The Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card offers elevated rewards on everyday purchases including restaurants, travel, gas stations, and streaming services. The card provides solid travel and shopping protections including cell phone coverage, making it a practical choice for daily spending with no annual fee.
This credit card review will cover everything you need to know about this card to determine if you should add this card or a different card to your wallet. Let’s dive right in.
- bonus_miles_full
- 3x points on Restaurants, Travel, Gas, Transit, Ridesharing, Streaming, and Phone Plans
- Cell Phone Insurance
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- No Annual Fee
Welcome Bonus
The Wells Fargo Autograph Card currently offers the following welcome bonus: bonus_miles_full
Before applying, keep in mind that Wells Fargo has specific application restrictions. If you’ve opened another Wells Fargo credit card in the past 6 months, you likely won’t qualify for a new card bonus.
Earning Points
The Wells Fargo Autograph Card earns points at the following rates:
The Wells Fargo Autograph shines with its impressive 3x earnings across popular spending categories like dining, travel, and gas. However, the card falls short on non-bonus purchases with just 1x points, making it suboptimal for everyday spending not covered by the bonus categories.
While the 3x earnings are competitive with premium travel cards charging annual fees, you’ll want to pair this card with one that earns better than 1x on your other spending. For maximizing rewards, consider using the Autograph solely for its bonus categories.
No Annual Fee
The Wells Fargo Autograph Card has no annual fee, allowing you to enjoy its benefits without a yearly cost.
You’ll get several valuable perks including cellular telephone protection, travel protections, and access to travel transfer partners that can help maximize your rewards value.
Wells Fargo Autograph Card Benefits
The Wells Fargo Autograph Card offers the following benefits for its cardholders: Intro APR: Enjoy a 0% Intro APR for 12 months. After that, either a reg_apr,reg_apr_type applies. Cell Phone Protection: When you use your card to pay your monthly phone bill, you’ll receive valuable coverage against damage or theft of your device. Secondary Rental Car Insurance: This card provides backup protection for rental car damage or theft when you charge the full rental to your card. No Foreign Transaction Fees: You’ll save money on every purchase while traveling internationally since this card doesn’t add the typical 3% surcharge that many other cards impose. Roadside Dispatch: Get access to 24/7 emergency roadside assistance for situations like dead batteries, flat tires, fuel delivery, and mechanical breakdowns. While you’ll need to pay for the actual service provided, having access to reliable help when stranded can be invaluable. Visa Signature Benefits: This card is a Visa Signature card offering special benefits such as rental car discounts, golf and wine discounts, and emergency travel assistance. Visa Signature Concierge: Your card comes with a dedicated 24/7 concierge service ready to assist with your lifestyle needs. Whether you need help securing dinner reservations, finding event tickets, or planning travel arrangements, your personal concierge is just a phone call away.
Redeeming Rewards
Through the Wells Fargo rewards portal, you can redeem your points at a fixed value of 1 cent per point in several ways: statement credits applied directly to your card balance, gift cards available in $25 increments, travel bookings including flights, hotel stays, and rental cars, credits to qualifying Wells Fargo products like credit cards, checking accounts, or mortgages, and direct purchases at participating merchants, including PayPal. However, transferring points to Wells Fargo’s airline and hotel partners can potentially provide even greater value. The bank currently partners with several major programs including Air France-KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Executive Club, and Choice Privileges hotels, with more partners likely to be added as the program expands.
Wells Fargo Transfer Partners
Aer Lingus AerClub
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
Avianca LifeMiles
British Airways Executive Club
Iberia Plus
Choice Privileges (1 to 2)
Pros and Cons of the Autograph Card
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of this card:
Pros:
Strong Earning Structure: Earns 3x points in multiple popular categories including restaurants, travel, gas stations, transit, streaming services, and phone plans, providing solid everyday value.
Travel Protections: Includes valuable benefits like auto rental collision coverage, roadside assistance, and travel emergency services despite being a no-annual-fee card.
No Annual Fee: No cost to keep the card in your wallet while still enjoying premium benefits and earning potential.
Phone Protection: Offers valuable cellphone protection against damage or theft when paying your phone bill with the card, which can provide significant value.
Cons:
Limited Transfer Partners: Only has 7 transfer partners total, which is considerably fewer than competitors like Chase and Capital One.
No Grocery Bonus Category: Missing elevated rewards on grocery purchases, which is a major spending category for many cardholders.
No Domestic Airline Partners: Transfer partners are all international carriers, requiring more effort to book domestic flights through alliances.
Basic Redemption Value: Points are worth only 1 cent each when redeemed for cash back, gift cards or basic travel bookings, which is lower than some competing cards’ redemption rates.
Alternatives to the Wells Fargo Autograph
Now that you know about this credit card’s various benefits and pros and cons, it’s time to see its alternatives.
Bilt Mastercard®
The Bilt Mastercard® (review) lets you earn valuable travel rewards on rent payments without fees while offering bonus points on dining and travel purchases. This no-annual-fee card stands out for its unique rent payment feature and strong travel benefits like rental car coverage and trip protection. Earning Rewards: 5x points on Lyft; 3x points on dining; 2x points on travel purchases; 1x points on rent payments without any transaction fees up to 100,000 points per year, and 1x points on everything else. (Five transactions are required per billing cycle to earn points.) Card Benefits: No transaction fees to pay rent and earn 1x points, primary rental car insurance, cell phone protection, trip delay and trip cancellation insurance, purchase protection, and no foreign transaction fees.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) is one of the most popular travel rewards cards because it offers nice welcome bonus and extra points on travel and dining, which can be transferred to airline and hotel partners or redeemed directly for travel at a rate of 1.25 cents per point through Chase Travel℠. The Sapphire Preferred also offers great travel and purchase protections for a card with a $95 annual fee. Welcome Bonus: bonus_miles_full Earning Rewards: 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Travel, 3x points on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs), 2x points on all other travel purchases, and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases. Card Benefits: Ability to transfer to airline and hotel partners, 25% bonus when redeeming points through Chase Travel, $50 annual hotel stay credit via Chase Travel, 10% anniversary points bonus, no foreign transaction fees, primary rental car insurance, trip delay insurance, trip cancellation insurance, baggage delay insurance, purchase protection, and extended warranty. Transfer Partners: Aer Lingus, Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways, Emirates, Air France KLM Flying Blue, Hyatt, IHG, Iberia, JetBlue, Marriott, Singapore KrisFlyer, Southwest, United, and Virgin Atlantic.
Is the Wells Fargo Autograph Card Worth It?
If you’re looking for a no-annual-fee credit card focused on specific bonus categories, the Wells Fargo Autograph Card could be a smart addition to your wallet.
You’ll earn triple points on common expenses like restaurants, travel, gas stations, and streaming services, but only 1 point per dollar on everyday purchases like groceries and general shopping.
The card’s welcome bonus is easily achievable and offers good value, while valuable perks like cell phone protection and travel benefits add extra appeal.
While Wells Fargo’s transfer partner list isn’t as extensive as some competitors, the ability to transfer points to airline and hotel partners at all is impressive for a no-annual-fee card.
The card works best as part of a multi-card strategy where you can pair it with a card offering better rewards on everyday spending, but it’s still a solid choice for its strong bonus categories and no annual fee.
