Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card Now Has Minimum Spends and Cashback Tiers—MoneySmart Review (2024)

Yesterday, the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card offered 6% cashback at merchants like Netflix, Spotify, and fast food joints, plus the same cashback on your daily train or bus commute. It gave us all of that with no minimum spend requirement and no annual fee. Essentially, cashback with almost no effort—a smart choice indeed.

Today, 6 Dec 2024, it’s debatable whether the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card lives up to its name. Standard Chartered has just introduced minimum spending tiers (yes, plural) and an annual fee to the card—updates we don’t like. But at the same time, they’ve increased its maximum cashback rate to 10%—a boost we do like.

How do we make sense of the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card now? In this article, we’ll review the revamped card and help you decide if it’s worth getting.

Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card—Is it MoneySmart?
Overall: ★★★☆☆ (3/5) Best for: Those who spend at least $800 a month, mostly on the card’s bonus category merchants such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Spotify, Netflix, SimplyGo, and more. The catch: To unlock the maximum cashback rate of 10%, you have to spend a hefty $1,500 a month on the card. Also note that the bonus cashback applies to specific merchants (e.g. McDonald’s) and not categories (e.g. all fast food outlets).
Pros—What we like			Cons—What we don’t like
– Good cashback rates of 8% or 10% when you hit certain minimum monthly spends – Bonus cashback spending includes: SimplyGo (bus/MRT), popular digital subscriptions (e.g. Spotify, Netflix), and everyday dining merchants like (McDonald’s, Ya Kun Kaya Toast)			– High minimum monthly spend ($1,500) to unlock the highest cashback rate of 10% – Bonus spending is merchant-specific, not category specific. For example, McDonald’s is a bonus merchant, but not all fast food joints are included.
Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card at a glance
Category		Our rating		The deets
Earn rates: Cashback		★★★★☆		Bonus spending: – Less than $800 monthly spend: 4% (from 6 Dec 2024 – 31 Mar 2025) / 0.5% (after 31 Mar 2025) – $800 or more monthly spend: 8% – $1,500 or more monthly spend: 10% Other spending: – Less than $1,500 monthly spend: 0.5% base rate – $1,500 or more monthly spend: 1% base rate
Earn categories		★★★☆☆		Bonus cashback merchants for dining – McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Ya Kun Kaya Toast, Subway and Toast Box – NEW: Starbucks, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza Bonus cashback merchants for streaming – Netflix, Spotify, YouTube and Disney+​ – NEW: Amazon Prime, Viu, iQiyi and HBO GO Bonus cashback merchants for transport – Bus and MRT commute via SimplyGo – NEW: Electric Vehicle Charging Other spending earns base cashback rates.
Annual fees and charges		★★★★☆		$91 (before GST) from 6 Dec 2025 onwards.
Accessibility		★★★☆☆		– Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs): $30,000 annual income requirement – Foreigners: $60,000 annual income requirement – Eligible age: 21 to 65 years old
Extras/periphery rewards		★☆☆☆☆		– EasyPay: Split your purchases up into interest-free instalments with no or low processing fees. – (only before 31 Dec 2024) Complimentary $500,000 travel medical insurance coverage when you charge your full travel fare to your card.
Sign-up bonus		★★★☆☆		– Welcome gift: $230 cash via PayNow or 2,990 SmartPoints – Spend criteria: $500 within 30 days from card approval date. Valid till 15 Dec 2024. T&Cs apply. Plus. stand to win a Porsche Taycan Base (model year 2025) in the SC Million Reasons to be Happier giveaway.

