a month earns $480 a year with no annual fee to subtract. By our math, the Autograph’s 3 points per dollar in its bonus categories and 1 point elsewhere, at a cent a point, beat this card’s 2% once those categories make up more than half your spending.
Learn more about the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card or see how it compares to the best cash back credit cards.
Editorial & Advertiser Disclosure: The editorial content on this page is not provided, commissioned, reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser. Opinions expressed here are ours alone, not those of any advertiser. The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. That compensation may influence which products we cover and where and how they appear on a page – including the order in which they appear – but it does not influence our evaluations, ratings, or opinions. We do not include every company or offer available in the marketplace.
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