In one sense, locking your credit cards whenever they’re not in use is the smart thing to do, because it reduces the attack surface for would-be fraudsters. If you only need your cards to be active for five minutes each day, why keep them unlocked the rest of the time?
However, this act of good security hygiene can end up penalising you in unexpected ways. One obvious pitfall is when a recurring billing arrangement like Netflix or Spotify fails to go through, thereby disrupting your subscription.
But there’s another lesser-known complication: with certain banks, a blocked card may cause you to miss out on welcome gifts and credit card rewards!
Which cards do not award points to blocked cards?
Before you put a temporary block on your credit card, you should be aware of the potential issues that may arise with Standard Chartered and UOB credit cards.
These banks will not credit bonus points or welcome offers to blocked cards, regardless of whether the block is customer-initiated or otherwise.
Standard Chartered
Many Standard Chartered cardholders have learned the hard way that if their card happens to be blocked at the time the bank attempts to fulfil their sign-up bonus, the crediting will fail, and the welcome gift will be forfeited.
When challenged about this practice, CSOs have provided the following responses.
| Please be informed that based on updates from respective department, your credit card was blocked hence not eligible for credit card acquisition reward points (Nov24). We hope your query has been clarified. |
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As per Clause 2(e) of the Standard Chartered Journey Credit Card 45K Miles Promotion Terms and Conditions; to qualify for this Promotion and receive the Welcome Gift and Acquisition Gift, your Journey Card must, within six (6) months of account approval date, be valid (i.e. your Journey Card account must not be suspended, cancelled and/or terminated), in good standing, and conducted in a proper and satisfactory manner as determined by the Bank in its sole and absolute discretion. Regrettably, your card was imposed with a temporary block within six (6) months of account approval date. Hence, we regret to inform you that your card is not eligible for the Standard Chartered Journey Credit Card 45K Miles Promotion. |
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As per Point 13.1 and 13.2 of our T&Cs, the credit card must be in good standing and not suspended, terminated or closed to be eligible for reward points. In your case, your credit card was ineligible for reward points crediting as it was temporarily blocked. |
This is obviously absurd, as the rule they’re quoting was written with delinquent customers in mind, not those who voluntarily put a block on their cards for security purposes. Sadly, the bank has shown little interest in solving this bug/feature, even after I raised the matter with the PR team.
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To safeguard our clients’ accounts, credit cards that are blocked or temporarily locked are not recognised as valid (i.e. suspended) – during which, customers will not be able to earn campaign-related rewards or cashback. As an added precaution, we encourage clients to set up transaction alerts to be notified on any account updates, and report a suspicious activity at soonest. We will continuously take on feedback as we review our terms and conditions to enhance the way we serve our clients. -Standard Chartered spokesperson |
Imagine missing out on your StanChart Beyond Card’s 100,000 miles welcome bonus because of something like this!
This doesn’t just affect sign-up bonuses. Even your regular credit card points will not be credited, should a block be placed on the card. This is something the bank has acknowledged in its publicity materials (though instead of “may not”, they really should have put “will not”!).
Therefore, take extra care when using the following cards, since they credit points in two stages. If your card is blocked when the second tranche is credited, you will not receive those points!
StanChart Beyond Card
The StanChart Beyond Card awards 3.75/7.5 SC Points per S$1 (1.5/3 mpd) for local/FCY spending at the time the transaction posts.
Priority Banking and Priority Private customers will receive additional bonus points, provided they satisfy the respective AUMs on the last day of the preceding calendar month.
| 🏦 Priority Banking (min. AUM S$200K) |
||
| Credited Now | Credited Later | |
| Local Spend | 3.75 pts/S$1 1.5 mpd |
1.25 pts/S$1 0.5 mpd |
| FCY Spend | 7.5 pts/S$1 3 mpd |
1.25 pts/S$1 0.5 mpd |
| 🏦 Priority Private (min. AUM S$1.5M) |
||
| Credited Now | Credited Later | |
| Local Spend | 3.75 pts/S$1 1.5 mpd |
1.25 pts/S$1 0.5 mpd |
| FCY Spend | 7.5 pts/S$1 3 mpd |
2.5 pts/S$1 1 mpd |
| FCY Dining | 7.5 pts/S$1 3 mpd |
12.5 pts/S$1 5 mpd |
These additional bonus points are credited in the following statement month — but not if your card is blocked at the time.