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

 

Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card—MoneySmart Review (2024)

1. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: Summary
2. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: How much cashback do I get?
3. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: Participating merchants for bonus spend
4. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: How do you earn cashback?
5. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: When will the cashback be credited?
6. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: Fees, charges, and more
7. Should I get the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card?
8. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card promotion
9. Alternatives to the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card

 

1. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: Summary

Here’s a summary of the key updates to the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card

• Minimum spend tiers added: $1,500 / $800 / below $800
• Tiered cashback rates: 10% / 8% / 4% (4% only applicable until 31 Mar 2025)
• Annual fee added: $91 (before GST) from 6 Dec 2025 onwards.
• New merchants for bonus spending, including Starbucks, Amazon Prime, and electric vehicle charging
• No cap on rewards—previous cap was 14,400 360° Reward Points, equivalent to a monthly spend of $818.
• Complimentary travel medical insurance ($500,000 coverage) to cease on 31 Dec 2024
• SmartDelay: Get complimentary access to selected airport lounges worldwide if your flight is delayed (from 15 Jan 2025)

To me, the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card has gone from a memorable cashback card to an average one. It’s not bad, but it no longer stands out to me.

Before 6 Dec 2024, I remembered the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card as that card with a $0 minimum spend requirement, but that gave 6% cashback at selected merchants. This is unusual for a cashback card—usually:

• $0 minimum spend cards earn you only 1.5% to 1.7% (e.g. the Citi Cash Back+ Card or even Standard Chartered’s own Simply Cash Credit Card)
• 6% or higher cashback rates are only unlocked if spend at least $800 a month (e.g. the OCBC 365 Credit Card,  DBS Live Fresh Card).

Now that Standard Chartered has set a minimum spend requirement of $800/month to unlock an 8% cashback rate, it’s comparable to other cashback cards like the Maybank Family and Friends Card or the Citi Cash Back Card. (More on the cashback tiers in the next section.)

If I had never known about the pre-6 Dec 2024 Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card, I might be happy with what it offers now. But since I did know this card before D-Day, I feel like we’ve lost a special friend. The revamped benefits are not bad—but they’re not our $0 minimum spend, $0 annual fee, 6% cashback buddy.

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2. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: How much cashback do I get?

Card spend in statement month	Bonus categories	Other eligible spend
Less than $800	4% (from 6 Dec 2024 – 31 Mar 2025) 0.5% (after 31 Mar 2025)	0.5%
$800 or more	8%	0.5%
$1,500 or more	10%	1%

While you can earn up to 10% cashback on the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card, you need to spend $1,500 a month to unlock this cashback rate. Not worth it, if you ask me. For example, the UOB One Card offers 13.33% (until 31 Dec 2024) cashback at selected merchants with a minimum spend of just $500 a month—read more in our UOB One Card review.

If you spend less than $500 a month on your credit card, one strategy you could adopt is to make use of the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card’s 4% cashback with $0 minimum spend from now till 31 Mar 2025.

Come Apr 2025, this card will make no sense if you spend under $800 a month—you need to hit that to unlock the 8% cashback rate. Otherwise, you’ll only earn the base cashback rate of 0.5%. You’re better off using any $0 minimum spend, unlimited cashback card—Standard Chartered’s own Simply Cash Credit Card is one option, offering 1.5% cashback on almost any spending.

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3. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: Participating merchants for bonus spend

The good news is that Standard Chartered has expanded their list of merchants at which you can earn bonus cashback. Here’s a summary:

Bonus categories	Participating merchants
Dining	McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Ya Kun Kaya Toast, Subway and Toast Box NEW: Starbucks, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza
Streaming	Netflix, Spotify, YouTube and Disney+​ NEW: Amazon Prime, Viu, iQiyi and HBO GO
Transport	Bus and MRT commute via SimplyGo NEW: Electric Vehicle Charging

Source: Standard Chartered

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4. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: How do you earn cashback?

Unfortunately, getting your hands on your cashback adds administrative bother to your life, because the cashback isn’t simply credited to your next statement.

Instead, Standard Chartered gives you 360° Rewards Points, which you can use to redeem cash credits, miles, or e-vouchers from retail, dining, lifestyle, and travel brands.

If you have no desire for vouchers or miles and just want to exchange your points for the cashback you were promised, $10 cashback will cost you 3,200 rewards points.

