Wells Fargo 1/6

Understanding the Wells Fargo 1/6 rule:

Many of the credit card rules we discuss are unwritten ones, never appearing on their respective card websites or in their terms and conditions. The most well known credit card rule - Chase’s 5/24 rule - is like this. They are crowd sourced rules that have become fact over the years and are consistently enforced.

Then there are rules like this Wells Fargo 1/6 rule, where it has the following language in the Important Credit Terms link for the included cards but still doesn’t seem to be consistently enforced:

Important to know:

There have been countless reports of people being approved for a second Wells Fargo card within six months, and there have been just as many who have been denied. So what to make of a rule like this?

Despite the conflicting information, we decided to include this in our rules page so you have all the information available. We’ll provide the details and our advice. You can then make your own decision on how aggressive you want to be in your card application strategy.

We always err on the side of caution with any credit card rule. Our philosophy is that we want to be in this credit card points and miles hobby for as long as we can - hopefully forever! By taking a more caution approach, it will be easier to be in the game for longer. Yes, it’s possible to go hard and fast and collect millions of points in the first year or two of doing this. But if you flame out and hurt your relationship with a bank, or worse yet, several banks, it’s going to hinder your chances of being able to do this long term.

Important to know:

A second important aspect of this rule to point out is that if you have an existing relationship with the bank, that can help your chances of being approved for a second card within six months. So if you have a bank account, or a mortgage, or a loan of any kind, that strengthens your relationship with the bank and improves your card approval chances.

About Approval Rules

Collecting credit card points is largely driven by understanding and abiding by bank rules regarding approval (or disapproval) of cards.  So here’s what you need to know:

• Approval rules are rarely fully publicized by the banks
• We use our own research and data points from other users in creating the rules listing
• Our goal in sharing/using the rule listings is to provide you guidance to avoid getting declined
• There can sometimes be exceptions to the rules, but we try to take a more cautious approach in advising you.