Consumer complaint received 2026-04-22 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Other problem
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: SC

Complaint narrative:
Wells Fargo engaged in a predatory strategy by targeting me based on my good credit, incentivizing specific financial behaviors, and then using those behaviors to hurt my credit score at a time beneficial to Wells Fargo to maintain my further indebtedness to Wells Fargo to boost their profits. In early XXXX Wells Fargo sent an unsolicitied offer of a credit card to me personally recognizing my good financial habits and standing. This offer offered a XXXX month interest free period on purchases and balance transfers which incentivized maxing out the new credit card and paying minimum payments since there was no interest being charged. Later that year Wells Fargo offered a cash bonus to open a checking account and make direct depositis. To avoid fees on this account I had to maintain a {$500.00} balance or make regular direct deposits. They later changed the terms to raise the balance requirement to {$1500.00} which further incentivized avoiding fees through direct deposits rather than maintain a balance. Near the end of my interest free period on my credit card I had regularly paid more than the minimum payment, I had paid a significant portion of the credit card balance off and had met all of my financial obligations to Wells Fargo and all other institutions. I had maintained my checking account with Wells Fargo so that I never incurred any fees. Despite my exemplary financial record and practices, Wells Fargo chose this time near the end of my interest free period to reduce my credit limit, which was only possible because I had paid down my balance enough for me to have excess credit available. Wells Fargo gave XXXX reasons for this reduction : XXXX ) my credit card balances were high relative to my credit limit XXXX ) My Wels Fargo checking account had a low balance and XXXX ) My Wells Fargo credit card payments were low. All XXXX of these reasons were incentivized by Wells Fargo. For my part I exceeded all expectations in my financial dealings with Wells Fargo and yet Wells Fargo used their incentivized activies to reduce my credit limit. An established financial institution like Wells Fargo knows the effect of this reduction in credit limit will be an immediate reduction in my credit score which would limit my ability to seek other ways to refinance my debt to Wells Fargo. The timing of Wells Fargo 's actions against me coincide with the time that Wells Fargo knew I would most likely begin looking for financial alternatives. The affect of Wells Fargo 's actions was to keep me indebted to Wells Fargo beyond my interest free period so that they could profit from my remaining debt to them. This was predatory and strategic. Furthermore, the fact that I had demonstrated that I was not using the card for purchases and was not maintaining a large balance in my checking account meant that the only means for Wells Fargo to profit from my business was through paying interest on my remaining debt and they took definitive action to protect that income stream at my expense. Upon getting this notice I immediately called Wells Fargo to voice my concerns and ask that my credit limit simply be restored. This was denied so I wrote a letter fully expressing my concerns. In response recieved a letter that repeated the same XXXX reasons given above. The additional remedy suggested by Wells Fargo was that I call Wells Fargo Customer Service to request a credit limit increase -- knowing this would be denied using the same factors above but the request would justify a credit check further damaging my credit score and tightening the chain connecting me to Wells Fargo.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation