Most unlimited cashback credit cards give you just 1.5% to 1.7% back on your spend. The Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card flips that on its head: it offers unlimited cashback at a much higher rate of 8% to 10%—provided you meet its monthly spend tiers.
That’s an unusual proposition in the cashback space. While SC did “nerf” the card back in Dec 2024 by adding spend requirements and an annual fee, the upside is that the maximum cashback rate also went up. So today, the Smart Card is less about effortless perks, and more about maximising high rewards if you can play by its rules.
In this review, we’ll walk you through how the revamped Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card works, and help you decide if it still deserves a place in your wallet.
Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card—Is it MoneySmart? | |||||
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Pros—What we like | Cons—What we don’t like | ||||
– Good cashback rates of 8% or 10% when you hit certain minimum monthly spends | – High minimum monthly spend ($1,500) to unlock the highest cashback rate of 10% | ||||
Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card at a glance | |||||
Category | Our rating | The deets | |||
Earn rates: Cashback | ★★★★☆ | Bonus spending: | |||
Earn categories | ★★★☆☆ | Bonus cashback merchants for dining | |||
Annual fees and charges | ★★★★☆ | $91 (before GST) from 6 Dec 2025 onwards. First year fee is waived for new cardholders. | |||
Accessibility | ★★★☆☆ | – Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs): $30,000 annual income requirement | |||
Extras/periphery rewards | ★★★★☆ | – Visa Smart Delay: Complimentary access to over 1,600 lounges and airport experiences when your flight is delayed. | |||
Sign-up bonus | ★★★☆☆ | – Welcome gift: $230 cash via PayNow or 2,990 SmartPoints | |||
See our credit card ranking rubric to find out how we rank credit cards.
Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card—MoneySmart Review (2025)
- Summary
- How much cashback do I get?
- Participating merchants for bonus spend
- How do you earn cashback?
- When will the cashback be credited?
- Fees, charges, and more
- Should I get the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card?
- Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card promotion
- Alternatives to the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card
1. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card: Summary
- on spends above S$1,500 on Bonus Categories
- 10% Bonus Cashback
- on spends above S$800 on Bonus Categories
- 8% Bonus Cashback
- on eligible spends below S$800
- 0.5% Cashback
The Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card now works on a tiered cashback system. While the days of $0 minimum spend are gone, the trade-off is big: there’s no cap on cashback anymore. Previously, cashback was capped at 14,400 360° Reward Points a month (equivalent to just ~$818 spend).
Current cashback structure
Monthly Spend | Selected Merchants | All Other Spend |
|---|---|---|
$800 – $1,499 | 8% | 0.5% |
$1,500+ | 10% | 1% |
Below $800 | – | 0.5% |
The standout feature: unlimited cashback at 8% or 10%, depending on your spend tier.
Additionally, the SC Smart Credit Card now comes with more bonus merchants. Here's the list:
Bonus merchants
- SMART Dining: McDonald’s, KFC, Ya Kun Kaya Toast (plus Starbucks, Pizza Hut, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Domino’s Pizza).
- SMART Transport: MRT or bus rides via SimplyGo, EV charging.
- SMART Streaming: Netflix, Spotify, Disney+ (plus Amazon Prime, Viu, iQIYI, HBO GO)
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 | 0.5% | 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.
If you spend only $800 a month on your credit card, you'll get 8% cashback instead.
And if you spend less than $800 a month? This card will make no sense for you. You’ll only earn the base cashback rate of 0.5%, and are 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.
- on eligible spends
- 1.5% Cashback
- Min Spend
- S$0
- Cashback Cap
- Unlimited
Get S$350 Cash via PayNow or earn 4,000 SmartPoints (worth up to S$469 of Gifts) when you spend min. S$800 in 30 days AND apply to any of the following SCB products through MoneySmart (Bonus$aver Account, CashOne Loan, EasyPay or Funds Transfer). T&Cs apply.
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 |
Streaming | Netflix, Spotify, YouTube and Disney+ |
Transport | Bus and MRT commute via SimplyGo |
Source: Standard Chartered
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. Read more about rewards points expiry periods.
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: Base 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.
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. Waived for the first year. |
Supplementary card fee | Free |
Interest free period | Available |
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 | 8% |
Overlimit fee | $40 |
Card association | Visa |
7. Should I get the Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card?
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 an unlimited 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%.
8. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card promotion
- on spends above S$1,500 on Bonus Categories
- 10% Bonus Cashback
- on spends above S$800 on Bonus Categories
- 8% Bonus Cashback
- on eligible spends below S$800
- 0.5% Cashback
From now till 15 Sep 2025, get $230 cash via PayNow or 2,990 SmartPoints—the latter is worth over 5,500 Asia Miles, a Samsung Galaxy A16 8GB+128GB (worth $288), or an AOC 24G4 IPS Gaming Monitor 23.8-Inch (worth $2,810). Take your pick on our Rewards Store.
To receive your welcome gift, simply apply and spend a minimum of $500 within 30 days from the date your Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card is approved.
Don’t forget to enrol in our Rollin’ Rewards campaign for free before you apply—you’ll stand a chance to win rewards such as a Nintendo Switch 2 (worth $719) and Sony PS5 Slim (worth $699).
View all our ongoing credit card promotions for more exciting gifts.
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.
- on Online Food Deliveries & Dining*
- Up to 10% Cash Rebates
- on in-store spend in Malaysian Ringgit
- Up to 10% Cash Rebates
- on bus and train rides with SimplyGo
- Up to 10% Cash Rebates
UOB One Card—Enjoy 8.33% at selected merchants when you spend $600 a month on the UOB One Card. If you spend $2,000 a month, you’ll get 10% cashback. Just be wary that this card’s bonus cashback works on a quarterly basis—read more in our UOB One Card review.
- cashback on daily spend at McDonald's, Grab, SimplyGo & Shopee
- Up to 10%
- cashback at all grocery spend
- Up to 8%
- cashback cap a year
- Up to S$2,240
Get a SURE-WIN S$30 Cash for New-To-UOB customers who apply and make just one eligible transaction within 30 days from approval. T&Cs apply.
PLUS, enjoy highest cashback of up to 20% on daily spend! T&Cs apply.
HSBC Live+ Card—With a minimum monthly spend of $800, the HSBC Live+ Card offers up to 8% cashback on dining, shopping and entertainment for the first 2 calendar quarters if you sign up by 30 Sep 2025.
- on Dining, Shopping and Entertainment
- 8% Cashback*
- on fuel at Caltex and Shell gas stations in Singapore
- 5% Cashback*
- on All Other Spends
- 0.3% Cashback*
Get S$400 Cash or 6,140 SmartPoints (worth up to S$499 of Gifts) when you spend S$500 from Card Account Opening Date to end of the following calendar month!
PLUS, double your excitement with a chance to win the ultimate S$15,000 getaway to your dream destination in our exclusive lucky draw! T&Cs apply.
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.
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Earn categories | This category looks at the breadth rather than depth of your earnings.
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Annual fees and charges |
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Accessibility | Minimum income requirements:
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Extras/periphery rewards | These include:
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Sign-up bonus |
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Check out our ultimate list of credit card reviews for the low-down on credit cards in Singapore.
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