For years, the entry point for the American Express Platinum Card® Exclusively for Morgan Stanley was to open an Access Investing account. However, that option was eliminated a few years ago. But Doctor of Credit reports good news for those interested in this flavor of Platinum card: E*Trade customers now qualify for the Morgan Stanley variant of the card. That is potentially exciting news since the Morgan Stanley version offers a free additional cardholder, which provides that additional cardholder with perks like lounge access and more.
The Deal
- A landing page on us.etrade.com now indicates that E*Trade customers are among those potentially eligible for the American Express Platinum Card® Exclusively for Morgan Stanley
- Direct link to the E*Trade landing page
Quick Thoughts
The following update has been added to the application terms & conditions:
The Platinum Card® from American Express exclusively for Morgan Stanley is only available for clients who have an Eligible Account with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (which includes E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley) or Morgan Stanley Private Bank, National Association.
An Eligible Account is a brokerage or bank account (i) held in your name, (ii) held by a trust where you are both the grantor and trustee of such trust, or (iii) held as a beneficial owner of a personal holding company, a non-operating limited liability company, a non-operating limited partnership, or a similar legal entity. American Express will only issue the Card to (1) a Morgan Stanley client who is an individual; and (2) an individual associated with a Morgan Stanley client (if the Morgan Stanley client itself is not an individual). Eligibility is subject to change. American Express may cancel your Card Account and participation in this program, if you do not maintain an Eligible Account.
I’m not positive when E*Trade customers became eligible, but I know that there was a time in the past when they were not. Further, the landing page for the card at the E*Trade website indicates that E*Trade customers are “now” eligible, so this appears to be a relatively recent change.
This is great news for those who want the Morgan Stanley version of this card, since it should be possible to open a free self-directed E*Trade account and then qualify for the Morgan Stanley version of the Platinum card.
The key benefit of this flavor of the Amex Platinum card is that the first additional cardholder is free. An additional Platinum-level cardholder on the other consumer Platinum cards costs $195. If your goal is for two cardholders to have benefits like access to Centurion Lounges, Escape Lounges or Delta Sky Clubs (when flying Delta the same day), the Morgan Stanley version of the card is the least expensive way to accomplish that. See more detail in this post.
This development made me wonder whether there is now a play for a discounted Morgan Stanley Platinum card.
A key benefit of the Morgan Stanley version of the Platinum card is the chance to earn the annual engagement bonus. Morgan Stanley Platinum Cash Plus customers receive an annual $895 engagement bonus. Historically, it has been necessary to have a Morgan Stanley investment account to get a Platinum Cash Plus account, and the Platinum Cash Plus account requires a $25,000 monthly balance to avoid paying a monthly fee for that Platinum Cash Plus account. Given the current interest rate environment, the opportunity cost of keeping $25K in the Platinum Cash Plus account has outweighed the value of that rebate.
However, I wondered aloud in our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group yesterday whether it is possible to open a Platinum Cash Plus account with an E*Trade self-directed brokerage account. Here’s why: if it is possible for an E*Trade customer to open the Platinum Cash Plus account, then it might make sense to pay the $55 monthly fee for the Platinum Cash Plus account in order to get the $895 annual engagement bonus. If that worked, it would be possible to get a Platinum card at a nice discount:
- Open an E*Trade account
- Open a Platinum CashPlus account
- *Pay the $55 monthly fee for the CashPlus account* (since the opportunity cost of keeping $25K in the account is too high!)
- Open the Morgan Stanley Platinum card
- Qualify for the $895 engagement bonus (which requires having a Platinum CashPlus account)
- End up paying $660 (in monthly fees for the Platinum CashPlus account) + $895 (Morgan Stanley Platinum card annual fee) and getting back $895 (engagement bonus). The net result is paying $660/yr for a Platinum card that comes with a free Platinum-level additional cardholder.
Again, to be clear, I do not know if this is possible. The terms regarding who is eligible for a Cash Plus account are unclear. Here’s what it says on the Morgan Stanley website:
Unfortunately, that is a slim description. It notes that eligible investment accounts include but are not limited to a few example account types. I am sure that a self-directed Morgan Stanley brokerage account qualifies to open a Cash Plus account. I don’t know whether a self-directed E*Trade account qualifies for a Cash Plus account (keep in mind that Morgan Stanley owns E*Trade).
Note that members of our Frequent Miler Insiders report receiving a 1099 for the engagement bonus, though I believe that the reporting threshold for a 1099-MISC increases to $2,000 in 2026 (this is not tax or investment advice; consult your tax professional).
Even if the Platinum Cash Plus move is not possible, it is obviously good news for many that it is now far easier to qualify for this version of the card, since it offers the opportunity to have that additional cardholder for $195 less than on other versions of the card.
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But this subject to the “family” language right?
I have a MS Platinum card via the Access Investing account. They’re shutting down Access Investment accounts early next year, and have been calling to move you off of that product.
One of the options they presented was opening a Platinum CashPlus account. I went with that option, with the intent on doing the exact same thing you described — pay the $55/month CashPlus fee, a la $660 for the year… in order to get the $895 Engagement Bonus at the end of the year.
Interesting. I was able to get a Morgan Stanley Platinum Card in 2023 despite having no Morgan Stanley accounts and only E*Trade brokerage and savings accounts at the time. I never understood why I was able to do that based on what I had read at the time and since until now.
To open a CashPlus account, you need to have an existing relationship with Morgan Stanley (E-Trade brokerage does not count)
I read that the $895 engagement bonus is taxable, so unless your total federal and state taxes together is less than 26%, it’s not worth paying the $55 monthly fee.
The fact that they have issued 1099s for this (but likely won’t in 2026) is addressed in the post.
The employee stock purchase plan for my wife’s employer uses E*Trade as its platform. I’m wondering if $25k in her balances there qualifies.
You’re misunderstanding. Balance at E*Trade is meaningless here.
The mention of $25K pertains to the Cash Plus account, which is a Morgan Stanley cash management account (think like the brokerage version of a checking account). You need to keep $25K in that Cash Plus account in order to avoid paying a monthly fee for having a Cash Plus account (the monthly fee is currently $55 if you don’t have $25K in the Cash Plus account).
The reason that the Cash Plus account matters is because that’s how you qualify for the $895 engagement bonus.
But I can’t just walk into Morgan Stanley and open a Cash Plus account. You need to already be a Morgan Stanley customer in order to get that account. The question here is whether having an E*Trade account qualifies you to open a Cash Plus account.
It used to be possible to open an Access Investing account with an account minimum of $5,000 and that qualified you to open the Cash Plus account, but Morgan Stanley did away with that Access Investing account, so it is harder for many folks to get a qualifying Morgan Stanley account so that they could open a Cash Plus account. So I’m wondering if E*Trade opens access to Cash Plus.
Again, the amount of money you have invested at E*Trade doesn’t make a difference here.
Im in the same boat. Would love to know this