The Standard Chartered Rewards+ Card’s main draw is that it offers up to 10X rewards points… for overseas retail, overseas dining and travel spending. Gee, thanks! What an unwelcome reminder of how Covid has changed our lives.
But there are some tiny reasons you might still want to sign up for the card, especially if you eat out a lot. Let’s see whether this card is still useful in 2021.
- on Foreign Currency Spend
- S$1= 10X Points
- on Local Dining Spend
- S$1= 5X Points
- on All Other Spend
- S$1= 1X Point
Get a Sony LinkBuds S Earbuds (worth S$309) or S$180 eCapita Vouchers or up to S$230 Cash via PayNow when you apply and meet the relevant spend criteria! T&Cs apply.
Standard Chartered Rewards+ Card terms & conditions
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Standard Chartered Rewards+ Card |
|
|
Annual fee & waiver |
$192.60, waived for first two years |
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Supplementary annual fee |
– |
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Interest free period |
– |
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Annual interest rate |
26.90% |
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Late payment fee |
$80 |
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Minimum monthly repayment |
1% or $50, whichever is higher |
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Foreign currency transaction fee |
3.5% |
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Cash advance transaction fee |
6% |
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Overlimit fee |
$40 |
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Minimum income |
$30,000 |
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Card association |
Visa |
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Wireless payment |
Visa Contactless, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay |
How the Standard Chartered Rewards+ Card works
As its name suggests, the Standard Chartered Rewards+ Card is, surprise surprise, a rewards card. For newbies, that means it gives you rewards points as you spend. These points can then be exchanged for vouchers, gifts or once-popular air miles.
The Stanchart Rewards+ Card gives you a good maximum earn rate of 10X rewards points. The catch is that this earn rate is only applicable for foreign currency spending on overseas retail, dining and travel. A fat load of good that’s going to do at this point in the pandemic.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. The card also offers a respectable 5X rewards points on local dining. Finally, something that Singaporeans can actually use!
You can get the 5X dining rewards at all eateries from McDonald’s to Michelin-starred restaurants. The only exception is hotels, so don’t go and book a spot at a hotel high tea buffet just yet.
There’s a cap of 20,000 bonus rewards points per year. That means that when you spend on local dining, you can earn 5X rewards points on a maximum of $5,000 worth of spending per year.
When travel resumes, you’ll be able to earn 10X rewards points on a maximum of $2,222 per year, which isn’t much at all.
You get rewards points for every $1 spent. So, if you spend $10 at McDonald’s, you get 50 rewards points. If you spend $1,000 on a lavish dinner at Waku Ghin, you get 5,000 rewards points.
Points are valid for 3 years, which is a relatively long lifeespan and means you don’t have to rush to accumulate and spend your points.
Standard Chartered rewards catalogue
Rewards points are only as good as the rewards you can exchange them for. So how does Standard Chartered’s rewards catalogue measure up? To be honest, it’s quite standard.
That means it’s got the usual shopping, dining and lifestyle vouchers at run-of-the-mill places like Watsons, CapitaLand malls, Crystal Jade and Sushi Tei. Boring but practical. You won’t get excited about these vouchers, but you’ll definitely find opportunities to use them.
For those suffering from holiday withdrawal symptoms, they’ve also got 1-night staycations at a few hotels, including Raffles Hotel and W Hotel Sentosa Cove.
Of course, you can also swap your rewards points for air miles, but we don’t think those are particularly useful right now unless you’re going to Germany.
Who is the Standard Chartered Rewards+ Card for?
This card is not for big spenders because of the low annual cap on rewards points. But for low spenders, it’s actually not too bad.
One advantage is that unlike most cashback cards, there’s no minimum spending requirement. The points are valid for up to 3 years, so low spenders have quite a bit of time to accumulate them.
Therefore, the card is useful for those who want to be rewarded for dining out but may not spend enough to meet the minimum spending requirements on cashback cards.
The card would be ideal for someone who spends fairly modestly and whose monthly expenditure on eating out is, say, about $200 a month. At $200 a month, this person might have difficulty fulfilling the minimum spending requirements on most dining cashback cards (usually requiring you to spend $600 and above).
The Standard Chartered Rewards+ Card, on the other hand, would yield 5X rewards points, ie. 1,000 points per month, or 12,000 points a year. It would thus take this person about a year to amass enough points to exchange for a $50 TANGS or Isetan voucher costing 12,500 points.
Other rewards credit cards to consider
Rewards cards tend to be targeted at shopping rather than dining out. So, you can consider picking up another card or two for your shopping in addition to using the Stanchart Rewards+ Card for your dining needs.
Citi Rewards Card – 10X rewards (4 miles) points on online and shopping purchases, ride hailing and online food delivery. Unlike Stanchart Rewards+, this card doesn’t reward you for dining out, so it can be used together with the former.
- on Online & Shopping Purchases
- S$1= 10X Points
- for all other purchases
- S$1= 1X Point
- Rewards Conversion
- 10X Points = 4 Miles
[FASTER GIFT REDEMPTION | GIVEAWAY]
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DBS Woman’s Card – 5X rewards points on online shopping. Again, doesn’t overlap with Stanchart Rewards+, so you can use both to maximise your rewards.
- on Online Purchases
- S$5 = 5 DBS Points (2 Miles per S$1)
- on Other Purchases
- S$5 = 1 DBS Point (0.4 Miles per S$1)
- e-Commerce Protection for Online Purchases
- Complimentary
HSBC Revolution Card – 10X rewards points (4 miles and 2.5% cashback) on online and contactless spending. Another card that you can use concurrently with Stanchart Rewards+.
- on Online Spend and Contactless Payments
- S$1 = 10X Points
- on All Other Spend
- S$1 = 1X Point
- for every 10 Points
- Earn 4 Miles
Get a Hinomi Q1 Ergonomic Chair (worth S$499) or a Samsung 27-inch Smart Monitor M5 (worth S$432) or an Apple AirPods 3rd Gen (worth S$263.80) or S$150 Cash via PayNow when you apply and spend a min. of S$500 from Card Account Opening Date to the end of the following calendar month. T&Cs apply.
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