Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card—MoneySmart Review (2024)

Note: As of 5 December 2022, the Standard Chartered Unlimited Cashback Credit Card was renamed to the Simply Cash Credit Card along with a card redesign. 

The premise of the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card is, as the name promises, extremely simple—1.5% cashback on everything with no minimum spending and no rebate cap.

Okay, so 1.5% cashback doesn’t sound impressive. But most cashback cards require that you fulfil their minimum spending requirements before they’ll grudgingly hand over the rebates. And even so, there’s a limit to how much you can receive. This cashback card promises you won’t have to suffer any of these 2 scenarios.

Plus, for a limited time, you can enjoy an upsized 2% unlimited cashback on the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card when you apply via MoneySmart. That rate is higher than any other other unlimited cashback credit card!

Let’s find out if this card is worth signing up for.

Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card Review—Is it MoneySmart?
Overall: ★★★☆☆ (3.3) Best for: Those looking for a fuss-free, anything-goes cashback credit card. With no minimum spend requirements, it’s perfect for students and first jobbers. With no rebate cap, it’s great if you have a big-ticket expense coming up. The catch: There are no limits and no minimums, but the cashback rate is relatively low compared to other cashback cards with minimum spends and bonus spend categories.
Pros—What we like			Cons—What we don’t like
– Unlimited cashback – No minimum spend required – Very large range of spend categories–almost anything goes! –  Dining and shopping privileges at over 3,000 outlets in Asia with Standard Chartered’s The Good Life Program			– Relatively low cashback rate compared to cashback cards with minimum spends and rebate caps – Limited periphery rewards
Category		Our rating		The deets
Earn rates: Cashback		★★☆☆☆		1.5% cashback on almost everything. Exceptions include: Top ups and tax, parking, insurance, brokerage, and recurring bill payments. [MoneySmart exclusive] For a limited time, enjoy 2% unlimited cashback for 30 days after your first $500 spend.
Earn categories		★★★★★
Annual fees and charges		★★★★☆		S$196.20 (first year waiver available) / $0 for supplementary cards
Accessibility		★★★☆☆		Minimum income requirement: $30,000 (Singaporeans) / $60,000 (non-Singaporeans)
Extras/periphery rewards		★☆☆☆☆		– Shopping discount privileges at over 3,000 outlets in Asia with Standard Chartered’s The Good Life Programme – Up to 23.7% fuel savings at Caltex
Sign-up bonus		★★★★★		Get S$370 cash via PayNow or 5,040 SmartPoints when you spend a minimum of $500 within 30 days of card approval. Plus. enjoy 2% unlimited cashback for 30 days after your first $500 spend on the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card. Valid until 15 Oct 2024. Check here for the latest sign-up promotion.

See our credit card ranking rubric to find out how we rank credit cards.

 

Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card Review

1. Summary
2. Fees
3. Minimum spend
4. What happened to the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card bonus cashback?
5. Exclusions
6. Benefits
7. Sign-up promo
8. Should I get the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card?
9. Alternatives to the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card

 

1. Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card—Summary 

As a fuss-free, anything-goes card, this is as simple as it gets. You get up to 1.5% cashback on all spending, with no cashback cap and no minimum spending requirements.

While the 1.5% cashback rate the card offers isn’t really super high, the card’s strength lies in how uncomplicated it is. If you’re not one to meticulously keep track of your spending in various categories, the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card definitely has its appeal.

Plus, that 1.5% is currently upgraded for a limited time. From now till 15 Oct, earn 2% unlimited cashback for 30 days after your first $500 spend on the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card.

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2. Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card—Fees

The Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card is a beginner-friendly card with a minimum annual income requirement of $30,000. Besides that, the card’s annual fee is also waived for 1 year.

Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card
Annual fee & waiver	$196.20 including GST (waived for 1 year)
Supplementary annual fee	–
Interest free period	–
Annual interest rate	27.90%*
Late payment fee	$100
Minimum monthly repayment	1% or $50, whichever is higher
Foreign currency transaction fee	3.5%
Cash advance transaction fee	8%
Overlimit fee	$40
Minimum income	$30,000 (Singaporean/PR) / $60,000 (non-Singaporean)
Card association	Mastercard
Wireless payment	Visa Contactless, MasterCard PayPass, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay

*The effective interest rate is 27.90% per annum (minimum). If full payment is not received by payment due date, finance charges will apply and are calculated on a daily basis from transaction date to payment due date.

