Standard Chartered is making some changes to its credit card T&Cs, which take effect from 2 May 2020. This affects all points and cashback earning cards, including the SCB Visa Infinite, SCB Priority Banking Visa Infinite, SCB X Card, and SCB Rewards+.
To summarize, SCB will be joining DBS, Citibank, OCBC and UOB in excluding payments to educational institutions from earning rewards. EZ-Reload transactions will also be excluded.
Education
You will no longer earn points for any transactions made to educational institutions, defined as:
- 8211: Elementary and Secondary Schools
- 8220: Colleges, Universities, Professional Schools and Junior Colleges
- 8241: Correspondence Schools
- 8244: Business and Secretarial Schools
- 8249: Vocational and Trade Schools
- 8299: Schools and Educational Services (Not Elsewhere Classified)
This means the SCB cards cease to be options for paying tuition fees, and you’ll want to instead use AMEX, BOC, HSBC or Maybank cards to do so.
 HSBC Revolution |
2 mpd, if paid online (until 1 Jul 20) |
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1.5 mpd (until 15 Jun 20) |
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1.25 mpd (1 mpd if previous year spending <$50K or first year) (until 1 Jul 20) |
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1.2 mpd |
| 1.2 mpd | |
| 1.1 mpd |
EZ-Reload
I was a bit surprised to read this, because I didn’t even know that EZ-Reload transactions earned rewards in the first place.
But lo and behold, here’s what the T&C used to state:
Any top-ups or payment of funds to any prepaid cards (with exception of EZ-Reload charged to your Card) and any prepaid accounts, payment platforms, digital wallets including but not limited to Grab, Singtel, Dash, WorldRemit Singapore, YouTrip or any other accounts as the Bank may specific from time to time, including without limitation to the following accounts or any other accounts as we may specific from time to time;
Going forward, the exception will be removed.
We will be removing the exception of EZ-Reload charged to your Standard Chartered Visa Infinite Credit Card, Standard Chartered Priority Banking Visa Infinite Credit Card, MANHATTAN S$500 Credit Card, MANHATTAN Credit Card and Standard Chartered Visa Infinite X Card as found at Clauses Part J1 – 6.13, Part K1 – 6.13, Part L – 122.12, Part M – 139.12 and Part P1 – 242.n of the Credit Card Terms respectively.
It’s not that big a deal, however, because you could easily earn miles on public transportation by using the following cards with SimplyGo.
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4.4 mpd until 30 Jun 20, capped at $80 per month. Must add card to mobile wallet and use, no bonus awarded for tapping physical card. Registration required. |
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4 mpd, capped at $1K per month for Lady’s Card and $3K per month for Lady’s Solitaire. Transport must be chosen as your bonus category at the start of each quarter. Lady’s Card gets one bonus category, Lady’s Solitaire gets two bonus categories |
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3.2 mpd with min $300 spend on anything in a month |
| 3 mpd (with min $500 spend on SIA-related transactions in a year). Bonus miles credited 2 months after the card anniversary | |
| 2 mpd for the first S$200 spent on EZ-reload per month (NOT SimplyGo) |
UOB Lady’s Card & UOB Lady’s Solitaire
RentHero
MCC 6513 is now excluded, which means you will not earn miles when using RentHero. If you’ve scheduled recurring RentHero payments on your SCB cards, you’ll want to swap to one of the cards below instead.
| Card | MPD | Cents Per Mile @ 1.75% fee |
 DBS Altitude Visa |
1.2 | 1.43 |
 HSBC Visa Infinite |
1.25^ | 1.38 |
 BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard |
1.5 (until 15 Jun 20) |
1.15 |
 DBS Insignia |
1.6 | 1.07 |
| ^ HSBC Visa Infinite earns 1.25 mpd on local spending with min S$50K charged to the card in the previous membership year |
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Conclusion
The opportunities to earn free miles when paying tuition fees are fast disappearing, and soon you may have to resort to services like CardUp when paying such bills.
The loss of EZ-Reload isn’t that big a deal, but should make a point to change your billing arrangement. SimplyGo is anyways a much more seamless solution, and save you an extra card in your wallet.
