Back in May this year, Standard Chartered revamped its X Card as an entry-level S$30k income product called the Journey Credit Card, with a S$30,000 income requirement (down from S$80,000), and a more palatable S$194.40 annual fee, waivable in year one – a more typical lineup for an entry-level general spend option in Singapore.

As part of the rebrand the bank also launched a new sign-up bonus for the Journey Card, marketed as “up to 45,000 miles” for new-to-bank customers, the key draw of which was bonus earning of +5 mpd on the first S$5,000 spend using the card within the first 30 days of approval.

That deal was cut short by eight weeks, ending on 6th August 2023, but almost immediately the bank is back with a new offer, potentially worth even more miles and easier to achieve.

National Day promo: Up to 45,000 miles

If you’re a new-to-bank credit card customer with Standard Chartered, which means not having an existing principal credit card with the bank and also not having done so in the last 12 months from the date of application, you’ll be eligible for this latest Journey Card sign-up bonus.

This offer is available for applications made from 7th August 2023 to 30th September 2023.

Here’s how Standard Chartered outlines the deal.

Journey Card Up to 45K Miles National Day Promotion

Bonus Category	Reward Points	Equivalent KrisFlyer Miles
Voluntary Payment of First Year Annual Fee (S$194.40)	25,000	10,000
Bonus miles on spend of S$3,000+ in the first 60 days from card approval	87,500	35,000
Total	Up to 112,500	Up to 45,000

The first element of the bonus is only for voluntarily paying the year one annual card fee of S$194.40, which is waived if you wish.

At 1.94 cents per mile, it’s probably too much to be paying just for the additional miles alone.

The bonus 35,000 miles for spending at least S$3,000 in the first 60 days of card membership is the element to focus on here, worth over 11 mpd on top of the card’s usual accrual rates.

If you opt for annual fee waiver, you won’t be eligible for the 10,000 miles welcome bonus, but you still qualify for the 35,000 miles spend bonus.

These bonus miles are an addition to the card’s regular earn rates of 1.2 mpd / 2 mpd / 3 mpd, so for example if you make all S$3,000 spend locally you’ll be looking at an additional 3,600 miles (S$3,000 x 1.2 mpd), though this applies year-round for that spend anyway, so it isn’t part of the bonus.

Spend exclusions

Standard Chartered is excluding transactions which fall under its usual list of excluded spend categories when it comes to qualifying spend for the S$3,000 minimum within 60 days to trigger the bonus miles, as shown below (click to expand).

SCB Spend exclusion categories The following transactions by MCC code are not eligible for 360° Rewards Points (and therefore miles) earning, with new categories added on 3rd September 2024 highlighted: MCC Code Description 4829 Money Transfer   4900 Utilities – Electric, Gas, Water, and Sanitary   5047 Medical, Dental, Ophthalmic and Hospital Equipment and Supplies   5199 Nondurable Goods   6050 Quasi Cash 6051 Non-Financial Institutions 6211 Security Brokers/Dealers 6513 Real Estate Agents and Managers   6529 Quasi Cash   6530 Quasi Cash   6534 Quasi Cash   7299 Other Services – Not Elsewhere Classified 7349 Cleaning, Maintenance and Janitorial Services   7511 Quasi Cash 7523 Parking Lots, Parking Meters and Garages   8062 Hospitals 8211 Schools, Elementary and Secondary 8220 Colleges, Universities, Professional Schools and Junior Colleges 8241 Schools, Correspondence 8244 Schools, Business and Secretarial 8249 Schools, Trade and Vocational 8299 Schools and Educational Services - Other 8398 Organisations, Charitable and Social Service 8651 Organisations, Political 8661 Organisations, Religious   8999 Professional Services (Not Elsewhere Classified) 9211 Court Costs including Alimony and Child Support 9222 Fines 9223 Bail and Bond Payments 9311 Tax Payment 9399 Government Services (Not Elsewhere Classified) 9402 Postal Services - Government Only 9405 Intra-Government Purchases Highlighted transactions with the above listed MCCs will continue to earn rewards points on your card until 2nd September 2024. Transactions posted to your card from 3rd September 2024 onwards will no longer earn rewards points. Additionally, 360° Rewards Points are not awarded for: AXS and SAM payments EZ-Link and Transit Link transactions

Note that CardUp and ipaymy spend is not excluded, so you can potentially settle large payments like property rental, insurance premiums and education fees to help you along your way to the S$3,000 threshhold.

