Over the last couple of years, Standard Chartered has rolled out some quite generous sign-up bonuses for its Journey Card – an entry-level general spend option which replaced the bank’s somewhat ill-conceived X Card back in 2023.
While ‘peak offer’ reached 45,000 bonus miles for new sign-ups, sadly we’ve been at a slightly more subdued 30,000 miles bonus rate over the last few months, but Standard Chartered has now extended this offer through to the end of December 2025.
The good news is that only S$800 spend is required in the first 60 days, a significantly lower spend threshold than the S$3,000 required for the former 45,000 miles bonus offer, making it far more accessible.
The Journey card has a S$30,000 income requirement, waivable first year annual fee, plus a year-round 3 mpd earn rate on the first S$1,000 of eligible online monthly spend.
Let’s take a closer look at this renewed offer.
Sign-up bonus: Up to 30,000 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 the Journey Card sign-up bonus.
The latest offer is now available for applications made between now and 31st December 2025.
You’ll be eligible for the 30,000 miles bonus deal if you pay the first year annual fee, but you’ll only be eligible for a 20,000 miles bonus if you want to have the first year fee waived.
Here’s how the new deal works, depending on whether you pay the first year annual fee or not.
Journey Card Sign-Up Bonus
Annual Fee Paid
| Bonus Category | Reward Points | Equivalent KrisFlyer Miles |
| Payment of First Year Annual Fee (S$196.20) |
25,000 | 10,000 |
| Bonus miles on spend of S$800+ in the first 60 days | 50,000 | 20,000 |
| Total | 75,000 | 30,000 |
Journey Card Sign-Up Bonus
Annual Fee Waived
| Bonus Category | Reward Points | Equivalent KrisFlyer Miles |
(waived) |
n/a | n/a |
| Bonus miles on spend of S$800+ in the first 60 days | 50,000 | 20,000 |
| Total | 50,000 | 20,000 |
The first element of the bonus is only for voluntarily paying the year one annual card fee of S$196.20, which is waived if you wish.
At 1.96 cents per mile, it’s probably too much to be paying just for the additional 10,000 miles alone.
The bonus 20,000 miles for spending at least S$800 in the first 60 days of card membership is the element to focus on here, effectively worth 25 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 20,000 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$800 spend locally you’ll be looking at an additional 960 miles (S$800 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$800 minimum within 60 days to trigger the bonus miles, as shown below (click to expand).
SCB Spend exclusion categoriesThe 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:
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:
|
Note the recently-announced MCC exclusions that were added in early September 2024, primarily affecting Utilities and Hospital payments.
Importantly, CardUp and ipaymy spend is not excluded, so you can potentially settle large payments like property rental, insurance premiums, taxes and education fees to help you along your way to the S$800 threshold.
When will you receive the bonus?
If you opt to pay the first year card membership fee of S$196.20, 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 20,000 miles bonus for a spend of S$800+ in the first 60 days of card membership, these bonus miles will be credited as follows:
| Journey Card approval month: | Bonus miles credited by: |
| September 2025 | 31st December 2025 |
| October 2025 | 31st January 2026 |
| November 2025 | 28th February 2026 |
| December 2025 | 31st March 2026 |
| January 2026 | 30th April 2026 |
| February 2026 | 31st May 2026 |
Terms and Conditions
Full terms and conditions for the sign-up offer are available here.
This includes a link to the the full list of excluded transactions, when considering the S$800 minimum spend to trigger the bonus miles (see Point 6d), which you can alternatively access here.
About the Journey Card
Since its brand switch from the X Card, the Journey Card has offered an uncapped 1.2 mpd for local spend and 2 mpd for overseas spend, while two complimentary Priority Pass lounge visits per year are also part of the deal.
The card previously had 10 loyalty programme transfer partners including KrisFlyer, though the transfer ratios to many of these (e.g. Qatar Privilege Club) were not attractive and meant earning less than the advertised mpd rates.
That’s academic now anyway.
Nine of the 10 partners were removed from late March 2024, though on the plus side Asia Miles was finally added to the list, meaning there are now two conversion options remaining; KrisFlyer and Asia Miles.
(Photo: Dillon Chong)
In late 2023 Standard Chartered also made a promotional 3 mpd bonus earn rate year-round, which applies for the first S$1,000 spend in online transport, online food delivery and online grocery shopping categories per statement cycle.
While it’s not the best rate in these categories, it’s potentially useful for those who already max out monthly caps on other 4 mpd cards.
More details about the Journey Card are available here.
Summary
Standard Chartered has extended its 30,000 miles sign-up bonus for the Journey Card, now available for to new-to-bank customers who apply by 31st December 2025, pay the first year annual fee, and spend S$800 in the first 60 days.
That spend level is significantly lower than the previous S$3,000+ threshold under the previous 45,000 miles bonus offer, so it’s much easier to achieve than before.
Those who don’t pay the first year annual fee of S$196.20 will only earn 20,000 bonus miles for the same spend requirement, a better deal in our book since paying the fee means effectively ‘buying’ those additional 10,000 miles for an unattractive 1.96 cents each.
| Fast Facts
|
|
| Annual fee: $196.20/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 |
|
| Up to 30,000 miles when you spend APPLY HERE |
|
(Cover Photo: Berjaya Hotels)