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Is Standard chartered Ultimate really worth ?

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sauchadh

sauchadh

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I see many of you hold Standard chartered Ultimate credit card. Is it really the worth ? 1st of all it is a paid card and we get equivalent 5000 points every year. Ofcourse GST we need to pay from our pocket. I see there are not many reward redemption option. Can someone throw light on this on how they redeem their points ? Are we getting an equivalent benefit in terms of fees we are paying ?
Also if you spend 150Rs you get 5 points. How about if someone spends less than 150 Rs would we still get points ? I am thinking if I should take this card or not . Any thoughts ?
 
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Cryptopsycho
SC ultimate is indeed really worth! 3.3% return on literally everything without any exclusion!! And u get reward points for every rs 30 spent!! Just a no nonsense card which everyone should have!! Fee u pay is just 900/- (for GST only, as u get equivalent 5000 reward points worth Rs 5000)-. Plus redemption catalogue is pretty vast. Not like infinia or DCB where u get 3.3% only over flights or hotel redemptions.
Use it where none of the card is giving benefits more than 3%.
My view, simply go for it!!
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sauchadh said:
I see many of you hold Standard chartered Ultimate credit card. Is it really the worth ? 1st of all it is a paid card and we get equivalent 5000 points every year. Ofcourse GST we need to pay from our pocket. I see there are not many reward redemption option. Can someone throw light on this on how they redeem their points ? Are we getting an equivalent benefit in terms of fees we are paying ?
Also if you spend 150Rs you get 5 points. How about if someone spends less than 150 Rs would we still get points ? I am thinking if I should take this card or not . Any thoughts ?
Click to expand...
The beauty of SCB:
Even if u spend 35 rupees on card u will get 1reward point credited
 
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saiki4116 said:
Citi and SC are very miserly with limits, their risk evaluation is very conservative.
Click to expand...
Yeah experiencing the same. SC rejected credit limit enhancement over email. Citi did the same. Also, both not allowing card to card limit enhancement so going to be stuck at low credit limit for sometime.
 
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akshay_m said:
You got this on a new card application or spend based. Couple of my friends also got this, but they have been holding this card for the past 4 months now. Is anyone aware if this is based on spend?
Click to expand...
I applied on June, supposed to be fulfilled in 2 months, but they didn't do it and I had to raise a complaint regarding this. They have the worst support, took 15 working days and no answer and after a month got the watch ( later got changed to buds).
First transaction has to be more than the value they have specified.
I have to raise ticket for joining fee points as well, even they delayed that.
SC customer care gives competition to Axis, SBI in terms who is worse. Be prepared for that, but normal points have been posting on time without any issues, you just have to hope that you wouldn't deal with their CC.
 
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akshay_m said:
You got this on a new card application or spend based. Couple of my friends also got this, but they have been holding this card for the past 4 months now. Is anyone aware if this is based on spend?
Click to expand...
Yes, It is based on spend that would be communicated in the offer page based on the date you applied. I just got my watch after 90 days period.
 
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saiki4116 said:
I applied on June, supposed to be fulfilled in 2 months, but they didn't do it and I had to raise a complaint regarding this. They have the worst support, took 15 working days and no answer and after a month got the watch ( later got changed to buds).
First transaction has to be more than the value they have specified.
I have to raise ticket for joining fee points as well, even they delayed that.
SC customer care gives competition to Axis, SBI in terms who is worse. Be prepared for that, but normal points have been posting on time without any issues, you just have to hope that you wouldn't deal with their CC.
Click to expand...
Fact
I did an Independence Day spending on card for extra rewards and waited till December but didn’t get points
So started writing them in January 23 and finally got my extra points last week
Being an mnc bank they can improve a bit not sure how their other countries operation lol
 
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I beg to differ from the overall views above that it is a great card. I was holding SC ultimate from past 4 years and closed that last month. Below are few thoughts from my personal experience:

1. First of all, it is a myth that this card gives flat 3.3% return on everything. The vouchers which are available for redemption are availabale on Axis GiftEdge and HDFC Smartbuy at ~15-30% discount which reduces the real return from 3.3% to around 2.6%

2. At above reward rate , if you do the maths, just to recover the GST on 5K annual fees you need to make a spend of around 35000/- (obviously you will do this spend on categries where your other cards doesn't give you points (for eg. wallet load etc.....for which Amex MRCC has better offer and Amex is happy to give that LTF after few years of membership)

3. Lounge access is not unlimited and quite restrictive (you need to spend and cross threshold in previous month to be eligible for ONE international lounge visit next month. I mean who does that calculation with unlimited options available. I doubt with this if SC ultimate should even be categorized as super premium card.

