The Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley
FM Mini Review: In my opinion, this is the best of the consumer Amex Platinum cards when you need two cards thanks to Morgan Stanley offering one free authorized user. Unfortunately you do need to have a Morgan Stanley account to apply.
Card Type: Amex Pay Over Time Card
Earning rate: ⚬ 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel ⚬ 5X prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel
Big spend bonus: $500 after $100K cardmember year spend
Noteworthy perks: This card includes all of the great perks that come with the American Express Platinum Card, plus: ⚬ 1 Free Authorized User ⚬ Redeem points for 1 cent each into your Morgage Stanley account ⚬ $550 Annual Engagement Bonus for Reserved Clients
See also: Amex Platinum Guide
Rewards
| Amex Membership Rewards points can be incredibly valuable if you know how to use them. In general, if you use Membership Rewards points to pay for merchandise or travel, you won't get good value from your points. One exception is with the Business Platinum card where you'll get a 35% point rebate when using points to book certain flights. This gives you approximately 1.5 cents per point value, which is pretty good. Another exception is with the Business Gold Card where you'll get a 25% point rebate when using points to book certain flights. This gives you approximately 1.33 cents per point value. If you don't have either card, then your best bet is to transfer points to airline miles in order to book high value awards. More details can be found here: Amex Membership Rewards Complete Guide. |
Application Tips
Amex Application Tips
- Safe to Apply: Amex is the safest bank for trying your luck at earning a new welcome bonus offer. They don’t usually issue a hard pull when denying your application, and if you already have an Amex card, they won't usually issue a hard pull when approved for another one. Plus, they’ll now warn you during the application process if you’re not eligible for the bonus.
- Lifetime Rule: If you've ever had the same card before, you are most likely prohibited from earning a welcome bonus offer for the card if you apply now. Fortunately you'll be warned during the application process if this is the case. Amex is known to "forget" that you've had a card after about 7 years.
- 90 Day Rule: You can get at most two credit cards within 90 days. This rule does not apply to Pay Over Time (charge) cards.
- 5 credit card max: Amex usually won't approve applications for new credit cards if you already have 5 or more Amex credit cards or 10 or more charge cards.
- Better Offers: You may be able to get a better offer than the best available public offer. Details here.
- Hard inquiries combine into 1 when approved same day
Check application status here.
If denied, call reconsideration: 877-399-3083 (new accountholders); 866-314-0237 (current accountholders)
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Related Cards (Membership Rewards)
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American Express® Business Gold Card Alternate offer: Some are targeted for an offer of 130K points after $10K in purchases in the first 3 months. You can see this post for more details Targeted Business Gold offer for 130K (Highly YMMV) Recent better offer: 70K points + up to $300 in statement credits: 70K points after $10K spend in 3 months + up to $150 in statement credits for US shipping purchases and up to $150 in statement credits US advertising purchases. [Expired 4/7/21] |
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Bad news: The Morgan Stanley Engagement Bonus (refund of the $695 AMEX fee) is now taxable !!
So, keeping the $25,000 in the cash account with virtually zero interest and the $5,000+ in the access investing is now becoming less and less appealing. $25K invested in a savings account should get at least 3.5% (even Capital One is 3.3%).
Interestingly, the Access Investing where I expected to lose money is actually doing OK.
Seems like the 125k offer has expired.
[…] the Morgan Stanley $550 Annual Engagement Bonus. This relationship bonus perfectly offsets the Morgan Stanley Platinum Card’s annual fee. It appears, though, that you can earn the same $550 each year even if you don’t […]
[…] Avianca LifeMiles is offering a sale on miles through One Mile at a Time with a bonus of up to 145%. That brings the cost per point as low as 1.35 cents per point. What’s more, you’ll earn credit card rewards as though it is airline spend, so you could earn as much as 5x with cards like the Citi Prestige card or the Amex Platinum card. […]