Standard Chartered credit cards extend Grab discount to December; introduce Amazon Prime deal

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Yesterday afternoon Standard Chartered extended their watered down ride-sharing discounts for their credit card customers with Grab until 31st December 2018. A widely anticipated move as Standard Chartered solidifies its newfound relationship with the ride-sharing monopoly after the untimely local demise of its previous partner, Uber.

This is also a welcome piece of good news for Grab who have struggled for positive PR following their huge no-notice devaluation and subsequent refusal to bow (meaningfully) to public pressure with changes to their GrabRewards program in Singapore.

What’s the deal?

Riders now earn 15% cashback (reduced from 20%) on all Grab rides. Sounds great right? Unfortunately, since it transferred from Uber to Grab, the cap on the cashback was slashed from S$50 to S$30. The minimum spend on your card to trigger the discount remains at S$900 in the same calendar month.

This means that Standard Chartered credit card holders should channel at least the first S$200 of Grab ride spending each month towards these cards before considering other options (15% cashback is better than any miles-earning rate you’ll achieve).

Standard Chartered credit card holders will also be eligible for upgrade to Platinum status in the GrabRewards program, though this time you’ll have to hold one of the following credit cards to qualify:

• SC Visa Infinite
• SC Visa Signature
• SC Mastercard World

Simply charge four GrabCar and/or GrabCar (Premium) rides through the Grab App to one of the above cards between 1st August 2018 and 31st October 2018.

The Platinum Tier Status will be valid until 31st December 2018, after which you must meet the minimum of 4,500 GrabRewards points required to maintain Platinum Tier Status. For full details about points earning and status tiers in the GrabRewards program, click here.

Terms and conditions

The 15% offer is only valid if the monthly spending on the card exceeds S$900, but as we detailed in our SCVI card review, you shouldn’t be using that card for anything if you don’t spend at least S$2,000 either locally or overseas as that’s the threshold for the improved miles accrual rates (1.4 miles per S$1 spent locally and 3.0 miles S$1 overseas).

Take note of the following list of excluded transactions that don’t count towards your monthly S$900 spend on your Standard Chartered credit card in relation to the Grab offer:

• Insurance premiums, including premiums for investment-linked policies, charged to the Card;
• Bill payments (examples of bill payment merchants include but are not limited to Telecommunications and utilities providers such as Starhub, Singtel and M1, Singapore Power);
• Any payment via AXS network;
• Any payment via SAM network;
• Payments to government agencies which include but are not limited to the Land Transport Authority, Housing Development Board, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, Public Utilities Board, Immigration & Checkpoints Authority and the Ministry of Manpower;
• Income tax payments;
• EZ Link cards transactions;
• Transit Link transactions;
• Any transactions pertaining to Merchant Category Codes 6211 (Security Brokers/Dealers) and 7995 (Gambling/Lotto);
• Balance transfers, cash advances from the card, purchases via NETS and ongoing instalment payments;
• Any fees and charges (including annual fees, interest charges, cheque processing fees, administrative fees, cash advance fees, finance charges and/or late payment charges and other miscellaneous fees and charges) charged to the Card;
• Any amount charged to the Card during the Promotion Period that is subsequently cancelled, voided or reversed; and
• Balance owing on the Card account from other months.

Full terms and conditions for the Grab discount offer can be found here.

Terms and conditions for the GrabRewards Platinum Tier Status Promotion are listed here.

Amazon ‘Prime Now’

Still working to establish a solid footprint in Singapore, Amazon are handing out more discounts to another credit card company having initially partnered with Citi late last year.

Not ground-breaking news here. Cashback of 10% capped at $10 (i.e. spend $100 and you’ve maxed out the discount) and free Prime membership (equivalent value S$2.99).

Although the terms and conditions are quite confusing, the cashback is separate from the membership payment so if you sign up and spend at least S$100 in a month from now until 31st January 2019, then in the next calendar month your account will be credited with S$12.99 (S$10 cashback and S$2.99 to cover your membership fees).

Here at MainlyMiles we do quite like Amazon Prime Now. Initially we thought it was a gimmick and struggled to get delivery slots but now the hype has died down we can reliably order all sorts of weird and wonderful items at a reasonable price that are delivered the same day within a two hour window (and quite reliably compared with their competition, in our experience).

Amazon Prime membership also gets you access to unlimited instant streaming of popular movies and TV shows including award-winning original Amazon titles, and free game content with Twitch.

Summary

With the end of Citi’s 8mpd offer and OCBC’s 4mpd offer, the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite is back to being the best general spending card, both locally and overseas. That is until the new kid on the block hits the streets – BOC’s Elite Miles World MasterCard, or if you hold the Maybank Horizon Visa card which has a temporary enhanced earning rates offer.

These offers might not seem like much but provide a nice little bump for items many of us would likely be paying for anyway.

The Standard Chartered Visa Infinite certainly doesn’t come with the widest array of up front privileges and commands both a high income requirement and annual fee but it’s fair to say, as long term card holders that they keep us sweet. Free hotel nights at least once a year, complimentary luxury yacht charters (if you spend enough) and a sprinkling of discounted everyday services to complement a very good every day earning rate – all mean it will remain in our wallets.

The Grab offer isn’t as good as it used to be under Uber but it beats miles-earning cards with a 15% cashback. Amazon Prime is something new which will be a nice perk for many Standard Chartered credit card holders.