Morgan Stanley Bank Credit Cards

We've had an E-TRADE account for longer than I can remember. On 9/6/22, I called the new owners, Morgan Stanley, to ask them to attach a simple travel notification to my debit card so I could use it in Costa Rica. Incredibly, it took seven days and conversations with five different people to get this done. I was on the phone for over three hours total.

During that time, agents asked me to photograph and upload a handwritten note with my name, account number, DOB, address, travel destination, dates of travel, and a signature. I did that. Then they decided I should photograph and upload my driver's license. I did. Then they decided I should photograph and upload my debit card. I did. Then they decided I should write today's date on the note and upload that. I did. Then they decided that I should write "Please place a travel notice on my card" on the note and upload that. I did. Then they decided I needed to submit my cell phone number and activate two-step authorization. I did. Eventually, they told me my card was set to go. Was it? Absolutely not. Instead, they made it so that my card would not work in the US or Costa Rica. I found this out when I tried to buy something in my hometown, and the card was declined.

I called MS back. They said they were going to send me a new card, because mine was set to expire in two months. When would I get this card? After I got back from Costa Rica. That was, of course, 100% unacceptable. I called an agent again and asked him to cancel my old card and send me a new card through the US mail, expedited. He did. Then I did the same stupid arts-and-crafts shenanigans with photographs that Morgan Stanley asked me for the first time, and I uploaded that.

I called Morgan Stanley to ask, for the nth time, that they put a travel notification on my debit card so that I could use it in Costa Rica. I also said that if this was not something they knew how to do, I was going to close out our account. An agent called Nick told me that they could not put in the notification, because I hadn't submitted two-factor authorization. I pointed out that I had done so seven days prior, and that this was visible in the Customer Service part of the Morgan Stanley website. He said that MS had not updated my data yet. He told me he was going to put me on hold while he talked with a manager, and we were immediately disconnected.

I called MS again and started waiting in a queue that a robot voice said would to take 30 minutes. Finally, Nick called me back and said he'd gotten the job done. We have over $600,000 in our Morgan Stanley account. (What can I say: even though we started out poor, money piles up when you don't have kids.) When I return from Costa Rica, I'm closing it out, because this is the worst customer service experience I've ever had in my life. Morgan Stanley is incompetent, inconsistent, over-encumbered with idiotic rules, and a national embarrassment. E-TRADE was great, but Morgan Stanley is a festering pile of garbage -- and I'm being diplomatic. Save yourself hours of hassle and never deal with these people. (I love my credit card with Farm Bureau Bank, though. They put a travel notification on my card in five minutes. That's how it should be.)