The Morgan Stanley Credit Card from American Express
FM Mini Review: Decent no-fee card thanks to its 2X category bonuses, but you do need to have a Morgan Stanley account to apply.
Card Type: Amex Credit Card
Earning rate: ⚬ 2X U.S. Restaurants ⚬ 2X select U.S. Department Stores ⚬ 2X Car Rentals Purchased Directly from Select Car Rental Companies ⚬ 2X Airfare Purchased Directly from Airlines
Big spend bonus: $100 after $25K card membership year spend
Noteworthy perks: Invest with rewards (1 point = 1 cent)
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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Found this card interesting. Any DP is applied without Morgan Stanley brokerage account?
I was hoping readers would comment. I haven’t heard of any datapoints one way or the other.