Consumer complaint received 2024-12-18
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (DC)

I previously submitted a complaint on my own behalf, asking Wells Fargo to provide me the {$520.00} bonus I was promised for opening a savings account, depositing {$25000.00} into it within 30 days of account opening, and keeping it there for the required time ( 90 days after account opening ). Wells Fargo responded that because I transferred {$17.00} in rewards cash from my Wells Fargo credit card to meet the {$25000.00} deposit requirement, I did not fulfil the requirement to deposit {$25000.00} in " new money '' to the savings account in order to qualify for the {$520.00} bonus. 

While I understand that Wells Fargo has decided not to grant me the {$520.00} bonus I was promised, I file this new complaint to ask that Wells Fargo change its practices by letting customers know when they have not fulfilled the requirements for a bonus, rather than simply allowing the customer to believe they have fulfilled the requirements and look forward to receiving the bonus for months, only to be told upon the customer 's inquiry months later that they will not be receiving the bonus after all, in my case due to a technicality relating to 0.08 % of the deposit requirement. 

What I find most reprehensible is that in cases like mine, which Im sure is not unique, Wells Fargo : 1 ) is aware that the customer has opened the account with the expectation of the {$520.00} bonus, as the customer makes an appointment with a banker and provides him/her a code to receive the bonus ; 2 ) is aware that the customer has not fulfilled the requirements of the bonus at day 30 ; 3 ) does not inform the customer that he/she has not fulfilled the requirements ; 4 ) allows the customer to leave the {$25000.00} in his/her savings account earning very little interest for an additional 90 days ( requirement is for the customer to leave the money in the account until 90 days after account opening, but Wells Fargo has another 30 days to deposit the bonus into the customers account ) ; and 5 ) even at that point, Wells Fargo does not inform the customer that the bonus they were expecting is not forthcoming. 

In sum, Wells Fargo knows the customer is opening the account for the purpose of receiving the bonus, knows after Day 30 that the customer has not fulfilled the requirements for the bonus, does not inform the customer of this, and then to the customers great disappointment only informs them the bonus is not forthcoming over 90 days later when the customer inquires as to what happened to their bonus. All the while, Wells Fargo benefits from withholding the information about the customer not qualifying for the bonus, as the customers {$25000.00} accrues very little interest. I understand that Wells Fargo accrues greater profits by not informing the customer they havent met the bonus requirements, but I consider withholding this information to be a deceptive practice that should stop, and I implore Wells Fargo to change its practices and affirmatively inform its customers that they did not meet the bonus requirements rather than to profit off of customers misunderstandings of the bonus terms.