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3. Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card—Minimum spend

One of the best things about this card is that there’s no minimum spend that you need to meet to qualify for cashback.

If you decide to spend only $10 on your card one month, you still get the 1.5% cash rebates. It doesn’t matter what you use the card on, and you don’t have to worry if you’re using it in the right spending categories, as the 1.5% applies to practically everything (there are a few exceptions, like taxes and EZ Link top-ups).

On the other end of the spectrum, this card is also great for big spending. If you’re going through major (read: very expensive) life changes such as getting married, furnishing a new home, going on a round-the-world trip to find yourself, this fuss-free credit card will still deliver the same 1.5% rebate on your sky-high expenses.

With most other cashback credit cards, you would bust the rebate cap unless you really dedicate yourself to gaming the system and splitting your expenses. And frankly, who has time for that?

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4. What happened to the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card bonus cashback?

The Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card offers a standard 1.5% cashback on all spend.

There used to be a way to boost the cashback: Having an Unlimited$aver account with at least $100,000 parked in it. This would then earn you an additional 1.5% in cashback (up to $100 bonus cashback) monthly. Sadly, Standard Chartered no longer offers this account and your Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card is stuck at the standard 1.5% cashback rate.

Psst, if you do have $100,000 to put into a savings account anyway, we’d suggest putting the lump sum into one of these high-interest savings accounts to earn greater interest.

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5. Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card—Exclusions

The Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card is quite honestly as fuss-free as credit cards get. However, here are a few key exclusions that will not earn you any cashback:

• EZ-Link top ups
• Government services
• Parking payments
• Tax payments
• Payments to educational institutions
• Insurance payments
• Betting
• Payments to brokerages
• Cleaning, maintenance services
• Recurring bill payments

It hardly discriminates but if you’re thinking you could earn a steady stream of cashback with recurring bill payments that you charge to your Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card, we’re sorry to burst your bubble but that’s not going to happen.

Also take note that you won’t earn cashback for Grab top ups or any stored value card purchases.

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6. Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card—Benefits

The Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card is a great fuss-free cashback card, but its benefits mostly end there. The only extra perks it comes with are some shopping and petrol discounts:

• Shopping discount privileges at over 3,000 outlets in Asia with Standard Chartered’s The Good Life Programme, which is open to all SCB credit and debit cardholders. The deals include getting deals at merchants like Puma and Club21, as well as discounts on accommodation worldwide with Agoda.
• Enjoy up to 23.7% fuel savings at Caltex.

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7. Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card—Sign-up promo

Thinking of adding the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card to your wallet? Take advantage of the ongoing sign-up promo to pocket S$370 cash via PayNow or earn 5,040 SmartPoints. Redeem the latter for any gift on the Rewards Store, including an Apple iPad Wi-Fi (9th Generation, 64GB), Secretlab TITAN Evo Lite (PRIME™ 2.0 Leatherette, Black), and more. To qualify for your welcome gift, simply charge a minimum of $500 to the card within 30 days of card approval.

That’s not all. From now till 15 Oct, you can also earn 2% unlimited cashback for 30 days after your first $500 spend on the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card.

Promotion ends 15 Oct 2024. T&Cs apply.

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8. Should I get the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card?

The Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card is great for beginners who are new to the world of cashback credit cards. You don’t have to think too much about the spending categories and their respective cashback caps or even about hitting a minimum spend requirement.

The no minimum spend requirement is especially great for students and first jobbers who might not be raking up enough monthly expenses to meet the usual requirement ($600 and above) by cashback credit cards to earn bonus rebates. Plus, without the limitations of spending categories, you can earn uncapped cashback on everything from your McDelivery orders to Grab payments.

Speaking of which, if you have a big expense coming up (perhaps, a wedding banquet), you can earn unlimited cashback with the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card. There’s no need to worry about being limited by cashback caps!

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9. Alternatives to the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card

Standard Chartered’s offering isn’t the only unlimited cashback credit card on the market. We’ll look at the most mainstream options here:

UOB Absolute Cashback Card: This card has the highest cashback in the unlimited, no minimum spend cashback card market at 1.7%, with lesser exclusions (you can use this card to pay your insurance premiums!) than the Standard Chartered card. The main downside is that it’s an Amex card, so you’ll be hard-pressed to find smaller merchants to accept it.

