SC Ultimate (Standard Chartered Ultimate) Upgrade Suggestion

[anish1516]

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?

 

[AlgoTrader]

Depends on your use case.

Best part is
1) No capping on reward points
2) Points get credited as soon as transaction is settled
3) You get reward points on all transactions except fuel.

Worst part is points redemption.

I’ve redeemed points mostly for FirstCry and Uber.

Hope this helps.

Firstcry gone from last week

 

[anish1516]

can you dm me the number....

It’s a landline number +91 22-33726500

 

[anish1516]

Depends on your use case.

Best part is
1) No capping on reward points
2) Points get credited as soon as transaction is settled
3) You get reward points on all transactions except fuel.

Worst part is points redemption.

I’ve redeemed points mostly for FirstCry and Uber.

Hope this helps.

FirstCry is of my use but I see a comment saying that’s also gone. 🥲 My usage is mostly offline stores and online Amazon FK etc. Not much utility spends. Normal married family man spends 😂

 

[anish1516]

One of my acquintences is having SC Platinum card for 20+ years. What to say to the customer care when they call us for not using the card for a very long time. Last time during, redeemption fee reversal call, I asked for card upgrade, they said they can do but I need to bear the fees e very year. Let me know what should I say next time, apart from card closure, so they can upgrade the card to smart/ manhattan etc.

To be honest I use these cards for some amount atleast every now and then. For example if I am swiping for 200-300 bucks where I won’t get too much rewards in any card. At fuel stations. So that I keep getting LE and upgrades.

 

[Gautham]

Received the similar offer couple of weeks back when the SC executive reached out to me and offered SC Ultimate. Currently, I hold two cards from SC, EaseMyTrip and Smart. They offered upgrade on Smart, I simply refused stating that Smart offers more value than Ultimate as I simply get 2% cashback on most of the transaction whereas Ultimate doesn't make much sense after the recent devaluations. Also, mentioned about the not so useful rewards catalog, and lack of vouchers from Amazon and Flipkart.

Looks like a lot of folks have already cancelled their Ultimate and SC executives are now finding it difficult to push this card to the customers.

what is your current limit?

 

[Gautham]

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?

hi, your current limit please

 

[Trio]

Not a bad card if u can use the points as shopping vouchers and occasional SC offers...Of Course they have 16 domestic lounge in a year and one in international lounge access per quarter.

 

[nikhilesh71]

I think best redemption as of now is Uber vouchers. We can utilize it for airport transfers.

 

[ccdc]

Received the similar offer couple of weeks back when the SC executive reached out to me and offered SC Ultimate. Currently, I hold two cards from SC, EaseMyTrip and Smart. They offered upgrade on Smart, I simply refused stating that Smart offers more value than Ultimate as I simply get 2% cashback on most of the transaction whereas Ultimate doesn't make much sense after the recent devaluations. Also, mentioned about the not so useful rewards catalog, and lack of vouchers from Amazon and Flipkart.

Looks like a lot of folks have already cancelled their Ultimate and SC executives are now finding it difficult to push this card to the customers.

does smart card give 2% uoto 1k on insurance spends?

 

[ccdc]

Not a bad card if u can use the points as shopping vouchers and occasional SC offers...Of Course they have 16 domestic lounge in a year and one in international lounge access per quarter.

for intl lounge....we have to spend 20k+ in previous month for access in next month.

 

[BigdeBigde is verified member.]

what is your current limit?

6.5L limit shared between both the cards.

 

[maheshspanicker]

The once upon a time best no-nosense card of India has now become one of the worst for the fee range. No other bank would have a worst rewards catalog. I've been offered Ultimate as a so called upgrade to my Super Value Titanium. But the little cashback I get on fuel makes my Titanium an effectively better card than the top offering from SCB. With SCB, only SC Smart or the Titanium are worth it, and perhaps Manhatton for those who have reasonable spends in the relevant categories and have no other cards for the same.

 

[SSV]

The once upon a time best no-nosense card of India has now become one of the worst for the fee range. No other bank would have a worst rewards catalog. I've been offered Ultimate as a so called upgrade to my Super Value Titanium. But the little cashback I get on fuel makes my Titanium an effectively better card than the top offering from SCB. With SCB, only SC Smart or the Titanium are worth it, and perhaps Manhatton for those who have reasonable spends in the relevant categories and have no other cards for the same.

Very well summarized sir !!

 

[helloworld]

I wasted my 3 years of valuable reward points on a vouchers which I not at all interested. Things changed slowly for the past 2 years and even though you're getting 5000 points for 6000 rs. Those points will be wasted if you not found proper redemption options.

Also, note redemption not as per your requirement but based on their denomination, so even if you have 5k points and your favourite voucher 10k points, you have to spend 5k extra as rupees which will further reduce the overrall reward rate you're getting from those points.

My suggestion, take cashback card from SC if you really want it otherwise you can safely ignore, not much offers too. Recently they put 1% extra fee for EMI conversions.

 

[SSV]

I wasted my 3 years of valuable reward points on a vouchers which I not at all interested. Things changed slowly for the past 2 years and even though you're getting 5000 points for 6000 rs. Those points will be wasted if you not found proper redemption options.

Also, note redemption not as per your requirement but based on their denomination, so even if you have 5k points and your favourite voucher 10k points, you have to spend 5k extra as rupees which will further reduce the overrall reward rate you're getting from those points.

My suggestion, take cashback card from SC if you really want it otherwise you can safely ignore, not much offers too. Recently they put 1% extra fee for EMI conversions.

Very well said…
sc ultimate is a piece of crap..
The only one to consider : SC smart
even this is also for low spending only not for high spenders

 

[Shubham Yadav]

Very well said…
sc ultimate is a piece of crap..
The only one to consider : SC smart
even this is also for low spending only not for high spenders

What's the problem for SC to keep amazon and Flipkart vouchers ?

 

[SSV]

What's the problem for SC to keep amazon and Flipkart vouchers ?

Because they think they are smart and we are fools..

Obviously because they get other crap at much much discounted price when compared to AMZN and FK

 

[Animal]

What's the problem for SC to keep amazon and Flipkart vouchers ?

Because providing Amazon and FK vouchers 1:1 is not sustainable.

 

[Shubham Yadav]

Because they think they are smart and we are fools..

Obviously because they get other crap at much much discounted price when compared to AMZN and FK

They need to learn lesson from AMEX

 

[suhasa010]

Never ever go for Ultimate ... it is ulimately the WORST card as far as redemption choices are concerned ...
what is the use of 1:1 conversion , if the later part of 1 = 0 ...
Say Ulimate good bye !!

I took SC Smart last year because it was said that it is a stepping stone towards Ultimate which was my ultimate goal. But over the last 10 months, SC Ultimate redemption options have gone so downhill that now I'm feeling content that I wasn't eligible back then because of the limit. (Even though now I am, but I'll pass)