Platinum CashPlus Bank Account

The Platinum CashPlus Bank Account is a cash management account Morgan Stanley launched earlier this year. Since it is called “Plus,” you do in fact need to already have another Morgan Stanley account in order to apply. This account comes with some special perks (see here; the accompanying debit card and account benefits are also decent), including the $550 credit benefit on the AMEX Morgan Stanley Platinum Card discussed in this post.

Various benefits:

Unlimited ATM fee rebates worldwide; Unlimited check writing; Comes with a debit card.; No foreign transaction fees when using the debit card.; No cash advance fees.; Cash withdrawals available from banks and tellers that accept MasterCard.

The Morgan Stanley CashPlus account offers identity protection through Experian, insufficient funds coverage, the ability to lock and unlock your debit card, price protection and robust online tools. Additional benefits at the Platinum tier include greater ID protection and a $550 “engagement bonus” if you have a Platinum American Express card from Morgan Stanley.


DOC posted an interesting article today (yes, I translated it). If you have a Morgan Stanley Platinum CashPlus Bank Account (you need an investment relationship with MS first in order to open one), and then apply for the AMEX Morgan Stanley Platinum Card, you can receive a $550 credit each calendar year (the order cannot be changed), effectively offsetting the annual fee. For details, see this PDF:

$550 Annual Engagement Bonus for Platinum CashPlus accounts may be received if 1) you are the Basic Card Member of the Platinum Card from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley (the Basic Card Member is defined as the primary account holder) ; or 2) if you spend at least $100,000 during the calendar year across Morgan Stanley Debit Cards associated with Platinum CashPlus Accounts in your ALG.  Each ALG is eligible for one bonus per calendar year.

Each client is eligible for one bonus per calendar year.

Application Order

First, existing cardholders are definitely not eligible for this benefit. If you do not yet have the Morgan Stanley Platinum Card and want to get the $550 bonus, you need to open/apply in the following order (this order cannot be changed):

However, this account has a $45 monthly fee (waived if you meet the requirements). If you are willing to pay the monthly fee, that comes to $540 per year, so you would only save $10 versus the annual fee on the AMEX Morgan Stanley Platinum Card... not much.

Monthly Fee Waiver

Of course, there is also a way to waive the monthly fee (you need to satisfy several requirements at the same time; thanks to 半步云霄 and HighFive for the correction). The details are as follows:

  • Requirement 1: Maintain an average daily total balance of at least $25,000 in Morgan Stanley accounts (it is unclear whether this includes balances in other accounts; DOC thinks it does, but from the wording it seems it may count only funds in the CashPlus account, which would be pretty unfriendly)
  • Requirement 2: Have at least $5,000 in deposits each month; Zelle, checks, payroll DD, etc. all count
  • Requirement 3: Have one non-CashPlus account; the Morgan Stanley Access Investing account opened earlier is enough to satisfy this
  • Requirement 4: Have an online account; in practice, requirements 3 and 4 are not real hurdles
  • In addition, any monthly Social Security benefit deposit, no matter the amount, can also satisfy requirement 1
Eligible monthly deposit categories: Direct Deposit of payroll; Incoming Transfers; Mobile Check Deposit; Branch Check Deposit; Incoming Send Money with Zelle®; Incoming Wire; Any Social Security Deposit; Distributions from a Morgan Stanley Retirement Account

It may sound difficult, but if you have an extra $25,000 in cash, it should not be too hard to meet the requirements. After all, there are many ways to generate the required $5,000 in monthly deposits. The balance does not need to stay there every day; you only need a $25,000 average daily balance within one statement period. For example, you could deposit $750,000 for a single day to meet this requirement.

Is It Worth Opening?

There is no real need to worry about the safety of this account. It comes with FDIC insurance covering up to $250,000 in deposits. Also, do not forget that the AMEX Morgan Stanley Platinum Card can permanently carry one free authorized user card (with various benefits, and credits shared). If you have not yet applied for this Platinum card, can make use of the no-annual-fee authorized user card, and are able to waive the Platinum CashPlus Bank Account monthly fee, then this setup is definitely a good fit for you.

This account does pay interest, but the rate is very low: 0.03% on the first $250,000 in deposits. You may get better returns by keeping your money in a savings account.

Morgan Stanley CashPlus is more on par with traditional brick-and-mortar checking accounts and offers 0.03% APY on balances below $250,000.

Interestingly, this bonus is also based on the calendar year (Each client is eligible for one bonus per calendar year), and it is not clear how it is paid out. If you hold the account for only one year, could you get the bonus twice? In other words, could you come out ahead by $550? If it is easy to get it twice, then even if you cannot waive the monthly fee, it still seems pretty good.

Since this is a product from this year, there are still relatively few data points on how to use this account. Although it has existed for a while, it does not seem especially flexible. Feel free to share your DP!

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