Your first batch of Standard Chartered rewards points are only valid for 3 years from the day your Smart Credit Card account is opened. So you want to be very careful to exchange all your rewards points for cashback before they expire.

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5. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: When will the cashback be credited?

With the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card, here’s how 360° Rewards Points are credited:

• Bonus Categories: Points earned in bonus categories during your statement month will be credited 1 day after your statement cycle date. For example, if your statement cycle ends on the 19th, these points will be credited on the 20th.
• Other Eligible Spend: Points earned from other eligible spending will be credited on your statement cycle date. For example, if your statement cycle ends on the 19th, these points will also be credited on the 19th.

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6. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: Fees, charges, and more

Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card
Annual fee & waiver	$91 (before GST) from 6 Dec 2025 onwards. Subsequently, you’ll be  charged an annual fee if you spend less than $10,000 a year.
Supplementary card fee	Free, up to 4 cards
Interest free period	0
Annual interest rate	27.9%
Late payment fee	$100
Minimum monthly repayment	$50 OR 1% of principal / interest, fees & charges / overlimit amount / past due amount, whichever is higher
Foreign currency transaction fee	3.5%
Cash advance transaction fee	Waived
Overlimit fee	$40
Card association	Visa

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7. Should I get the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card? 

From now till 31 Mar 2025

Get the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card if you spend under $500 a month and frequent its participating merchants. You’ll earn 4% cashback, which is much better than the 1.5% to 1.7% cashback that other $0 minimum spend cards will earn you.

But if you spend $500 or more on your credit card, consider cards like the UOB One Card or the HSBC Live+ Card instead.

After 31 Mar 2025

Get the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card if you spend at least $800 a month and frequent its participating merchants. For your efforts, you’ll earn 8% cashback at those merchants.

While you can shoot for the $1,500 monthly spend to unlock 10% cashback, don’t forget that the 10% cashback only applies to a few fast food eateries, coffee and toast places, digital subscriptions, and selected transport. If the bulk of your spending is not in these categories, you’ll be wasting an opportunity cost to earn cashback on your spending with other cards.

For example, let’s say you spend $1,500 in a month all on the participating merchants. Wonderful—you get $150 cashback that month based on the 10% cashback rate.

Now let’s say you spend $1,500 in a month, but only $500 of that is on the participating merchants. Now you only get $50 cashback, which brings your real cashback rate down to 3.33%,

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8. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card promotion

From now till 15 Dec 2024, get $230 cash via PayNow or 2,990 SmartPoints when you apply and spend a minimum of $500 within 30 days from the date your Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card is approved.

On top of that, you’ll also stand a chance to win a Porsche Taycan Base (model year 2025) in the SC Million Reasons to be Happier lucky draw.

Don’t forget to enrol in our Rollin’ Rewards campaign for free before you apply—you’ll stand a chance to win 50,000 SmartPoints this December, which is enough to redeem any item from our Rewards Store. For example, you could bag a Sony BRAVIA 3 85-Inch 4K Ultra HD Google TV (worth S$5,799) on top of an Apple iPhone 16 Plus 128GB (worth S$1,399).

View all our ongoing credit card promotions for more exciting gifts.

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9. Alternatives to the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card

POSB Everyday Card—With a monthly spend of $800, enjoy 10% cash rebates on online food delivery at foodpanda and Deliveroo, 5% rebates on online shopping (Amazon.sg, Lazada, Qoo10, Shopee, RedMart and Taobao), and 3% on dining transactions.

UOB One Card—From now till 31 Dec 2024, enjoy 13.33% at selected merchants when you spend $500 a month on the UOB One Card. If you spend $2,000 a month, you’ll get 20% cashback. Just be wary that this card’s bonus cashback works on a quarterly basis—read more in our UOB One Card review.

HSBC Live+ Card—Another card with a limited time bonus cashback rate, the HSBC Live+ Card offers up to 8% cashback on dining, shopping and entertainment from now to the end of 2024 with $600 spend per month.

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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-$45,000 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 our ultimate list of credit card reviews for the low-down on credit cards in Singapore.

 

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