March 27, 2025: The Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card offers simple, unlimited 2% cash back with no annual fee. While it has a limited set of benefits, it can be a good choice for your “use everywhere” credit card.
Our review of the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card
Cards and Points Rating: 4.0/5.0
Read more about our star ratings.
The Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card is Wells Fargo’s 2% cash back everywhere card with no annual fee.
The card’s value proposition is simple: You don’t have to worry about chasing categories or earning mediocre rewards in some purchases. You get 2% cash back on every purchase. And the card offers Cellular Telephone Protection and secondary Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver insurance as well. Not bad.
We prefer the Citi Double Cash in this card category thanks to that card offering an extended warranty benefit—a benefit that the Active Cash simply doesn’t have. But it’s hard to complain too much because few cards in this category offer terribly generous benefits.
Overall, this is a good choice for a 2% cash back everywhere card if Wells Fargo is your preferred bank.
Likes
- 2% cash back everywhere.
- No annual fee.
- Cell phone protection with a low deductible.
Dislikes
- No extended warranty.
- Wells Fargo can be difficult with card approvals.
Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card at a glance
Annual fee: $0
Foreign transaction fee: 3% of each transaction converted to U.S. dollars.
All information about the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card has been collected independently by cardsandpoints.com.
The Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card offers unlimited 2% cash back with no annual fee, with a limited set of benefits that includes cellular telephone protection.
Sign-up bonus
Best sign-up bonus: Earn a $200 cash rewards bonus when you spend $500 in purchases in the first 3 months.
Learn how to apply.
This bonus is earned as additional cash rewards.
Rewards
Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases.
Rewards are earned as cash back, but can be transferred to an Autograph Journey℠ card, where they become transferrable points.
Benefits
Consumer insurance benefits
- Cellular telephone protection.
$600 of coverage, subject to a $25 deductible
Travel insurance benefits
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver.
Secondary coverage within the U.S. - Travel and Emergency Assistance Services.
- Roadside Dispatch®.
Welcome offer: Get a cash rewards bonus
Annual fee: Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card
Best sign-up bonus: Earn a $200 cash rewards bonus when you spend $500 in purchases in the first 3 months.
Learn how to apply.
This bonus is earned as additional cash rewards.
Rewards: Cash rewards on all purchases
The Wells Fargo Active Cash Card offers unlimited 2% cash rewards on all purchases, with no limit to the amount of rewards you can earn.
Redeeming rewards
The cash back rewards you earn with the Wells Fargo Active Cash® can be redeemed if you have as little as one cent (one point) of rewards. Some reward redemptions require a higher amount of available rewards. Here’s how you can redeem your rewards:
- Manual requests to redeem your rewards can be processed for redemption amounts as low as 1 cent/1 point.
- Cash rewards through a Wells Fargo ATM must be redeemed in $20 increments at a Wells Fargo ATM.
- Automatic reward redemptions can only be redeemed in $25/2,500 point increments.
- Paper check cash back rewards are only issued $25/2,500 point increments.
Other reward options include gift cards, travel, merchandise and Pay With Rewards at merchants. These reward redemptions can be ignored. They are likely to provide less value than cash back rewards.
Benefits: Limited, but useful
In addition to generous 2% rewards on all purchases, the Wells Fargo Active Cash card offers a few benefits that are both useful and uncommon in a no-annual-fee card. Here are the benefit highlights of this card.
Cellular telephone protection: Get up to $600 of cell phone protection against damage or theft when you pay your monthly cell phone bill with your eligible Wells Fargo card. Coverages is subject to a $25 deductible and limited to two claims every 12 months.
Auto rental collision damage waiver coverage: Receive protection against a covered accident or theft of a rental car when you charge your car rental to the card and decline the rental car company’s collision damage waiver insurance. Coverage is secondary within the United States and primary when traveling outside of the United States.
Is the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card right for you?
If you want a credit card that offers good flat-rate cash back rewards or also have the Autograph Journey card, you’ll benefit from the Who is Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card. Here’s who will benefit most from the Active Cash:
- Person who wants simple, flat-rate, cash back rewards. The Active Cash awards simple, flat-rate 2% cash back on every purchase with no categories and no caps. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
- Autograph Journey cardmembers. Since Wells Fargo launched its Wells Fargo Autograph Journey Card, the Active Cash’s rewards became much more interesting. You can transfer your Active Cash cash back rewards to your Autograph Journey card, where they will become points that can be transferred to airline partners.
Complements: Cards that pair well with the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card
The best complement to the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card is the Autograph Journey, the only Wells Fargo-branded card that offers transferable points. Here are a few cards to consider:
- The Wells Fargo Autograph Journey Card is Wells’ recently-launched card that offers transferable points. Transferable points can offer incredibly value if you know how to transfer points to airline and hotel partners and redeem them for outsized-value luxury travel redemptions. The Autograph Journey synergies with the Active Cash because you can transfer the points you earn from your Wells Fargo Active Cash to your Autograph Journey, where they become transferrable points.
- Depending on your spending patterns, you can increased your rewards by adding cards that offer additional cash back at the places you shop the most. Most people will want to carry a grocery credit card or a card that earns additional rewards on gas. One or two cards that offers rewards in bonus categories can be an excellent complement to the the Active Cash.
Alternatives: Cards to consider instead of the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card
If you’re looking for a good card to use everywhere for your general spending, here are a few cards to consider instead of the Active Cash:
- The Citi® Double Cash Card was the original 2% card (technically, the card earns 1% when you make purchases and 1% when you pay) and is a good alternative if you prefer to bank with Citibank or if you want to earn ThankYou® points.
- For 2% cash back rewards with benefits like extended warranty, look at the TD Double Up℠ Credit Card. This relatively unknown credit card offers a more complete set of consumer insurance benefits and travel protections for no annual fee.
- We like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® as an “everywhere else” card because it earns 1.5% cash back on general purchases and 3% rewards on dining and drugstores. Plus it has Chase’s excellent extended warrant benefit.
Bottom Line: A decent 2% cash back card
The Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card probably wouldn’t be our pick for the card we’d want to use everywhere, but a 2% cash back credit card is a tool that should be in your wallet. We’d prefer the Citi® Double Cash Card or the TD Double Up℠ Credit Card, but if you prefer to back with Wells Fargo, the Active Cash isn’t a bad choice.
