[Expired] American Express Blue Cash Preferred $400 Signup Bonus + Waived Annual Fee (E*Trade Customers, Free To Join)

Update 1/16/23: Down to $250 now

The Offer

Direct link to offer

Last year, E*Trade/Morgan Stanley partnered with American Express on a new Morgan Stanley Blue Cash Preferred cobranded card. Today they launched a new special signup bonus, exclusively for E*Trade and Morgan Stanley customers:

  • Get a signup bonus of $400 after $3,000 in spend within the first six months of card membership.
  • The $95 annual fee is waived for the first year.

Anyone can sign up for a free E*Trade account and then they’ll be eligible to apply for this card. The fine print implies that the bonus will be available through 1/23/23.

Card Details

  • Annual fee of $95 waived first year
  • Card earns the following cashback rates:
    • 6% at U.S. supermarkets (up to $6,000 in spend annually, then 1%)
    • 6% on U.S. Streaming subscriptions
    • 3% cash back at U.S. gas stations
    • 3% cash back on Transit (e.g taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and more)
    • 1% on everything else
  • Receive $7 back each month (up to $84 back annually) after spending $13.99 or more each month on an eligible subscription to The Disney Bundle which includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ using your Card. Enrollment required.
  • This Morgan Stanley cobranded version of the card gets $100 statement credit every year after spending $15,000 on eligible purchases
  • You can only get the sign up bonus on American Express cards once

Our Verdict

This new offer with $400 + waived annual fee is the best ever, and they give 6 months for the spend which makes it easier. This offer is only for E*Trade or Morgan Stanley customers. I wrote in the past that you should be able to get this bonus even if you’ve previously gotten the regular Blue Cash Preferred bonus since this is a separate co-branded product. This card version also has the $100 statement credit perk, though a lot of people won’t want to put $15,000 of spend on the card (see also this comment).

Prior to this offer, the best bonus we saw on the Blue Cash Preferred card before was $350 + waived annual fee (though there was a $200 + $200 discount on Amazon offered and a home furnishing offer for up to $500).

Reader David points out that this signup bonus is no-lifetime-limit and it should work even for someone who signed up for the card a year ago at launch. We’ll add it to our list of the best credit card signup bonuses.

Hat tip to ham_questionmark
    Chuck
  • On October 31, 2022, 20:36
Tags: american express blue cash preferredetrademorgan stanley

View Comments (135)

  • Chatted with AE to cancel card after $95 annual fee showed up this month (can’t do before). No downgrade option so I had the credit line transferred to another AE card. The entire $95 was refunded.

  • Annual fees just posted, has been in pop up jail for years, wondering if should keep this card and pay for one year?....

  • AMEX is showing $250 after 3k spend following the post link. be very careful, i almost clicked without checking. might want to update the post to make sure more are aware of this

  • The link to the offer takes me to etrade & mentions the $400 bonus, but when I click to apply it takes me to Amex page where they mention $250. Any ideas as to which it is?

  • Very complicated to cancel this credit card. They don't pay the rewards on the 2 last remaining month and the credit score went from 780 to 720 once closed. They also never paid the $35 reward for Macy's Wine (I had to ask 3 times in 6 months and everytime they tried to save time to keep the $95 membership .. and never paid that, i never had the lfeeling to be rip off like that with other banks). Good luck if you can churn them, once what they deserve.

    • Thanks for the DP. I will redeem the rewards and not use the card in the last couple of months if I want to cancel it.

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