Standard Chartered is updating its list of qualifying and eligible transactions for 360° Rewards Points earning from 3rd September 2024, adding new exclusions including spend at hospitals and on utilities bills like electricity and gas bills.
That means you’ll have to switch to alternative cards to continue earning miles for expenses in these categories with any Standard Chartered credit cards you hold, including the Visa Infinite and Journey products, from early next month.
From 3 September 2024, transactions with the following MCCs will be excluded and no longer considered as qualifying transactions for earning cashback or rewards points.
Standard Chartered
The changes will be implemented to all Standard Chartered Credit Cards.
The new exclusion list
The following transactions by MCC code are not eligible for 360° Rewards Points (and therefore miles) earning, with new categories added from 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 |
Additionally, 360° Rewards Points are not awarded for:
- AXS and SAM payments
- EZ-Link and Transit Link transactions
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.
Hospitals
Most hospitals in Singapore code under MCC 8062, which is newly excluded for 360° Rewards Points earning from 3rd September 2024.
Credit cards not excluding MCC 8062 in Singapore include:
- Citi ULTIMA
- Maybank (all cards)
That means you can use cards like the Maybank Horizon Visa Infinite, and still earn points or miles at hospitals.
Standard Chartered is sadly joining Bank of China, DBS and HSBC in applying a blanket exclusion on hospital transactions across all its credit cards from next month.
Back in 2020 OCBC began excluding some hospitals from points earning, though it stopped short of excluding all of MCC 8062, instead applying the restriction only to “public hospitals including non-profit hospitals, community hospitals and polyclinics”.
That kept private hospitals safe and still eligible to earn miles with cards like the OCBC Voyage and Premier Visa Infinite.
Note that some hospitals code under MCC 9399: Government Services – Not Elsewhere Classified, a widely excluded category for points and miles earning across Singapore credit cards, with the exception of American Express (though not all hospitals will accept Amex).
Utilities
Payments to utility companies in Singapore code under MCC 4900, which is newly excluded for 360° Rewards Points earning from 3rd September 2024.
This ‘catch-all’ MCC includes SP Services and the likes of Geneco, Union Power and other Open Electricity Market providers.
It unfortunately kills off the ability to earn miles on utility bill payments with the UOB PRVI Miles cards and the UOB Visa Infinite Metal card. You also will no longer be able to net 1.2 mpd on these payments with the KrisFlyer UOB credit card.
All is not lost though!
You can still earn miles for utilities payments using the UOB Reserve card (1.6 mpd), though other UOB cards will not earn for this spend category, and there’s one bank in Singapore that still doesn’t exclude utilities from miles earning:
- Maybank
That means you can also use cards like the Maybank Visa Infinite (1.2 mpd) and the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature (0.24 mpd) and still earn points or miles on utilities payments.
Medical and dental?
As you may notice in the table above, Standard Chartered is also adding another new MCC to its credit card spend exclusion list for points / miles earning from 3rd September 2024:
MCC 5047: Medical, Dental, Ophthalmic and Hospital Equipment and Supplies
Don’t panic though – this relates to payments at specialist suppliers, not the vast majority of medical or dental clinics themselves, which code under the MCC range 8011-8050, and will continue to be eligible for 360° Rewards Points earning.
Summary
From 3rd September 2024, Standard Chartered credit card holders will no longer earn 360° Rewards Points on a range of newly excluded MCC categories.
The most important of these new exclusions for most of our readers is for spend on Utility bills (MCC 4900) and at Hospitals (MCC 8062).
Luckily there are still a few cards out there offering miles earning in these categories, but the list is starting to get a bit thin – especially for Utilities payments.
Do try to divert your spend in these categories away from Standard Chartered to an eligible option from 3rd September 2024 if you can.
(Cover Photo: Raffles Medical Group)