My son occasionally uses a debit card tied to my Wells Fargo savings account while at college and I hate not knowing what’s going on. Mostly I need to keep an eye on my account balance. Is there a way to set that up so I get alerts if my balance goes below a set amount?
That’s very generous of you to let your son use your Wells Fargo account for expenses without approving them first! I hope he is using that great power wisely. 🙂
Turns out that Wells Fargo has been on the forefront of online banking for many years and while other banks have caught up, there are plenty of alerts and triggers you can set in your Wells account so that you know exactly what’s going on, whether it’s a specific transaction or your balance. You can also set a threshold amount so that you get a text alert, email message or even a “push” message from the Wells Fargo app on your smartphone if your balance drops too low.
All darn handy and a very nice way to be able to pay attention to what’s going on in your account, whether you have multiple people sharing it, or just fly solo and want to ensure there’s no fraud occurring!
To start, log in to your account at wellsfargo.com
[Note: I never include links because particularly with banking, you should always type in the URL o fyour bank, not rely on links in email, text message or on Web pages. Don’t trust anyone, it’s important!]
Once you’re logged in, click on the “More” link on the top right:
It’s a bit confusing, but there are menus within menus, so click on “Accounts and Settings” and you’ll see more options appear:
You want to click on “Manage Alerts” and you’ll find that there are wealth of options (see what I did there? 🙂 )
Let’s start by setting up your account balance alert. That’s easy: Click on “Balance Alerts” and you’ll see the following options:
As you can see, I have mine set to notify me via email whenever my account balance drops below $500.00. Make sure you check the appropriate checkbox, enter your threshold number and choose what kind of notification — or notifications! — you would like to receive.
Done. That’s it.
While you’re here, however, click on the “About Alerts” tab to see all the different types of alerts you can set up for your account or accounts:
Spend a few minutes setting it all up and you can have instant notifications every time your son uses the account, every transaction you do, and any time your balance falls below your specified threshold. Darn handy, really!