The Rigamarole of Having My Husband Apply for Wells Fargo Propel World Over the Phone

As I’ve mentioned a few weeks ago,  Wells Fargo Propel World card will be closed to new applications on March 31st. I got this product last February and recently canceled it, so I’m not eligible for the bonus. According to terms, if you got a sign-up bonus on any Wells Fargo card during the last 16 months, you are disqualified. See more details on WF Propel World and other credit cards here

My husband, however, was eligible for this offer. The thing is, we stopped by the Wells Fargo branch last summer and applied for Propel World,  but he got a rejection letter in the mail. Should I bother with it again? I decided that I should. This is a “use it or lose it” kind of deal, and I would hate to miss out on potential $400-500 in profit.

Applying for Wells Fargo checking account first

In order to be able to apply over the phone, I needed to first set up some sort of Wells Fargo account in my husband’s name. Fortunately, according to Doctor of Credit blog, there is currently a Wells Fargo checking promo out there, restricted to certain geographic locations.

You can get $200 for making 10 debit purchases each month, for a total of three months. The promo is pretty lucrative in its own right, and the added incentive of being able to apply for WF Propel World over the phone made it a no-brainer. I checked and lo and behold, our location  was eligible for this promotion. I applied for it and everything went smoothly.

Even if you are no eligible for any lucrative checking/savings promos from Wells Fargo, I recommend you open an account with them anyway. There won’t be a hard pull on your credit, so might as well. Go to their website and look under “banking” section. Reportedly, having an account increases your chances of approval for WF Propel World.

If you don’t have any WF accounts, your only option will be to go and apply for Propel card at the branch. You can view locations here Just to avoid any doubt, I make exactly $0 if you get approved for Wells Fargo Propel World, so there is no conflict of interest whatsoever.

Our phone call(s) to Wells Fargo

I gave my husband two options. We could either go by the branch (40 minutes away) or call. He chose the phone option, no surprise there. Here is where I made a huge mistake. Even though his checking account was approved, I didn’t yet have the number available. All the paperwork was supposed to come in the mail within days, but I didn’t want to wait on it in fear of Propel card being discontinued earlier than expected.

I figured the rep would be able to easily see that my husband has the account with Wells Fargo. Wrong! We made the phone call during  lunch so, obviously, he had a limited amount of time. Unfortunately, they would not let me take over the phone call. The first 15 minutes were spent trying to locate his checking account in the system. He had to verify his information and was put on hold several times. This is where we should have cut our losses and just call later.

In fact, I even whispered to my husband to  hang up and we would try again the next day. But he decided to just get it over with, thinking the process would be over in 10 minutes, max. Wrong again! The whole time he had this  look of agony on his face, like someone was torturing him.

After 25 minutes or so, we were finally getting to the end of application. Wells Fargo rep emailed us a disclosure and we had to e-sign it and send it back. So close. Then the rep put my husband on hold…again. He told me he couldn’t believe how long this thing was taking. I politely reminded him that I told him to hang up after the first 10 minutes. He looked at me and said: “How about I hang up now?” And so he did. Noooooo!

Inside this very nice guy there is a little bit of a jerk. Don’t worry, he will be the first one to admit it. Besides, the guys I was involved with before meeting my husband had the opposite ratio going for them, so I can’t really complain.

That was 40 minutes of our time down the drain and I pretty much gave up on the card at that point. I was really ticked off at my husband, but decided to drop the whole thing. I could see it would only create an argument. To my surprise, my husband called few minutes later and apologized. He promised to try again after work.

He kept his promise, except now we had kids running around and screaming their heads off. The application for the card was actually saved in the system. However, the rep we were dealing with earlier was not available and apparently, only she had access to it. The WF employee gave us two options. We could try to get ahold of the original rep later or we could start the whole process from scratch. My husband chose the latter.

And that’s what we did for the next 45 minutes or so. I admit, a part of me (the “jerk” part) was a little bit happy because I felt like he brought the whole thing on himself. But I wisely kept my mouth shut. At one point the rep asked my husband why he wanted the card. His response: “The sign-up bonus.” My reaction? Banging my head against the wall for a couple of minutes. I honestly expected the rep to tell him “Bye, Felicia”, but nope.

After the phone call, I told my husband that next time he needs to say “I like the rewards structure”, which is a more politically correct term for the sign-up bonus. He responded that there will be no next time. Fair enough. Oh, and the card was instantly approved, which I attribute to the fact that we have recently opened the checking account in his name.

BTW, the packet for checking account (with the number) arrived the very next day. It would have been nice to have it when we made that first phone call. Really nice.

Click here to view various credit cards and available sign-up bonuses