Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card Review [2024]: Earn Cash Back or Rewards Points

Earning rewards for what you spend on business expenses could help you save money in the long run. What’s nice about the Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card is that you can choose how you are rewarded for your expenditures. You can either earn cash back on your purchases or accumulate points that can be redeemed for gift cards, merchandise, or travel expenses like flights, hotels, and car rentals.

However, either way you choose to earn your rewards, it may take a while to accumulate a lot of value. And the introductory offer may be hard to achieve at a required spend of $25,000 within first 3 months. 

So, is the card worth it? Our Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card review lays out all the card’s advantages and disadvantages.

Your Choice: Cash Rewards or Points

Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card

Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card

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Current Offer

Earn $1,000 cash back or 100,000 bonus points after spending $25,000 in the first 3 months

Annual Fee

$125 (waived first year)

Rewards Rate

1.5% cash back per dollar spent, or earn 1 point per dollar spent and receive 5,000 bonus points each month you spend more than $10,000

Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• You choose between cash back or points
• Earn $1,000 cash back or 100,000 bonus points after spending $25,000 in the first 3 months
• Up to 200 employee cards at no additional cost

Drawbacks

• Only available to businesses with over $1 million in annual sales

Card Details

• Earn $1,000 cash back or 100,000 bonus points after spending $25,000 in the first 3 months
• 1.5% cash back per dollar spent, or earn 1 point per dollar spent and receive 5,000 bonus points each month you spend more than $10,000

Who should get the Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card?

The Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card is designed for businesses with over $1 million in annual sales. You won't qualify for this card if your business has under $1 million in annual sales. But truthfully, this probably isn’t one of the best business credit cards out there for small businesses.

The introductory bonus indicates that the Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card is tailored to larger companies with more significant margins. To earn the bonus, you’ll have to spend $25,000 in the first first 3 months after opening the card, which is quite a jump from the Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card, which only requires $3,000 in expenditures in those first first 3 months.

The Wells Fargo Business Elite card could also be a good fit for business owners who meet the sales minimum and travel frequently. It includes travel and emergency assistance services, an auto rental collision damage waiver, trip delay reimbursement coverage of up to $300, trip cancellation and interruption coverage, and lost baggage reimbursement.

Card basics

Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card benefits and perks

• Generous welcome offer: New cardholders can earn $1,000 cash back or 100,000 bonus points after spending $25,000 in the first 3 months.
• Choose your business rewards: Cardholders can earn rewards on their business spending as cash back or rewards points. The cashback bonus is 1.5% cash back per dollar spent, or earn 1 point per dollar spent and receive 5,000 bonus points each month you spend more than $10,000.
• Several point redemption options: Points can be redeemed for gift cards, merchandise, airline tickets, and more. You can also get a 10% credit every time you redeem your points online.
• Travel incidental fee reimbursement: Get reimbursed up to $100 per calendar year for travel incidental costs incurred by your company.
• Employee cards: You can receive up to 200 employee cards with no additional card fee. You can also set spending controls for employees.

Drawbacks to the Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card

• High annual fee: The annual fee of $125 (waived first year) is relatively high.
• Locked in: You can’t switch between cash back and points, and you must decide which one you want at account opening.
• Quarterly cash back: If you choose the cashback bonus, those rewards will only be credited to you on a quarterly basis in March, June, September, and December.

Earning & redeeming cash back

Best ways to earn

The best way to earn rewards with the Wells Fargo Business Elite Card is to use it for some larger business expenses within the first first 3 months after you open the account. You’ll need to spend $25,000 in those months to earn the bonus, so you can also provide cards to up to 200 employees to help you reach that goal.

For the life of the card, you can earn cash back or rewards points, but you have to decide which one you want to earn. 1.5% cash back per dollar spent, or earn 1 point per dollar spent and receive 5,000 bonus points each month you spend more than $10,000. You can redeem cash back as a statement credit or as a deposit in an eligible checking account or savings account.

Maximizing your redemptions

If you want to maximize your card rewards, opting for cash back may be a better choice than the rewards program. In general, you’ll receive more value from the cash back than the reward points. For example, if you spend $5,000 at 1.5% cash back, you’d earn $75. With the reward points, 1 point is redeemable for $0.01, so 5,000 points equate to $50.

Even when you make qualifying purchases and receive 5,000 bonus points each month you spend more than $10,000, the value you get from the cash back is still higher. For example, if you have $15,000 in monthly expenses, you’d earn 15,000 points plus the 5,000 bonus, giving you 20,000 points. Redeemed for $0.01 per point, the value of your reward would be $200. Meanwhile, the cashback reward would be $225.

Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card FAQs

Other cards to consider

Unless your business is bringing in more than $1 million in sales each year, the Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card may not be the best option.

Some other credit cards to consider are the Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card and the Ink Business Cash^® Credit Card.

The Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card is Wells Fargo’s option for smaller businesses that have annual sales of less than $2 million.

The card has a $0 annual fee and offers an introductory purchase APR of 0% for the first 9 months (then 7.99% + prime rate to 17.99% + prime rate). Similar to the Business Elite Signature Card, you can also choose whether to earn a cashback bonus or reward points for your purchases. However, the new customer offer is more attainable because you can earn $300 or 30,000 points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months.

To learn more, check out our Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card review.

The Chase Ink Business Cash Credit Card could be a better choice if the bulk of your business spending falls within the categories that earn 5% cash back.

The card offers 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year; 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year; and 1% cash back on all other purchases. There is a $0 annual fee for the Ink Business Cash card, and the bonus offer allows you to earn $350 when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months and an additional $400 when you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first six months after account opening.

For more details, read our Ink Business Cash Credit Card review.

Your Choice: Cash Rewards or Points

Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card

Wells Fargo Business Elite Signature Card

Why We Like It

Earn $1,000 cash back or 100,000 bonus points after spending $25,000 in the first 3 months

See how these cards compare:

Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card

• You choose between cash rewards or points
• Earn $300 or 30,000 points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months
• 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 9 months, then 7.99% + prime rate to 17.99% + prime rate APR

Ink Business Cash® Credit Card

• Solid rewards on office supply, telecom spending, gas, and dining
• Generous welcome offer
• Intro APR on purchases
• $0 annual fee
• Valuable purchase and travel protections