Standard Chartered MANHATTAN World Mastercard – MoneySmart Review 2020

Standard Chartered Manhattan Card Review

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.

UOB logo
MoneySmart Exclusive
UPSIZED CASHBACK | Up to 20% Cashback!
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
MoneySmart Exclusive:

[MoneySmart x UOB CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY]
The first 100 customers can get an Apple Watch SE 40mm (GPS) (worth S$349), the next 100 customers can get an Apple AirPods 4 Noise Cancellation (worth S$249) and the remaining customers can get S$50 Cash when you apply and spend a min of S$1,000 in Eligible Transactions! T&Cs apply.
 
UOB Online Promotion: Get up to 20% Cashback on daily favourites like Shopee, Grab, McDonald's, SimplyGo and DFI Retail Group! T&Cs apply.

Valid until 15 Dec 2024

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.

HSBC logo
MoneySmart Exclusive
Earn up to 2.5% Cashback | Instant Activation*
Base Cashback
1.5%
Cashback when you spend more than S$2,000
2.5%
Cashback Cap per month
S$70
MoneySmart Exclusive:

Get S$199 Cash via PayNow or 3,500 SmartPoints  when you apply, spend a min. of S$500 from Card Account Opening Date to end of the following calendar month! Pay Annual Fee for HSBC TravelOne Card. T&Cs apply.
 
PLUS: Stand to win 50,000 SmartPoints in Rollin’ Rewards!
Enrol in our Rollin’ Rewards campaign for FREE and stand a chance to win 50,000 SmartPoints! That’s enough to redeem ANY item from our Rewards Store, such as a Sony BRAVIA 3 85-Inch 4K Ultra HD Google TV (worth S$5,799) + an Apple iPhone 16 Plus 128GB (worth S$1,399).

Valid until 15 Dec 2024

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.

American Express logo
Unlimited Cashback
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!