This study investigates stress‐based fatigue assessment methods to determine their applicability to welded cover plate joints subject to axial and bending loading. The nominal stress (NS), hot spot stress (HSS), 1 mm stress (OM), effective notch stress (ENS), theory of critical distances (TCD), and stress averaging (SA) methods are covered, and their accuracy and reliability are evaluated. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is limited fatigue test data available for cover plate joints subjected to bending loading. In this study, fatigue tests are performed with cover plate joints under axial and bending loading. Evaluation of the fatigue assessment methods is based on the test results. It is observed that for axial loading, the ENS and OM method have the highest accuracy. For bending, the OM method is non‐conservative, and the other methods are overly conservative. Using design curves recommended for thin‐walled welded joints subjected to bending highly improves accuracy.