WFS Financial Inc Sets January 6, 2006 Special Meeting Date

At the special meeting, WFS Financial shareholders will be askedto consider and vote upon a proposal to approve the Agreement and Planof Merger, as amended and restated, dated as of September 12, 2005,among Wachovia Corporation ("Wachovia"), Westcorp, Western FinancialBank and WFS Financial, and to approve the merger of WFS Financialwith a newly formed subsidiary, with WFS Financial as the survivingcorporation, among other items.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within themeaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, andSection 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Suchstatements include, among other things, information regarding theproposed merger. The following factors, among others, could causeactual results to differ materially from that expressed in suchforward-looking statements: (i) receipt of the approval of the mergeragreement by Westcorp and WFS Financial shareholders; (ii) receipt ofrequisite regulatory approvals, including the approval of applicablebanking regulators; (iii) receipt of opinions as to the tax treatmentof the WFS Financial merger and the acquisition of Westcorp byWachovia, pursuant to the merger of Westcorp with and into Wachovia,with Wachovia the surviving corporation (the "Westcorp Merger"); (iv)listing on the New York Stock Exchange, Inc., subject to notice ofissuance, of Wachovia's common stock to be issued in the WestcorpMerger and the WFS Financial merger; (v) actual or potentiallitigation; and (vi) satisfaction of certain other conditions.Additional factors that could cause WFS Financial's results to differmaterially from those described in the forward-looking statements canbe found in WFS Financial's Annual Reports on Form 10-K, QuarterlyReports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with theSEC. All forward-looking statements in this document are made as ofthe date hereof, based on information available to WFS Financial as ofthe date hereof, and WFS Financial assumes no obligation to update anyforward-looking statement.

Additional Information

The proposed WFS Financial merger will be submitted to WFSFinancial's shareholders for their consideration and the WestcorpMerger will be submitted to Westcorp's shareholders for theirconsideration. Wachovia has filed a registration statement, whichincludes a preliminary joint proxy statement-prospectus for each ofWestcorp and WFS Financial, and each of Wachovia, Westcorp and WFSFinancial may file other relevant documents concerning the proposedmergers with the SEC. The registration statement and preliminary jointproxy statement-prospectus are not yet final and will be furtheramended. Shareholders are urged to read the definitive joint proxystatement-prospectus when it is available and any other relevantdocuments filed with the SEC, as well as any amendments or supplementsto those documents, because those documents will contain importantinformation about Wachovia, Westcorp, WFS Financial, the proposedmergers and transactions contemplated thereby and related matters. Youcan obtain a free copy of the definitive joint proxystatement-prospectus once it is available, as well as other filingscontaining information about Wachovia, Westcorp and WFS Financial, atthe SEC's website (http://www.sec.gov). You will also be able toobtain these documents, free of charge, at Wachovia's website(http://www.wachovia.com) under the tab "Inside Wachovia -- InvestorRelations" and then under the heading "Financial Reports -- SECFilings." Copies of the definitive joint proxy statement-prospectusonce it is available, and SEC filings that are incorporated byreference therein, can also be obtained, free of charge, by directinga request to Wachovia Corporation, Investor Relations, One WachoviaCenter, 301 South College Street, Charlotte, NC 28288-0206,(704)-374-6782; or to Westcorp or WFS Financial, Attn: InvestorRelations, 23 Pasteur, Irvine, CA 92618, (949)-727-1002.

Wachovia, Westcorp and WFS Financial and their respectivedirectors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants inthe solicitation of proxies from the shareholders of Westcorp and/orWFS Financial in connection with the proposed mergers. Informationabout the directors and executive officers of Wachovia is set forth inthe proxy statement for Wachovia's 2005 annual meeting ofshareholders, as filed with the SEC on a Schedule 14A on March 14,2005. Information about the directors and executive officers ofWestcorp is set forth in the proxy statement for Westcorp's 2005annual meeting of shareholders, as filed with the SEC on a Schedule14A on March 28, 2005, and information about the directors andexecutive officers of WFS Financial is set forth in the proxystatement for WFS Financial's 2005 annual meeting of shareholders, asfiled with the SEC on a Schedule 14A on March 28, 2005. Additionalinformation regarding the interests of those participants and otherpersons who may be deemed participants in the transaction may beobtained by reading the definitive joint proxy statement-prospectusonce it is available. You may obtain free copies of these documents asdescribed in the preceding paragraph.