Junk Card: StanChart Smart Card introduces minimum spend and annual fee

The StanChart Smart Card has always been a niche product, offering a generous 6% cashback or 5.57 mpd on fast food, streaming and transport- but only at a select list of merchants like McDonald’s and KFC.

While the whitelist was restrictive, the lack of a minimum spend requirement or annual fee made the card worth a punt, especially if you wanted to earn cashback (choosing miles would very likely result in an orphan balance).

But StanChart has now decided to overhaul the Smart Card with a major series of changes that take effect from 6 December 2024.

StanChart Smart Card
	Till 5 Dec 24	From 6 Dec 24
Annual Fee	None	S$99.19 (starts from 6 Dec 25)
Bonus Category Earn Rate	6% 5.57 mpd	4-10% 3.71-9.28 mpd
Min. Spend for Bonus	None	S$800/ S$1,500
Bonus Cap	S$818 per statement month	None

There’s good and bad here, but what really kills off the value of this card, if you ask me, is the introduction of a minimum spend.

This means that unless you really, really like junk food, and I’m talking Donald Trump meets Morgan Spurlock levels of affinity, then you’re going to be worse off with these changes. 

Recap: How the StanChart Smart Card currently works

First, a brief refresher of how the StanChart Smart Card currently works. 

Cardholders earn up to 19.2 points per S$1 (6% cashback or 5.57 mpd) on selected bonus categories, split into:

• A base reward of 1.6 points per S$1 (0.5% cashback or 0.46 mpd)
• A bonus reward of 17.6 points per S$1 (5.5% cashback or 5.1 mpd)

There is no minimum spend necessary to trigger the bonus reward, but it’s capped at 14,400 bonus points per statement month, equivalent to S$818 of spending. There is also no annual fee chargeable. 

However, things will be changing from 6 December 2024.

Good: New bonus categories

From 6 December 2024, the StanChart Smart Card will expand its list of bonus-eligible merchants, adding new names across the Fast Food, Streaming and Transport categories. 

As a reminder, all these bonuses (excluding electric vehicle charging) are based on merchant name, not MCC. In other words, this is not a blanket inclusion of all fast food merchants; only the ones you see listed in the table above.

Bad: New minimum spend requirements

The StanChart Smart Card currently does not require any minimum spend to trigger its bonus earn rate, but from 6 December 2024 it will introduce three different tiers of earning, each with their own minimum spends.

When spending on bonus categories:

• Cardholders with a minimum spend of less than S$800 per statement month will earn 4% cashback or 3.71 mpd until 31 March 2025, after which the earn rate drops to 0.5% cashback or 0.46 mpd
• Cardholders who spend at least S$800 but less than S$1,500 per statement month will earn 8% cashback or 7.42 mpd
• Cardholders who spend at least S$1,500 per statement month will earn 10% cashback or 9.28 mpd

Good: Bonus cap removed

The StanChart Smart Card currently has a monthly bonus cap of 14,400 points, but from 6 December 2024 the bonus cap will be removed.

In other words, there will be no limit on the maximum base or bonus points cardholders can earn.

Bad: Annual fee introduced

The StanChart Smart Card currently does not have an annual membership fee, but from 6 December 2025, an annual fee of S$99.19 will apply.

An annual fee waiver will be granted if you spend at least S$10,000 in a membership year (that’s a lot of McSpicy).

Good: SmartDelay lounge access added

From 15 January 2025, the StanChart Smart Card will introduce a new feature called SmartDelay, which offers complimentary lounge access in the event of a flight delay. 

How it works is that you register your flight, and if there’s a delay of more than 60 minutes, LoungeKey vouchers for yourself and up to four travelling companions will be automatically emailed. I don’t believe there’s any need to pay for the tickets with your StanChart Smart Card, but let’s wait for the official T&Cs before confirming. 

StanChart claims that the Smart Card is “the only card in Singapore to offer complimentary access to selected airport lounges worldwide in event of flight delay”, and when I first read that I said “nonsense”, because Mastercard offers a similar product known as Flight Delay Pass.

But joke’s on me, because at some point, banks in Singapore stopped subscribing to Flight Delay Pass. I tried all the Mastercards I had, both credit and debit, and none of them worked. So yes, it does appear that this is a unique benefit of the Smart Card for now.

Are the Smart Card changes good or bad?

While some of the Smart Card changes sound positive, like higher earn rates and the removal of the bonus cap, in practice you’ll find this more of a nerf than a buff.

Why? The minimum spends. It’s just very difficult to see anyone spending more than S$800 at these bonus merchants, let alone S$1,500.

Think about it. Let’s say you have a Disney+ (S$15.98), Netflix (S$25.98) and Spotify (S$17.98) subscription (the most expensive plans for all three services), and let’s say you have an EV and charge your vehicle once a week (S$200). That only comes up to S$260, so you’d need to spend at least S$540 on the fast food category.

I mean, everyone gripes about how much McDonald’s and Starbucks costs these days, but that’s still a lot of junk to be eating. And if you want to hit the top rebates tier of 10% cashback or 9.28 mpd, I hope you enjoy your S$1,240 feast (now, if only there were a card that offered bonus miles for medical treatment…)

So unless you’re ordering food for your office, or just have a death wish of some sort, I foresee a lot of issues meeting the minimum spend without dipping into non-bonus categories.

Furthermore, keep in mind that even though the minimum spend will be waived until 31 March 2025, the transitionary earn rate of 4% cashback or 3.71 mpd still constitutes a devaluation from the current 6% cashback or 5.57 mpd.

Conclusion

From 6 December 2024, the StanChart Smart Card will get a major revamp featuring higher, uncapped earn rates, but also a new minimum spend requirement that makes those earn rates very hard to attain in practice.

If you have Starbucks in your veins, McDonald’s in your arteries, and KFC in your nether regions, this could very well be the card for you. However, most of us won’t get anywhere near the minimum spend, and together with the new annual fee, this becomes a junk card- quite literally.