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.

Part of the rebrand included a a new 3 mpd bonus spend category, for online transport, online food delivery and online grocery shopping, originally running between now 31st December 2023.

It’s a useful list for those already maxing out their caps on other 4 mpd or 6 mpd credit cards for online spend in these categories, and now there’s some more good news.

3 mpd bonus is now year-round

Effective from 11th December 2023, Standard Chartered has now removed the time limit on this 3 mpd earn rate. That means cardholders can continue to earn at this bonus rate beyond 31st December 2023 for specific online transactions made in Singapore Dollars (SGD) on a year-round basis.

Like most bonus earn rates, this is capped at S$1,000 spend charged per statement month (that period being defined as the statement date of your current calendar month to one day prior to the statement date of your following calendar month).

All Journey cardholders are eligible for this bonus without any registration. Eligible online spend is by specific Merchant Category Code (MCC), with example merchants provided below.

• Online 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)
• Online Food deliveries with MCCs 5811, 5812 and 5814
  (E.g. GrabFood, Foodpanda, Deliveroo, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dominos Pizza, Chilli Api Catering and Qi Ji Catering)
• Online Transport merchants with MCCs 4111, 4121, 4411 and 4789
  (E.g. Grab, Gojek, Cabcharge Asia, Tada, Ryde Technologies, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Easybook.com)

Remember the merchants listed are just examples, you’ll earn 3 mpd on the first S$1,000 per statement cycle spend on this card provided:

• the MCC is one of those listed above
• your transaction codes as online
• your transaction is in Singapore Dollars (SGD).

Full terms and conditions for the 3 mpd earn rate are available here (see Part 2).

Sign-up bonus: 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 also be eligible for the extended Journey Card sign-up bonus.

This offer has been available for applications made from 7th August 2023, and has now had its end date extended to 15th January 2024.

  APPLY HERE

Here’s how Standard Chartered outlines the deal.

Journey Card Up to 45K Miles 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, and do note that the annual fee will increase to S$196.20 from 1st January 2024, thanks to a Singapore GST hike (cost becomes 1.96 cents per mile).

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 threshold.

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:
December 2023	31st March 2024
January 2024	30th April 2024

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.

Now there’s also a year-round 3 mpd bonus earn rate for online transport, online food delivery and online grocery shopping too, as we outlined earlier in the article.

More details about the Journey Card are available here.

Zero-fee FCY transactions

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

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

Obviously this promotion is no longer of much use, especially if you don’t have the card yet, but let’s hope we’ll see a comeback in 2024, since the deal offered full cashback on the bank’s steep 3.5% FCY fee for overseas transactions.

Full terms and conditions for that promotion are available here.

Standard Chartered has now made 3 mpd earning on the Journey Card for online transport, online food delivery and online grocery shopping a permanent feature. While it’s not the best rate in these categories, it’s potentially useful for those who already max out monthly caps on their other 4 mpd / 6 mpd cards.

The bonus rate remains capped at S$1,000 spend per statement cycle (careful – it’s not calendar month!).

The bank has also extended its sign-up bonus for the Journey Card, 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.

That’s quite a generous deal for a relatively modest spend, worth considering in its own right even if you don’t intend to keep the card long-term.

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)