1) I have yet to find anyone that treats the amex debit card as debit and not credit so if it works its a good find.
2) since I doubt you have another sort of MS play here it's worth it to try and report back
I don't have the amex checking account and despite this being a long shot I wanted to see if anyone else tried it before I opened one myself. I am not holding my breath...
If I do end up opening an account I WILL try and report back.