Though it offers solid rewards rates and a nice mix of bonus categories, the Autograph card is missing useful travel benefits like airport lounge access and credits for expedited security screening. So it may not be the best choice if you’re looking for premium travel perks or want to maximize your rewards on flight or hotel bookings.
The Autograph card's intro APR offer is also shorter than what you’ll find on competing rewards cards.
Perks: Limited value for travelers
Although the Autograph card earns rewards at a solid rate on both everyday and travel purchases, its other benefits are a bit lacking — especially for frequent travelers. In fact, the card doesn’t include any notable travel perks other than common Visa Signature® features.
The Autograph card comes with Visa Signature® Concierge, which gives you complimentary 24/7 assistance in booking travel, event tickets and dinner reservations, as well as Luxury Hotel Collection perks, including automatic room upgrades (when available), complimentary in-room Wi-Fi, breakfast for two, a $25 food and beverage credit and more.
Although the travel protections attached to this card can come in handy, they’re often beneficial only when something goes wrong, like collision damage waivers for auto rentals, pay-per-use roadside dispatch and other travel and emergency assistance services (Terms apply). There’s little proactive value in the card’s perks.
However, the card’s cellphone protection perk offers great value, especially considering this benefit is becoming harder to find on credit cards. The Autograph card’s protections make it one of the best cards for cellphone insurance: If your phone is damaged or stolen, you can be reimbursed up to $600 for the cost of repair or replacement (up to $1,200 per 12-month period, subject to a $25 deductible per claim). To use this benefit, you must consistently use the Wells Fargo Autograph Card to pay your monthly cellphone bill.
Redemption: Limited value for travel bookings
The Wells Fargo Autograph’s redemption options are all worth one cent per point. Many competing no-annual-fee travel cards make your points less valuable when you redeem as cash rewards. Plus, the Autograph is also one of the only rewards cards that lets you withdraw rewards from an ATM or automatically redeem rewards.
That said, though the Autograph card offers a nice mix of redemption options, Wells Fargo Rewards points carry limited value when redeemed for travel. For instance, you can’t transfer your points to airline and hotel partners. For other cards, points typically get a slight boost in value when you redeem points for travel rather than cash back. This drags down the card’s overall value compared to other travel-oriented rewards cards.
Competing travel cards from issuers like Capital One also offer several airline and hotel transfer partners, allowing you to move your points to another loyalty program, which, in some cases, can almost double the value of your points. The Autograph is also the issuer’s only card that earns Wells Fargo Rewards points. This means that, unlike competing no-annual-fee rewards cards, the Autograph card won’t let you pool your points with a premium travel card for potentially more redemption value either.
It’s also worth noting that several redemption options require you to earn a minimum number of points before you can redeem. You can manually redeem for several rewards options starting at just 1 point, but automatic cash reward and paper check redemptions have to be in $25 cash rewards increments (2,500 points). Similarly, Wells Fargo ATM cash reward withdrawals can only be completed in $20 cash rewards increments (2,000 points).
APR: Subpar introductory offer
The Autograph Card comes with a 0 percent introductory APR on purchases for 12 months from account opening (20.24 percent, 25.24 percent, or 29.99 percent variable APR after that). While this is a welcomed feature, the intro APR length is a bit short even for a no-annual-fee rewards card. Several competing rewards cards offer intro APRs of 15 months or longer.
The Autograph card is also missing an intro APR on balance transfers, so it won’t be of much help if you need to chip away at existing debt. If that’s your goal, another Wells Fargo card, such as the Wells Fargo Reflect® Card, would be a better fit since it offers one of the longest intro APR periods on the market.
On the bright side, the Autograph card’s fees are relatively low. There is no annual fee and no foreign currency conversion fees, which is great if you frequently travel abroad. Many cards charge a foreign transaction fee of 3 percent.
