We received our Standard Chartered X cards today, including the fancy illuminated packaging, but if you’ve been sitting on the fence with the 100,000 miles sign-up bonus it might be time to bite the bullet and apply. That’s because the bank has dramatically shortened the application period by a month. Instead of ending in 32 days from now, it will end today.
What’s changed?
Not the terms and conditions that’s for sure, but then they don’t have to be changed as they always contained a clause saying that the bank could terminate the offer early if it chose to.
Mainly Miles confirmed with a Standard Chartered Customer Service Officer this evening that provided your application is submitted by the end of tomorrow (31st July 2019), you will be eligible for the sign-up bonus even if your card is approved later.
That’s not what the terms and conditions document states for the original end date of the promotion (31st August 2019).
In that case it clearly related to card approval, not application, so we took that with a pinch of salt.
We just called again at 00:20 and were told the new 31st July 2019 deadline related to approval date, which means you have less than 24 hours to apply and be approved – no small task at this stage!
Frankly it feels like we could have asked 10 different Standard Chartered CSOs the same question over the last few days and received 10 different answers! If only that was an exaggeration…
The solution?
If you want to apply but haven’t done so yet, do it today (31st July 2019) to be eligible for the sign-up offer, assuming your application is then successful and you are approved (maybe?) today.
If you are approved on or after 1st August 2019, we would definitely recommend contacting Standard Chartered to verify that your card account is still indeed eligible for the 100,000 miles promotion before embarking on your S$6k spend marathon.
If they say your account is not eligible, our opinion is then certainly to not activate and simply cancel the card. Standard Chartered confirmed to us that the annual fee would not be charged in this case.
More details
If the Standard Chartered X card is a new concept to you, see details of the card here and some information about new loyalty scheme transfer partners here.
Summary
A 100,000 mile sign up bonus for a credit card in Singapore isn’t one to ignore, so if you’re still on the fence our advice is to apply now.
If you then confirm with Standard Chartered you are not eligible for the offer, for example if your card is approved on 2nd August 2019, then by all means don’t activate the card. Simply call up and cancel, then you won’t have to worry about the annual fee.
Remember, you can still pay the annual fee of S$695.50 if you wish, even outside the sign-up bonus, and receive 30,000 miles, but that’s a poor rate to buy miles and there are little or no other perks to speak of.
You really want this one, like us, only for the 100,000 miles promotion.
(Cover Image: Standard Chartered)
very messy launch from start to finish tnc still state wrong annual fee and now wrong end date who will risk application now. what’s next from scb?
With Standard Chartered, who knows what to expect next!
Eddie had a serious complaint with them last year relating to his SCVI card which eventually reached CEO level. You don’t even want to know what compensation was awarded, nor what they did next…
Idiots of the first order.
My dealings with them over the last week have confirmed the same. They weren’t even half ready for this launch.
What a messy launch (and end)!
And you’re right about different answers from different CSOs!
How did you guys manage to escalate your issue to CEO level? I’ve had a very recent nasty incident with UOB, and the customer service ‘manager’ admitted to us that they have lied to us. But not sure how to escalate this to senior management, short of writing to the press.
The SCB CEO story is a long one, but the crux of it was we found the right email address on the internet!
So you’re saying if I apply today then get approved in August I can cancel and not pay the annual fee?
That’s what Standard Chartered are saying to us!
But yes it’s indefensible in our view to charge the annual fee to a customer who applied in good faith to take part in an ongoing promotion (at time of application), then didn’t use the card and just wanted to cancel because they were told they weren’t eligible.
Especially so when the published T&C were not amended.
In any event the annual fee is not charged immediately (end of month 1 I think). I would refuse to pay it even if they sent me a bill for it provided I had cancelled (and not used the card / transferred any points).
I notice too that Clause 9.2 suggests that anything about the promo could also change. I wouldn’t think they would deign to change the 100,000 bonus, but the exclusions?