Update 2/11/25: Bonus is back, now $300. Valid until March 31, 2025. Still contains targeted language.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:
- Availability: Targeted, terms state ‘To take advantage of this offer, you must be the original recipient of the offer email from Morgan Stanley Private Bank.’
- Direct deposit required: Yes, two direct deposits of $1,000+
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Unknown
- ChexSystems: Yes, but approves if frozen
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: Unknown
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date: December 15, 2024
Contents
The Offer
- E*Trade is offering a $250 bonus when you open a new Checking or Max-Rate Checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Make at least 2 qualifying direct deposits, each of $1,000 or more, within 90 days of opening your new account
The Fine Print
- To take advantage of this offer, you must be the original recipient of the offer email from Morgan Stanley Private Bank.
- Offer is valid only for individual and jointly owned Max-Rate Checking or Checking accounts opened online. You are not eligible for this offer if you have or had owned or co-owned (joint) a Max-Rate Checking or Checking Account within the last 12 months from when you enroll in this offer. In the case of a joint account, only the primary account holder (the account holder who signed up first) is eligible for a bonus. Offer excludes non-U.S. residents, at time of account opening or post account opening address changes.
- This offer is only eligible to one newly opened Bank Max-Rate Checking OR Checking account funded within 30 days of account opening. You cannot open and enroll both account types at the same time. If you open both account types, your Max-Rate Checking Account will be auto-enrolled in the offer.
- Customers may only be enrolled in one checking offer at a time. Cannot be combined with any other checking offers
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Checking has no monthly fees to worry about.
Early Account Termination Fee
Our Verdict
Shame that this is a targeted offer, think it’s definitely worth doing if you were targeted though. We would add this to our best bank bonuses if it wasn’t targeted.
Hat tip to readers bosox & zerosum
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
E-Trade $250 checking bonus
Signed up for this using the leaked link that was supposed to be targeted early December
Made two real direct deposits 20DEC and 3JAN. Received the email notifications that I was on track to receive the bonus after each deposit
Paid a few bills via ACH and then let it sit with $10 balance.
Interestingly I received an email on 27MAR that stated I didn’t qualify but didn’t give specifics as to why not. I figured upon review they caught that I wasn’t targeted.
I decided to shoot my shot via chat and make them actually tell me that. The rep was rude and kept saying my DD wasn’t recurring and thats why. I told him it only required two DD and that I met the terms 😂
We went back and forth for a bit until he ultimately just ended the chat.
At that point I wrote it off as a failed attempt but checked the account last night and the bonus posted on 4MAR.
I doubt your sparing match with CS made a difference. I am starting to think if you have patience, even all of those that got the denial message will end up with the bonus sometime later after the notice. That’s what happened to my P2 and I, as we never complained. Took about two weeks for us. I guess time will tell if others are having similar results.
Yeah, I think for my P2, I’m just going to wait it out for a few weeks before chatting. I can’t really think what Morgan Stanley is trying to achieve here. They are a large financial institution and it seems very odd that they went to all this effort to rip people off to save what I couldn’t only imagine be a few million dollars at most. As I pointed out in some of my other posts, the bank folks seem super disorganized, though my interactions with them before this latest round were actually quite nice.
You meant that the bonus posted on April 4th, correct?
March 7 email: You’re on track to receive a cash bonus in your new account.
April 4 email: Unfortunately, your account did not meet the offer requirements to qualify for the cash bonus.
I was targeted for the promo, did not move money out. I have 6-figures with Etrade, what kind of horsesh*t is this….
P2 got the email this morning. I was actually paid though even though I opened my account before hers, Etrade had to manually apply the promo to my account. P2 had legitimate DDs. Will give it a bit to see if they change their mind and deposit anyways and if not file CFPB.
You guys wont believe this.. so I was like lets show EFraud some love and use its debit card to feign my interest in their crappy bank and account.
Went to Chipotle, paid for the main item with my points but got a side tortilla extra (about 50c) and the cashier said its on her. No matter how much I insisted she wont charge me, so then I said I will take a small soda as well, and she gave me the cup for free too. I took that as a sign and moved on after thanking her profusely.
Then I stopped by a small store on the walk back home and picked up 2 bananas (I guessed about a dollar) and this guy wont charge me either, said he would have thrown them out anyways at closing time. They were almost at perfect stage of ripeness. Well I took that as another sign and thanked him and moved on. I plan to bring both these kind people something in return later though.
I guess I will just pay a utility bill and rest my case.
That’s some pretty interesting luck. You should have bought a lottery ticket. 🙂
When I go out to eat and I ask for anything extra it seems to get added on very quickly. A scoop of sour cream? “That will be $2.50…”
Reminds me of an old DP about a cashier insisting to pay for a single banana purchase out of the “take a penny pot” and insisted the customer not use their card, IIRC.
I guess some days are good like that, you keep running into nice and kind people and their little acts cheer you up.
