# How would Wells Fargo make money on more accounts?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-wells-fargo-make-money-on-more-accounts/765845>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 13, 2016, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-wells-fargo-make-money-on-more-accounts/765845 "2016-09-13T11:59:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 8

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**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-wells-fargo-make-money-on-more-accounts/765845/8 "2016-09-13T13:52:24Z")

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> [@Sigene](#):
>
> Hmmm…  
> Perhaps I’m not clear…
> 
> I’m **not asking about the sales people and the incentives they have** to financially benefit by gaming the system.
> 
> I’m asking about the general company policy and practice…How does the COMPANY benefit from having me open more accounts, legitimately or not?

If they charge any kind of fees or interest, monthly or otherwise for those accounts, then that’s how they make money on them, even if they don’t actually make money by lending your deposited money back out, or investing it somewhere else (how banks classically make money).

I mean, a bog-standard Wells Fargo checking account charges like $5-10 per month in fees, which is almost certainly more than they can get from investing/re-lending some guy’s $500 balance.

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