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SC Ultimate (Standard Chartered Ultimate) Upgrade Suggestion

anish1516

TF Premier
VIP Lounge
Hello!!!

Recently I have been receiving calls to upgrade my Manhattan Card to Ultimate card. My Manhattan card is free and the Ultimate would cost Rs. 5000 plus taxes every year. Here they are offering 5000 reward points on every renewal without any conditions. So effectively the card costs me Rs. 900 approx. Now my query is should I go for it? Right now I have decent number of cards. Don't have too much utility expenses. Use my Infinia for offline shopping and SBI Cashback for Online. Please suggest if it's worth to pay fee for SC Ultimate?
 
No customer care number is working also?
not sure, didn't tried during this migration.

No answer from email ?
it will always slow, probably weeks to get responses.

my largest delay banks:
- 1. IndusInd
- 2. SC

trust me BOB is better place than most of them.

SC is slow infact very slow through email.

 
I got a call today to upgrade to SC Ultimate. Emphatically said to the agent to give me a call when they have at least 1 e-commerce GC. Forget Amazon, Flipkart, Croma even BigBasket, Tata Cliq, Zomato, and Swiggy would work. Without those, it's a worthless card for most folks.
 
The maintenance was never for refreshing voucher options, for that they don't need any maintenance window. This was more technical back-end changes which have got nothing to do with their reward catalog options.
They promoted on beat of drums that it is to enhance customer experience and also CC used to project that as a significant upgrade, in case you missed the fuss !
 
I also got the upgrade offer from Smart to Ultimate. But I did not upgrade it, took it as a seperate card so that I have an option to cancel it and continue with the Smart card. I an yet to receive the card physically but I can view it from the app and I can view reward portal. The attached screenshot shows the list of brand vouchers currently available. I thought since they were revamping the portal there would be some useful vouchers. But apart from Fabindia, I don't see any useful vouchers at least for me. Even then, I will have to spend 5k-10k at Fabindia which may not be required and might seem uncessary. Although the point validity is 3 years, I will be stuck with points or uncessary spends at Fabindia. As per the posts, previously there used to be Uber, Tanishq, Kalyan Jewellers vouchers which were at least useful in some way. When I had Manhattan card, I even used the points for BBQ nation voucher from the portal. But the current catalogue of vouchers for SC Ultimate seems to be the worst.

I am wondering whether I should activate the card or not, it should be cancelled as per RBI guidelines if don't activate it within 30 days. Folks, do you foresee any improvement in the reward catalogue in the near future?
 

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I also got the upgrade offer from Smart to Ultimate. But I did not upgrade it, took it as a seperate card so that I have an option to cancel it and continue with the Smart card. I an yet to receive the card physically but I can view it from the app and I can view reward portal. The attached screenshot shows the list of brand vouchers currently available. I thought since they were revamping the portal there would be some useful vouchers. But apart from Fabindia, I don't see any useful vouchers at least for me. Even then, I will have to spend 5k-10k at Fabindia which may not be required and might seem uncessary. Although the point validity is 3 years, I will be stuck with points or uncessary spends at Fabindia. As per the posts, previously there used to be Uber, Tanishq, Kalyan Jewellers vouchers which were at least useful in some way. When I had Manhattan card, I even used the points for BBQ nation voucher from the portal. But the current catalogue of vouchers for SC Ultimate seems to be the worst.

I am wondering whether I should activate the card or not, it should be cancelled as per RBI guidelines if don't activate it within 30 days. Folks, do you foresee any improvement in the reward catalogue in the near future?
When did you apply for Ultimate separately?

Date to be specific
 
When did you apply for Ultimate separately?

Date to be specific
I received an email for the upgarde offer. I applied over a call that received from the CC on 4th Sept. Since, I had cashback in Smart card and unless I hit target of Rs. 2500 I won't be able to redeem it. CC agent suggested that I could apply it a seperate card and share the limit between two cards. They said that the virtual card would be available in the app within 24-48 hrs and physical card would be delivered within 7 days.
 
I also got the upgrade offer from Smart to Ultimate. But I did not upgrade it, took it as a seperate card so that I have an option to cancel it and continue with the Smart card. I an yet to receive the card physically but I can view it from the app and I can view reward portal. The attached screenshot shows the list of brand vouchers currently available. I thought since they were revamping the portal there would be some useful vouchers. But apart from Fabindia, I don't see any useful vouchers at least for me. Even then, I will have to spend 5k-10k at Fabindia which may not be required and might seem uncessary. Although the point validity is 3 years, I will be stuck with points or uncessary spends at Fabindia. As per the posts, previously there used to be Uber, Tanishq, Kalyan Jewellers vouchers which were at least useful in some way. When I had Manhattan card, I even used the points for BBQ nation voucher from the portal. But the current catalogue of vouchers for SC Ultimate seems to be the worst.

I am wondering whether I should activate the card or not, it should be cancelled as per RBI guidelines if don't activate it within 30 days. Folks, do you foresee any improvement in the reward catalogue in the near future?
Ultimate card is useless with current redemption options
 
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