When will you receive the bonus?

If you opt to pay the optional first year card membership fee of S$194.40, you’ll receive 25,000 Reward Points (10,000 miles) in your account within 60 working days (around 12 weeks) of your card activation date.

If you participate in the 35,000 miles bonus for a spend of S$3,000+ in the first 60 days of card membership, regardless of whether you opt to pay the first year annual fee or not, these bonus miles will be credited as follows:

Journey Card approval month:	Bonus miles credited by:
August 2023	30th November 2023
September 2023	31st December 2023

Terms and Conditions

Full terms and conditions for the sign-up offer are available here.

This includes the full list of excluded transactions, when considering the S$3,000 minimum spend to trigger the bonus miles (see Point 9).

About the Journey Card

Since its brand switch from the X Card, the Journey Card retails an uncapped 1.2 mpd for local spend and 2 mpd for overseas spend, while two complimentary Priority Pass lounge visits per year also remain part of the deal.

The card also retains 10 loyalty programme transfer partners including KrisFlyer, though the transfer ratios to many of these (e.g. Qatar Privilege Club) are not attractive and mean earning less than the advertised mpd rates.

One new feature of the card is a new 3 mpd bonus spend category, for online transport, online food delivery and online grocery shopping, running between now and the end of 2023.

Like most bonus earn rates, this is capped at S$1,000 spend per statement month.

Registration is not required – all Journey cardholders are eligible (including existing X Card members). Eligible online spend by MCC with example merchants are provided below.

• Grocery/food-stores with MCCs 5411, 5462, 5499 and 5921
  (E.g. NTUC FairPrice Online, NTUC FairPrice app, Lazada Redmart, Watson’s Singapore and Nespresso Singapore)
• Food deliveries with MCCs 5811, 5812 and 5814
  (E.g. Foodpanda, Deliveroo, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dominos Pizza, Chilli Api Catering and Qi Ji Catering)
• Transport merchants with MCCs 4111, 4121, 4411 and 4789
  (E.g.Grab, Gojek, Cabcharge Asia, Tada, Ryde Technologies, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Easybook.com)

This bonus may be useful if you’re already maxing out the various 4 mpd or 6 mpd limits on your other credit cards for online spend in these categories.

Full terms and conditions for the offer are available here (see Part 2).

Zero-fee FCY transactions

The Journey Card also offers zero FCY fee for overseas spend made and posted in the months of:

• June 2023
• July 2023
• November 2023
• December 2023

Obviously the first two months no longer help you here if you didn’t hold the card and use it for FCY purchases back then, and unfortunately only the November 2023 period will combine with the 35,000 miles sign-up bonus, for those applying in late September 2023 who will then have until late November 2023 to meet the minimum spend requirement.

This deal offers you full cashback on the bank’s steep 3.5% FCY fee for overseas transactions made during these months.

Cashback will be credited to your card account as follows.

Eligible FCY transactions made and posted:	Cashback credited by:
1 Jun – 31 Jul 2023	30th September 2023
1 Nov – 31 Dec 2023	29th February 2024

This is actually a good deal – an uncapped 2 mpd on FCY transactions for spend in four months with no additional fees, even though you can only combine it with the sign-up bonus with a specific application approval window.

Let’s hope Standard Chartered repeats this for Journey cardholders in subsequent years.

Full terms and conditions for this promotion are available here.

Standard Chartered cut short its previous sign-up bonus for the new Journey Card this month, but the bank is straight back with a different deal.

This is worth 35,000 bonus miles for a S$3,000 spend in the first 60 days if you are new-to-bank, plus an additional 10,000 bonus miles if you wish to pay the optional first-year annual fee, for up to 45,000 bonus miles in total.

If you apply in late September 2023, you’ll even be able to combine some of your minimum qualifying spend in FCY at zero additional transaction cost (during the month of November 2023), which represents a good deal since this card’s FCY fee is otherwise very steep at 3.5%.

Fast Facts
Annual fee: $194.40/yr Local earn rate: 1.2 mpd FCY earn rate: 2 mpd Bonus earn rate: 3 mpd Lounge access: 2 per year FCY fee: 3.5% Min. age: 21 Min. income: $30,000/yr
25,000 miles when you spend APPLY HERE

(Cover Photo: Berjaya Hotels)