StanChart Visa Infinite
The StanChart Visa Infinite awards 2.5 SC Points per S$1 (1 mpd) for both local and FCY spend at the time the transaction posts.
If cardholders spend at least S$2,000 within the statement period, they will receive additional bonus points as follows.
| Credited Now | Credited Later | |
| Local Spend | 2.5 pts/S$1 1 mpd |
1 pt/S$1 0.4 mpd |
| FCY Spend | 2.5 pts/S$1 1 mpd |
5 pts/S$1 2 mpd |
These additional bonus points are credited in the next statement month — but not if your card is blocked at the time.
StanChart Smart Card
The StanChart Smart Card earns 1.6 SC Points per S$1 (0.46 mpd) for both local and FCY spend (don’t compare the points to miles conversion with the other sections; StanChart uses different rates for different cards!).
If cardholders spend at least S$800 or S$1,500 within the statement period, they will receive additional bonus points for selected merchants:
| 💳 For spending on bonus merchants (e.g. McDonald’s, Netflix, EV charging) |
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| Monthly Spend (per s. month) |
Base Points | Bonus Points |
| S$800 to S$1,499 |
1.6 pts/S$1 0.46 mpd |
24 pts/S$1 6.96 mpd |
| S$1,500 or more | 1.6 pts/S$1 0.46 mpd |
30.4 pts/S$1 8.81 mpd |
Both base and bonus points are credited in the next statement month — but not if your card is blocked at the time.
StanChart Journey Card
The StanChart Journey Card awards 3/5 SC Points per S$1 (1.2/2 mpd) for local/FCY spending at the time the transaction posts.
Cardholders who make online spend in SGD on eligible bonus categories such as groceries, food delivery, transport and cruises will receive an additional 4.5 SC Points per S$1 (1.8 mpd), capped at S$1,000 per statement month.
| 💳 For spending on bonus categories (Online, in SGD) |
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| Credited Now | Credited Later | |
| Groceries MCC 5411 |
3 pts/S$1 1.2 mpd |
4.5 pts/S$1 1.8 mpd |
| Bakeries MCC 5462 |
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| Misc. Food Stores MCC 5499 |
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| Liquor, Wine or Beer Stores MCC 5921 |
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| Food Delivery MCC 5811 MCC 5812 MCC 5814 |
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| Transport MCC 4111 MCC 4121 MCC 4789 |
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| Cruise Liners MCC 4411 |
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These points are credited in the next statement month — but not if your card is blocked at the time.
UOB
While I haven’t seen any complaints about UOB sign-up bonuses being denied due to blocked cards, there are numerous reports of bonus points not posting properly (#1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Therefore, exercise caution with using the following cards, because you will not receive bonus points if your card is blocked at the time of crediting. For what it’s worth, UOB seems to have a better track record than Standard Chartered for restoring these missing points on appeal — though the onus is on you to catch it.
UOB Lady’s Cards
The UOB Lady’s Cards award 1 UNI$ per S$5 (0.4 mpd) for bonus category spending, at the time the transaction posts.
The remaining 9 UNI$ per S$5 (3.6 mpd) is credited on the 1st of the following calendar month.
| Credited Now | Credited Later | |
| Bonus Categories |
1 UNI$ per S$5 0.4 mpd |
9 UNI$ per S$5 3.6 mpd |
The Lady’s Savings Account (LSA) bonus works slightly differently. The bonus points will be credited on the 27th of the following calendar month.
| Credited Now | Credited Later | |
| LSA Bonus |
N/A | 5-15 UNI$ per S$5 2-6 mpd |
If the 1st/27th are weekends or public holidays, points crediting will be done on the next working day.
