Nerfed: Standard Chartered EasyBill increases admin fee to 2.5%

Back in mid-June 2026, Standard Chartered cardholders received a weekend fright, when the SC mobile app started displaying a 2.5% fee for EasyBill transactions, instead of the regular 1.9%.

Fortunately, sanity was quickly restored the following week, when Standard Chartered confirmed that the increased rate was an error, and refunded the excess fees to affected customers.

But it looks like that exercise was indeed a test balloon, because the 2.5% fee has returned, and this time, it looks like they’re serious.

SC EasyBill increases admin fee to 2.5%

SC EasyBill

Standard Chartered has quietly increased the EasyBill admin fee to 2.5%, effective immediately.

Why do I think it’s real this time and not just a false alarm? Well, it’s not just the app that’s been updated — the website and FAQ have been changed as well.

Despite what the FAQs say about the fee not being a fixed amount, it’s the same regardless of which category of payment I choose. So I don’t know what Standard Chartered means here, unless they’re targeting customers with different offers?

What does this mean for EasyBill?

The table below summarises how EasyBill’s cost per mile will increase, when going from a 1.9% to 2.5% fee.

Card	Earn Rate	Cost Per Mile 1.9% fee	Cost Per Mile 2.5% fee
SC Beyond Card Priority Private Priority Banking Apply	2 mpd	0.95¢	1.25¢
SC Beyond Card Regular Apply	1.5 mpd	1.27¢	1.67¢
SC Visa Infinite Step-Up Rate Apply	1.4 mpd*	1.36¢	1.79¢
SC Journey Card Apply	1.2 mpd	1.58¢	2.08¢
SC Visa Infinite Regular Rate Apply	1 mpd	1.9¢	2.5¢
SC Priority Banking Visa Infinite Apply	1 mpd	1.9¢	2.5¢
*1.4 mpd with min. S$2,000 overall spend in a statement month, otherwise 1 mpd

As you can see, a 2.5% fee changes everything. Cards which were a maybe under the 1.9% fee structure, like the Journey, Visa Infinite and Priority Banking Visa Infinite, all land north of 2 cents per mile with a 2.5% fee. That’s way too much to be paying for miles, given the existence of cheaper alternatives. 

This nerf is going to be especially painful for SC Beyond Cardholders, who might have been enticed into getting the card by the prospect of buying miles at just 0.95 cents each — a price that’s almost impossible to lose (since you can use miles to pay for Singapore Airlines or Scoot tickets at 1 cent each). 1.25 cents is still good, but a 30% increase will be difficult to swallow. 

Mind you, this isn’t the only nerf to SC EasyBill in recent times. Earlier this year, Standard Chartered capped users at one bill payment per category, per month. Talk about a rug pull!

What are the alternatives?

Not great, to be frank.

CardUp

Earlier this year, Visa and Mastercard hiked fees for payment platforms like CardUp, which caused admin fees to increase by up to 36%. To give you an idea of how bad that was, the lowest promotional fee now available with CardUp is roughly equivalent to the most expensive promotional fee at the start of the year!

But here’s what’s really interesting. The revised EasyBill cost per mile for the SC Beyond Card (1.25 cpm for PP/PB, 1.67 cpm for Regular) is just a hair’s breadth below CardUp’s cost per mile (1.26 cpm for PP/PB, 1.68 cpm for Regular), based on the year-round 2.59% promotion for Mastercards.

Coincidence? You tell me.

Card	Earn Rate	Cost Per Mile
SC Beyond Card Priority Private Priority Banking Apply	2 mpd	1.26¢ 2.59% fee
SC Visa Infinite Apply	1.4 mpd	1.57¢ 2.25% fee 1.71¢ 2.45% fee
SC Beyond Card Regular Apply	1.5 mpd	1.68¢ 2.59% fee

For what it’s worth, if you have a SC Visa Infinite Card, then CardUp is the cheaper option. With Visa fees ranging from 2.25-2.45%, the cost per mile will go no higher than 1.71 cents (compared to 1.79 cents with EasyBill).

Citi PayAll

Citi PayAll is similar to SC EasyBill in the sense that it’s a bank-backed payment platform. This means that payments are basically internal funds transfers, which cost less than having to pay Visa and Mastercard to facilitate.

SC EasyBill’s revised 2.5% fee is still lower than Citi PayAll’s 2.6%, which means that in most cases, it’ll be the cheaper option. However, Citi PayAll has a much broader scope of supported payments, including utility bills, renovations, charitable donations, maintenance fees, and the all-encompassing “payment for retail goods and services”. 

Card	Earn Rate	Cost Per Mile  2.6% fee
Citi ULTIMA	1.6 mpd	1.63¢
Citi Prestige Apply	1.3 mpd	2¢
Citi PremierMiles  Apply	1.2 mpd	2.17¢
Citi Rewards Apply	0.4 mpd	6.5¢

Conclusion

Standard Chartered has increased the fee for EasyBill from 1.9% to 2.5%, which effectively rules out using it outside of a promotion, unless you have an SC Beyond Card, or SC Visa Infinite with the step-up earn rate. It also ever-so-slightly undercuts CardUp’s rates, a decision which feels carefully calibrated.

To be fair, the writing was already on the wall earlier this year, when a cap was put on the number of payments that could be made each month. Clearly, SC EasyBill is seeing some enthusiastic usage, and the bank wants to dial that back.

(HT: JHH)