I also started doing something weird lately. Whenever my neighbor goes to Costco, I ask her to bring me 2-3 big boxes of some nice candy and then whenever I go to the Chipotle that I go to, or the local grocery store and the Taco Bell, I take a bunch with me and give them to all the folks working there. The happiness it brings to them and to me is worth the weirdness I feel about doing it.
Guess what trying to do a bill pay and getting this..
Bill Pay Terms & ConditionsTo enroll, please review and agree to the updated terms and conditions.We’re experiencing a technical issue. Please try again later.
has anybody else who has not been paid still not been paid? I see some people reporting they were paid, but I imagine it’s not everybody right?
I still haven’t been paid
I did a fidelity CMA transfer and I just got a notification that I didn’t qualify for the bonus.
zeroed out P1s account but left $10 in P2 just because I couldn’t remember the password at the time. looked today and P2 received the $250 promo bonus on 4/2 and P1 still has a zero balance. Probably would have gotten both account promotions if i had left some money in both accounts.
I don’t know whether to be happy at my luck or pissed off at my impatience.
The following applies for both P1 and P2:
12/10 – opened checking, was targeted
2/11 – completed 2nd DD of $1K+, received email about being on track to receive $250 bonus
Note: each DD was withdrawn starting 3 days after the deposit, not at once. Something like this (not exact):
T+3: pull out $490
T+4: pull out $475
T+5: pull out most of remaining balance
Where things differ between P1 and P2 is that on 3/27 P2 received the “you didn’t meet the offer requirements” email but P1 did not. The only real difference is that P1 had a $10.00 balance whereas P2’s balance was ~$6.
I theorize that maybe withdrawing the DD funds was less of an issue as long as the account did not have a < $10 balance after 90 days during the evaluation/waiting period.
Anyway, despite the above P2 received the bonus yesterday as others have reported. Even though 120 days since opening hadn’t passed for P2, E*Trade must’ve credited everyone whom they sent the “no bonus” email regardless of the timeline. P1 didn’t get the “no bonus” email so thus didn’t get the bonus yet, but I expect it’ll post next week (4/9 = day 120).
Gotta hand it to the DoC effect on this one. E*Trade/M.S. felt the heat and decided to reverse course.
I have at least 4 requests sent by the CSR to the Promo team to clarify why exactly I was disqualified (completed 2 legit DDs but withdrew shortly after) – they keep restating T&C but nothing specific on what was not completed/met. They just keep saying that Morgan Stanley reserves the right… total BS if you ask me and to add to the insult I already paid $15×3 in monthly fees to keep the account open in hopes of this bonus.
You should have converted the checking account to the free regular Checking version. Once you do that, I would wait it out a little longer before giving up.
Adam B
I didn’t want to make any more changes to give them more reasons but the way it is going, it is not a bad idea – thank you for the tip!
anyone know if they still have the lifetime limit of 3 external accounts?
DP
P1 (Targeted)
12/3 Opened + $25 deposit
12/10 Fidelity CMA $1k
12/17 Fidelity CMA $1k
12/20 Pushed external $2k
3/31 Fidelity CMA $1k
4/1 Fidelity CMA $1k
4/3 $250 DIRECT DEPOSIT BONUS DOLLARS
P2 (Not targeted, use P1 targeted link)
12/3 Opened + $25 deposit
12/11 Real DD $1k
12/25 Real DD $1k
12/27 Pushed external $2k
3/21 Real DD $1k
3/28 Real DD $1k
4/3 $250 DIRECT DEPOSIT BONUS DOLLARS
Overall easy with a small hiccup due to some DPs concerning target/non-target payout. Rec’d all noticed about deposite(s) qualified + error email and correction. P1 + P2 decided to redeposit $1k (2x) as a precaution measure in case an employee decide to review the account(s) and noticed only $25 sitting idle. Padding the acct. could have been overkill, just didn’t want to chance it or give them a reason to deny the bonus. Glad I did it anyway. Another in the bag!
Damn I opened on 12/10 and not feeling it too. I pulled my deposits out a day after it posted each time leaving ~$2 in my account. I have time to transfer funds in before the 120 days deadline. You think it will work?
Yes, if you can why not or do you want to chance it? Nothing for sure till it is. Wasn’t an ordeal to just redeposit my funds since the DPs denial chatter made payout somewhat uncertain. I had a few days left to wait it out and the results speak for themselves 2x. Not saying Etrade wouldn’t have payed out anyway, just forward thinking action to sure things up. Already pulled out remaining funds and left a few bucks in balance to marinade. HTH.
I did not get the bonus. According to the online chat, ‘Unfortunately, your account did not meet the offer requirements to qualify for the cash bonus. It was determined there was no intention to keep using the account after the initial deposits, and for this reason your account has been disqualified.’, ‘Morgan Stanley reserves the right with applicable laws to rescind or decline award payments’, ‘the exact reason(s) was not stated’. I made two direct deposits of $1,000.01 via Fidelity. It sounds like I was required to have more activities than just two deposits of $1,000.01. I transferred out the balance after they charged a $15 maintenance fee. I will close the account and will not recommend anyone to open this.
I got the rejection email today, after being notified a month ago that things look good. This is complete BS and bait switch by Etrade.