Citi Cashback+ Mastercard: This card plays second fiddle to the UOB Absolute Cashback card, offering 1.6% cashback. For 0.1% less cashback, you get the benefit of the Mastercard association.

American Express True Cashback Card: Extremely similar to the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card as both offer 1.5% cashback. Amex True Cashback has the advantage of also offering 3% cashback during the first 6 months of card membership for your first $5,000 worth of spending.

UOB One Card: This card gives more generous rebates on everything, but the main problem is that the minimum spending requirements are high, onerous (you need to hit the target every month in a quarter to qualify for rebates for that quarter) and confusing. If you’re looking for simplicity, avoid this card, unless you are consistently spending exactly $2,000 every month on a specific credit card.

On the other hand, if you’re. up for a challenge, check out our review of the UOB One Card to get up to speed on its mind-boggling mechanics.

Maybank Platinum Visa Card: Another credit card that offers a flat cash rebate for consistent spending, but with lower spending tiers than the UOB One Card. Get up to 3.33% cashback on all local spending if you spend $300 or $1,000 each month in a quarter. If you don’t mind a wee bit of responsibility and a reasonable minimum spending requirement, consider this card.

Conclusion? For uncomplicated unlimited cashback, the Standard Chartered Simply Cash Credit Card and Amex True are extremely close, and the winner might just be whichever is offering a better credit card sign-up promotion.

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P.S. Here’s our MoneySmart credit card ranking rubric

In case you’re wondering, here’s how we decide on our credit card rankings.

Is that credit card MoneySmart? Our MoneySmart credit card ranking rubric
Category	Our rating
Overall	The average rating for the credit card on the whole, calculated from the ratings for the individual categories below. Plus, we’ll give you a one-liner on who we think the credit card is best suited for.
Earn rates: Air miles / Cashback / Rewards points	Air miles ✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️ / Cashback / Rewards points . This category looks at the depth rather than breadth of earn rates. – 5 stars means this card’s got the highest earn rates within that credit card type. – 3-4 stars mean it’s average – 1-2 stars reflect earn rates that are below average.
Earn categories	This category looks at the breadth rather than depth of your earnings. – 5 stars: Earn with ANY spend. – 3-4 stars: Earn on a large number of categories (e.g. all dining, transport and retail, but not telco bills) OR earn on 1 very broad category (e.g. all contactless/mobile payments). – 1-2 stars: Earn a decent rate only on selected categories, such as fast food only.
Annual fees and charges	– 5 stars: $0 – 4 stars: $1-200 – 3 stars: $201-500 – 2 stars: $501-$999 – 1 star: $1,000 and up We dock a star if fee waiver is NOT allowed.
Accessibility	Minimum income requirements: 5 stars: Less than $30,000 a year 4 stars: Around $30,000 a year for Singaporeans and $40,000-$45,o00 for non-Singaporeans 3 stars: $30,000-$60,000 a year for Singaporeans, $40,000-$70,000 for non-Singaporeans 2 stars: $60,000-$120,000 a year for Singaporeans, $70,000-$120,000 for non-Singaporeans 1 star: $120,000 and up for either, or both Exclusivity: We dock 1-2 stars if there is/are another category/categories that make the card exclusive and very specific to a certain clientele.
Extras/periphery rewards	These include: – Travel benefits, such as airport lounge access – Lifestyle benefits, such as spa privileges – Dining benefits, such as complimentary AMEX Love Dining or Entertainer with HSBC subscriptions We count the number of benefits and award between 0.5 to 2 stars for each, depending on how good the perk is.
Sign-up bonus	5 stars: The gift(s), cash, or miles are the highest we see out there compared to other credit cards of the same type (miles, cashback, etc). Also easy to attain these welcome bonuses. 3-4 stars: Average but not disappointing sign-up bonus compared to other credit cards. You aren’t losing out. 1-2 stars: You are probably losing out in terms of the welcome bonus you’re getting; there are other similar credit cards with sign-up bonuses that are better or easier to attain.

Check out all our MoneySmart credit card reviews: The Ultimate List of Credit Card Reviews in Singapore.

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