Wells Fargo Helps Educate Consumers About Credit

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is participating in the American Bankers Association Education Foundation’s (ABAEF) national Get Smart About Credit Day, Oct. 21. This is the ABAEF’s eighth annual event to educate consumers about the importance of credit and how to use it responsibly.

Wells Fargo’s newly launched educational video series on credit and an online quiz (https://labs.wellsfargo.com/) help consumers identify how much they know about credit. The videos feature Wells Fargo team members providing information ranging from how credit works to what lenders look for when reviewing credit applications. The videos, available in both English and Spanish, include:

• Understanding Credit - Introducción al crédito
• The 4 C’s of Credit - Las 4 C del crédito
• Establishing and Improving Credit - Cómo establecer y mejorar su crédito
• Protecting Credit by Preventing Identity Theft - Cómo proteger su crédito y su identidad

The English videos are available at the Wells Fargo Smarter Credit^TM Center (https://www.wellsfargo.com/smarter_credit/index), Financial Education Center (https://www.wellsfargo.com/financial-education/index), and YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/wellsfargo). The Spanish videos are available at the Wells Fargo YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2F9C8EA9595D90FE).

The educational quiz is a quick and easy way to determine how much consumers really know about credit. These new consumer resources complement Wells Fargo’s educational programs such as its Hands on Banking® (http://www.handsonbanking.org/en/) and Stagecoach Island^SM (http://blog.wellsfargo.com/stagecoachisland/).

"Credit and how one qualifies can be a mystery to a lot of people,” says Jamie Moldafsky, an executive vice president in Wells Fargo’s Home Equity Group who is leading the company’s Smarter Credit initiative. "With today’s economic challenges, it’s more important than ever for consumers to understand credit and debt management. We have developed numerous tools for consumers to learn more about their credit, so they are better equipped.”

In addition to these new offerings, throughout October, team members from Wells Fargo are reaching out to communities and talking to individuals and families across the country about how to manage credit and personal finances.

"Get Smart About Credit Day is an opportunity to teach our customers and the community the importance of credit,” adds Angel Zapata, vice president and national manager of Hands on Banking. "We hope these resources will help our customers understand how to manage credit and personal finances to become financially secure.”

The Wells Fargo Smarter Credit Center is an online resource center that provides information on using credit responsibly, including establishing or rebuilding credit, ordering free credit reports from the bureaus, and creating budgets.

Wells Fargo’s Hands on Banking program and its Spanish version, El futuro en tus manos^® (http://www.handsonbanking.org/es/index.html) has been used in thousands of classrooms, nonprofit organizations, senior living centers, and homes since it was launched in 2004. The free financial education program teaches people at all stages of life about the basics of responsible money management, including how to create a budget, save and invest, borrow responsibly, buy a home and establish a small business.

Stagecoach Island, Wells Fargo’s free virtual world, is an entertaining and interactive companion site to Hands on Banking. Educators can use the Stagecoach Island virtual world in the classroom to teach important lessons in budgeting, saving, managing credit, buying a home and getting a job.

The Wells Fargo Financial Education Center offers quick and easy access to online education tools and resources that can help customers make informed decisions and prepare them for financial success.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.2 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 10,000 banking stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com and wachovia.com), and other distribution channels across North America and internationally. With more than 278,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in America. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked #19 on Fortune’s 2009 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.