StanChart Journey Card welcome offer: Up to S$120 cash & 45,000 bonus miles

Back in May, Standard Chartered put the hapless X Card out of its misery by relaunching it as the entry-level Journey Card. Gone was the metal card with a “strictly non-waivable” S$702 annual fee, replaced by a plastic card with a S$194.40 first-year-free option. How the mighty have fallen.

As part of the rebrand, StanChart has launched an excellent welcome offer of up to 45,000 bonus miles for new-to-bank customers, with a minimum spend of just S$3,000 in two months. In addition to this, customers who apply via SingSaver can enjoy up to S$120 cash. 

For avoidance of doubt, SingSaver has confirmed that the StanChart 45,000 miles offer will stack with the SingSaver offer, regardless of whether the annual fee is paid.

StanChart Journey Card 45,000 miles welcome offer

Apply (Fee Waiver)

Apply (Fee Paying)

Despite being called a “National Day Promotion”, StanChart’s welcome offer is valid for applications submitted from 7 August to 30 September 2023 by new-to-bank cardholders, defined as those who:

• Do not currently hold a principal StanChart credit card, and
• Have not cancelled a principal StanChart credit card in the past 12 months

The 45,000 bonus miles are broken down as follows:

Cardholders have the option of paying the first year’s S$194.40 annual fee to receive 10,000 bonus miles. This works out to a cost of 1.94 cents per mile, which is on the high side given cheaper alternatives for buying miles like CardUp and Citi PayAll.

Regardless of whether they pay the first year’s annual fee, cardholders will receive 35,000 bonus miles for spending at least S$3,000 in the first 60 days of approval. That’s the real headline here, as it represents an excellent return on your spend.

Bonus miles are on top of the StanChart Journey Card’s regular earn rates of 1.2-3 mpd, so assuming you spend the full S$3,000 on local, non-bonused transactions, you’re looking at an additional 3,600 miles (S$3,000 @ 1.2 mpd), for an overall haul of up to 48,600 miles. 

How does this compare to the previous offer?

This new offer is much superior to the previous one, which was ended ahead of schedule on 6 August 2023.

Previously, in addition to 10,000 miles for paying the first year’s S$194.40 annual fee, cardholders would earn 5 miles per S$1 spent in the first 30 days of approval, capped at S$5,000. Even if you maxed this out, you’d be earning 25,000 miles for S$5,000 spend in 30 days.

Therefore the current offer of 35,000 miles for S$3,000 spend in 60 days is superior in every way, unless perhaps you can’t meet the minimum spend- in which case the previous offer would have been better since it’s not “everything or nothing”.

What counts as qualifying spend?

Cardholders must incur at least S$3,000 in qualifying spend within 60 days of approval. 

Qualifying spend excludes:

• Charitable donations
• Education expenses
• Government transactions
• Insurance premiums
• Prepaid account top-ups (e.g. GrabPay and YouTrip)

The full list of qualifying spend exclusions can be found in the T&Cs, under Point 9. 

CardUp, hospital and utilities transactions are all counted towards eligible spend.

When will the bonus miles be credited?

The 10,000 miles for paying the first year’s annual fee of S$194.40 will be credited within 60 working days of your card activation date, in the form of 25,000 Rewards Points.

The 35,000 miles for spending S$3,000 in the first 60 days of approval will be credited according to the following table, in the form of 87,500 Rewards Points:

Get an extra S$120 cash

New-to-bank customers who apply for a StanChart Journey Card via SingSaver by 1 October 2023 will be eligible to receive an extra S$120 in cash:

• S$100 cash: For approval (no minimum spend)
• S$20 cash: For spending at least S$500 and making a transaction of at least S$20 with Shopee, Lazada, Taobao, ezbuy, Qoo10, Carousell or Netflix within 30 days of approval

Since I imagine you’d be spending S$3,000 on this card to meet the sign-up bonus anyway, the S$500 minimum spend should be no deterrent. Also note that both the fee-paying and fee-waiver options are eligible for the extra S$120 cash.

Approval must be received within 14 days after 1 October 2023, and cash will be disbursed via PayNow within four months from the date of fulfilling the necessary criteria. 

Term and Conditions

• StanChart up to 45,000 bonus miles
• SingSaver up to S$120 cash

What can you do with SC Rewards Points?

Standard Chartered has 10 different airline and hotel transfer partners, one of the widest ranges in Singapore. 

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (SC Points: Partner)
	Visa Infinite & Journey	Non-Visa Infinite
	25,000 : 10,000	34,500 : 10,000
	2,500 : 1,000
	2,500 : 1,000
	2,500 : 1,000
	2,500 : 1,000
	3,000 : 1,000
	3,500 : 1,000
	3,500 : 1,000
	3,500 : 1,000
	5,000 : 1,000

Transfers cost S$27 each, regardless of the number of points transferred. 

Unfortunately, StanChart has one of the most confusing rewards redemption systems of any bank in Singapore. I’m not going to go into the details here, but you can read all about it in the post below.

Standard Chartered’s 360° Rewards & EasyRewards: A hot steaming mess

Overview: StanChart Journey Card

Apply (Fee Waiver)
Apply (Fee Paying)
Income Req.	S$30,000 p.a.	Points Validity	No expiry
Annual Fee (Including GST)	S$194.40 (FYF)	Min. Transfer	25,000 points (10,000 miles)*
Miles with Annual Fee	10,000	Transfer Partners	SIA Emirates Etihad EVA Air Flying Blue Qatar Qantas United Accor IHG One
FCY Fee	3.5%	Transfer Fee	S$27
Local Earn	1.2 mpd	Points Pool?	Yes
FCY Earn	2 mpd	Lounge Access?	Yes: 2x Priority Pass
Special Earn	3 mpd on online groceries, food delivery, transport (SGD)	Airport Limo?	No
Cardholder Terms and Conditions
*For KrisFlyer; for other programmes 1,000 miles/points

StanChart Journey Cardholders earn 1.2 mpd on SGD spend, and 2 mpd on FCY spend, with no minimum spend or caps. 

From now till 31 December 2023, a bonus rate of 3 mpd can be earned for online transactions in SGD with the following MCCs:

• 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 is capped at S$1,000 per statement month. You could, of course, do much better with 4-6 mpd on other cards, but if you’ve maxed out those caps then this would be a potential fall-back option. 

Cardholders will also enjoy a rebate of the usual 3.5% FCY transaction fee for the months of June, July, November and December 2023. Obviously June and July are gone already, but there’s still a chance to make hay during year end, especially since there’s no cap on the maximum spend.

It’s actually a very good deal, a way of earning 2 mpd on all your foreign currency spending sans fees. I know I’ll be taking advantage of it come November!

For a full review of the Journey card, refer to the article below. 

Review: Standard Chartered Journey Card

Conclusion

StanChart has launched an improved welcome offer for the Journey Card, with up to 45,000 bonus miles and up to S$120 cash from SingSaver.

While you must be new-to-bank, there’s no need to pay the first year’s annual fee if you don’t want to (and perhaps you shouldn’t, since there are cheaper ways of acquiring 10,000 miles than spending S$194.40).

Don’t forget other perks like the 3.5% cash rebate for November and December 2023, which is basically an opportunity to earn 2 mpd on all your overseas spend without FCY fees.

I like what I’m seeing from the Journey Card so far. More of the same, please.