The Standard Chartered MANHATTAN World Mastercard has been around a long time — from the days when it was too expensive for most Singaporeans to holiday in New York.
It’s also one of the more attractive cashback credit cards in Singapore for high spenders, offering a 3% cash rebate as long as you meet the minimum spending requirement of $3,000.
How the Standard Chartered MANHATTAN World Mastercard works
With the MANHATTAN World Mastercard, as long as you hit the minimum spending requirement of $3,000 in a calendar month, you will get 3% cashback on all eligible purchases. That includes local and overseas transactions, online and offline. It also includes online bill payments and educational service-related payments — great for family breadwinners.
Considering that a $3,000 expense will typically exceed the cap limit of most high cashback credit cards, the StanChart MANHATTAN could give you better returns on your expensive one-off purchases.
However, the cash rebate goes down significantly if you don’t hit the minimum spend. If you spend $1,000 to $2,999.99, you only get a pathetic 1% cashback. If you spend less than $1,000, it goes down to 0.5%.
The other catch is that the cash rebate is only credited to your account quarterly, and a quarterly cap of $200 applies. (To make things confusing, the “quarter” doesn’t refer to a calendar quarter, but just a period of 3 consecutive months.)
You might have no trouble spending $3,000 a month if you’re a jetsetting baller or a breadwinner trying to feed your family’s insatiable appetites. However, this quarterly cap means you will “lose” at least $70 in rebates every quarter, as this illustration shows:
| Period | Expenditure | Eligible cashback tier | Cash rebate |
| 15 Oct 2020 | $3,000 | 3% | $90 |
| 15 Nov 2020 | $3,000 | 3% | $90 |
| 15 Dec 2020 | $3,000 | 3% | $90 |
| TOTAL | $9,000 | – | $270 (but capped at $200) |
Also, not everything is eligible for the 3% cashback. For example, insurance premiums and EZ-Link card top-ups are not allowed.
Standard Chartered MANHATTAN World Card promotions
Caltex
- Get up to 20% savings on Platinum 98 with Techron. Earn Standard Chartered rebates with a minimum eligible retail spend of $600 in the same month (capped at $30 per month). Valid till 31 December 2020.
The Courtyard, The Fullerton Hotel Singapore
- 15% off Indian Curry Lunch Buffet, Daily Afternoon Tea and Japanese Buffet. Valid till 3o December 2020.
Shopee
- 8.25% cashback at Shopee via RebateMango. Valid till 31 December 2020.
Alternatives to the Standard Chartered MANHATTAN World Mastercard Card
Other than the Standard Chartered MANHATTAN World Mastercard, there are several options to consider if you consistently spend a lot each month:
UOB One Card – We have a love/hate relationship with this card, but if you spend $2,000 consistently every month, you can get quarterly payouts of $300 each. That’s a great deal higher than the $200 cap on the MANHATTAN Card. Do check your spending religiously though, as you lose it all if you miss the mark in just 1 month in a quarter.
- Cashback on McDonald's, DFI Retail Group, Grab, Shopee, SP and more
- Up to 20%
- Cashback Cap per quarter
- Up to S$500
- Min. Spend per month
- S$500
HSBC Advance Credit Card – Become an HSBC Advance customer by crediting a salary of at least $3,500 to an HSBC account. Then get this credit card as it consistently rewards you with 3.5% cashback every month you spend $2,000 and above. The monthly cap is $125 though.
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- Base Cashback
- 1.5%
- Cashback when you spend more than S$2,000
- 2.5%
- Cashback Cap per month
- S$70
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If you’re looking for a credit card for occasional major purchases, such as a Harvey Norman shopping spree or a blowout trip to Hokkaido, consider one of these unlimited cashback credit cards:
American Express True Cashback Card – One of the more popular unlimited cashback credit cards in Singapore, this card offers a flat cashback rate at 1.5%, or 3% for the first 6 months up to $5,000 spend.
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- on up to $5,000 spend in the first 6 months for new Card Members.
- 3.0% Cashback
- all subsequent eligible purchases
- 1.5% Cashback
- Cash Back Cap
- Unlimited
Standard Chartered Unlimited Cashback Card – This card offers a flat 1.5% cashback with no minimum spend and no cap.
Oh, there’s also the MANHATTAN $500 Card…
To make things confusing, Standard Chartered still has another “MANHATTAN Card”. It’s called the $500 MANHATTAN Card and it’s mainly marketed as a student credit card with a $500 credit card limit.
It’s also available for working adults with a minimum income requirement of $18,000 (much lower than the usual $30,000), but the same credit limit applies. However, there aren’t any significant perks to the card, just 0.25% cashback.
Do you have the Standard Chartered MANHATTAN World Card? Share your reviews in the comments!
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