You will not receive the bonus points if a block is placed on your card, temporary or otherwise.
UOB Preferred Visa
With the UOB Preferred Visa, base and bonus points for mobile contactless and online shopping and entertainment are awarded at the time the transaction posts.
However, points for SimplyGo are delayed. You don’t earn anything at the time the transaction posts. Instead, points are awarded in a lump sum on the 7th day of the following calendar month, based on the consolidated SimplyGo spend in the previous calendar month.
| Credited Now | Credited Later | |
| SimplyGo |
N/A | 10 UNI$ per S$5 4 mpd |
If the 7th is a weekend or public holiday, points crediting will be done on the next working day.
You will not receive the bonus points if a block is placed on your card, temporary or otherwise.
UOB Visa Signature
The UOB Visa Signature awards 1 UNI$ per S$5 (0.4 mpd) for overseas spending, petrol and contactless at the time the transaction posts.
If cardholders spend at least S$1,000 in FCY (overseas spending) and/or S$1,000 in SGD (petrol and contactless), they will receive additional bonus points as follows.
| Credited Now | Credited Later | |
| Overseas Spend | 1 UNI$ per S$5 0.4 mpd |
9 UNI$ per S$5 3.6 mpd |
| Petrol and Contactless | 1 UNI$ per S$5 0.4 mpd |
9 UNI$ per S$5 3.6 mpd |
These points are credited on the 1st day of the following statement month.
For SimplyGo, no points are awarded at the time the transaction posts.
| Credited Now | Credited Later | |
| SimplyGo |
N/A | 10 UNI$ per S$5 4 mpd |
Instead, 1 UNI$ per S$5 will be awarded on the 7th day of the following calendar month, based on the previous calendar month’s consolidated SimplyGo spend. 9 UNI$ per S$5 will be awarded on the 1st day of the following statement month, treated the same as local contactless spending (see above).
If the 1st day of the statement month or 7th day of the calendar month are weekends or public holidays, points crediting will be done on the next working day.
You will not receive the bonus points if a block is placed on your card, temporary or otherwise.
What about other cards?
I’ve managed to get explicit confirmation with DBS, HSBC, Maybank and OCBC that voluntary blocks have no impact on the crediting of bonus points or welcome offers.
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-DBS spokesperson |
“If a customer voluntarily blocks their card due to lost card or suspected fraud, bonus points/welcome rewards will still be credited/awarded if the qualifying conditions are met.”|
-HSBC spokesperson |
“For customer-initiated temporary blocks, the crediting of reward points will not be impacted. The only impact would be that transactions will get declined on blocked cards (with the exception of specific transactions such as recurring or monthly instalments), and thus would not earn corresponding rewards points.”|
-OCBC spokesperson |
“When an OCBC customer temporarily or permanently blocks their card due to suspected fraud, they remain eligible for their welcome or renewal bonus, as long as all applicable promotional conditions have been met.”|
“If a cardmember temporarily blocks his/her Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Card or any Maybank Card that awards TREATS Points, the bonus TREATS Points earned in this month, for the eligible transactions that have already been posted, will still be credited in the following month, as long as the account remains active and in good standing. TREATS Points may only be affected in cases of transaction reversals, account closure, or if the account is not in good standing at the time of crediting.” -Maybank spokesperson |
I haven’t been able to get similar confirmations from American Express, BOC, or Citibank , but in my personal experience, I have yet to encounter any issues.
Conclusion
While it’s usually a good practice to block your card when it’s not in use — albeit somewhat inconvenient — doing so can lead to unintended consequences with Standard Chartered and UOB cards.
Therefore, it’s better to keep these cards unlocked, while tweaking your transaction notifications to alert you about any transaction, no matter how small. And should you be hit by a fraudulent transaction anyway and have to block your card, monitor your bonus points and welcome gifts to make sure they get credited properly.
Any other issues with blocked cards?
