$50 Checking Account Bonus at Wells Fargo - No DD Requirements in Some States read and submit comments for this post

Wells Fargo is offering a $50 checking account bonus called the Fabulous $50. Here's the promotional page link. For certain states Wells Fargo's Free Checking is available, and it has no direct deposit requirements. Other states don't seem to have this free checking. The closest alternative is the Basic Checking which requires direct deposit or $1,000 balance to avoid monthly fees. Some states that offer this free checking that I've found include Texas, Ohio and Illinois. Those that don't have this free checking include California and Florida.

Here are some of the important terms of the promotion:

• Minimum opening deposit of $100
• Expires 11/30/2007
• One bonus per household
• Bonus will be deposited to checking within 30 to 45 days of opening
• Bonus is reported as interest for IRS tax reporting purposes

The Free Checking has no monthly service fees or monthly balance requirements. However, online bill pay is only free for the first 2 months. Afterwards, there's a $6.95/mo charge. I was told by the customer service rep that the first box of checks is free although another CSR said that's not the case. At the very least, there should not be an automatic charge for the checks. I was told by both CSRs that there is no hard credit pull for the application. However, some readers have reported a hard pull so I don't know if this has changed.

Wells Fargo has branches mostly in the western states. Some of the states include Illinois, Texas, Colorado, Arizona and California. The bank is FDIC insured (Certificate # 3511).

Credit for this find goes to FW member calibordr17 who posted it at FW thread.