4. Available vouchers for redemption is very limited. Haven't seen Amazon and Flipkart in last three years.

5. I doubt if any super premium card charges 99/- + GST as redemption fee. But SC ultimate does

6. SC is very miserable in giving good limit

7. Overall, card is bit hard to get, which I believe is just artificially created by SC to give some virtual premium feel 🙂

I agree to disagree with any contradictory thoughts, but above were the pointers in my mind when I closed this card few weeks back
 
Upvote 2 Downvote
sharad131 said:
I beg to differ from the overall views above that it is a great card. I was holding SC ultimate from past 4 years and closed that last month. Below are few thoughts from my personal experience:

1. First of all, it is a myth that this card gives flat 3.3% return on everything. The vouchers which are available for redemption are availabale on Axis GiftEdge and HDFC Smartbuy at ~15-30% discount which reduces the real return from 3.3% to around 2.6%

2. At above reward rate , if you do the maths, just to recover the GST on 5K annual fees you need to make a spend of around 35000/- (obviously you will do this spend on categries where your other cards doesn't give you points (for eg. wallet load etc.....for which Amex MRCC has better offer and Amex is happy to give that LTF after few years of membership)

3. Lounge access is not unlimited and quite restrictive (you need to spend and cross threshold in previous month to be eligible for ONE international lounge visit next month. I mean who does that calculation with unlimited options available. I doubt with this if SC ultimate should even be categorized as super premium card.

4. Available vouchers for redemption is very limited. Haven't seen Amazon and Flipkart in last three years.

5. I doubt if any super premium card charges 99/- + GST as redemption fee. But SC ultimate does

6. SC is very miserable in giving good limit

7. Overall, card is bit hard to get, which I believe is just artificially created by SC to give some virtual premium feel 🙂

I agree to disagree with any contradictory thoughts, but above were the pointers in my mind when I closed this card few weeks back
Click to expand...
Wow a real life experience
Upvoted dude I too now re think even if scb offers an upgrade to my card
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sharad131 said:
I beg to differ from the overall views above that it is a great card. I was holding SC ultimate from past 4 years and closed that last month. Below are few thoughts from my personal experience:

1. First of all, it is a myth that this card gives flat 3.3% return on everything. The vouchers which are available for redemption are availabale on Axis GiftEdge and HDFC Smartbuy at ~15-30% discount which reduces the real return from 3.3% to around 2.6%

2. At above reward rate , if you do the maths, just to recover the GST on 5K annual fees you need to make a spend of around 35000/- (obviously you will do this spend on categries where your other cards doesn't give you points (for eg. wallet load etc.....for which Amex MRCC has better offer and Amex is happy to give that LTF after few years of membership)

3. Lounge access is not unlimited and quite restrictive (you need to spend and cross threshold in previous month to be eligible for ONE international lounge visit next month. I mean who does that calculation with unlimited options available. I doubt with this if SC ultimate should even be categorized as super premium card.

4. Available vouchers for redemption is very limited. Haven't seen Amazon and Flipkart in last three years.

5. I doubt if any super premium card charges 99/- + GST as redemption fee. But SC ultimate does

6. SC is very miserable in giving good limit

7. Overall, card is bit hard to get, which I believe is just artificially created by SC to give some virtual premium feel 🙂

I agree to disagree with any contradictory thoughts, but above were the pointers in my mind when I closed this card few weeks back
Click to expand...
I have same thoughts and about to cancel it. The process to get Addon card is tedious and requires a bank visit, a lot more documentation than other banks and the add on card goes to the address of the add on card holder not the primary. They have wasted 2 months in to and fro for add-on card and didn't issue it.
People saying that you just have to pay the GST effectively, but that's not exactly the case . let's say you would redeem the 5K fees to Myntra, if you are not paying fees for this card, you could get the same voucher from Axis Gyftr at 10x if you have magnus and so the effective fees change as per the cards you have. If you are usage is going to be less, no point in having an additional card that too backed by one of the worst CC support.
I have not closed only due to rent payments still getting reward points and there isn't any surcharge yet.
 
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saiki4116 said:
I have same thoughts and about to cancel it. The process to get Addon card is tedious and requires a bank visit, a lot more documentation than other banks and the add on card goes to the address of the add on card holder not the primary. They have wasted 2 months in to and fro for add-on card and didn't issue it.
People saying that you just have to pay the GST effectively, but that's not exactly the case . let's say you would redeem the 5K fees to Myntra, if you are not paying fees for this card, you could get the same voucher from Axis Gyftr at 10x if you have magnus and so the effective fees change as per the cards you have. If you are usage is going to be less, no point in having an additional card that too backed by one of the worst CC support.
I have not closed only due to rent payments still getting reward points and there isn't any surcharge yet.
Click to expand...
Except the Ultimate, there is simply no card left which give 3.3% rewards on the rent, insurance and government payments.
 
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