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?

 

[sankar7000]

I woudn't recommend SC ultimate as points value is not the same as fees paid. The vouchers are not good for redemption as well!

 

[anish1516]

I woudn't recommend SC ultimate as points value is not the same as fees paid. The vouchers are not good for redemption as well!

Thanks. But the sales rep was emphasizing that the 5000 reward points is equivalent to 5000 rs. I assume it would be for some particular categories.

 

[ccdc]

yes 5k points are equal to 5k rs.....but the voucher redemption options are pathetic....no amazon/fk/croma/tanishq....currently they have vistara...but that too gets depleted fast....due to the other pathetic options...

 

[anish1516]

yes 5k points are equal to 5k rs.....but the voucher redemption options are pathetic....no amazon/fk/croma/tanishq....currently they have vistara...but that too gets depleted fast....due to the other pathetic options...

That’s helpful. Other than Vistara can you please share some other options where 1 reward point = 1 rupee

 

[ccdc]

major apparel/retail brands, itc hotels, marriot hotels GV, decathlon, fab india, hamleys, helios, skechers, spar, titan, taj hotels, uber, urban ladder....they also have separate section for electronics where you can get some mobiles/other electronics at MRP.....as i said all useless for me..but maybe they aren't for you....i'm gonna cancel this on my next renewal...

 

[Indian]

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?

i suggest you to take SC smart as second card instead of ultimate , very poor reward redemption voucher in theirs portal , better go cashback cards

 

[anish1516]

major apparel/retail brands, itc hotels, marriot hotels GV, decathlon, fab india, hamleys, helios, skechers, spar, titan, taj hotels, uber, urban ladder....they also have separate section for electronics where you can get some mobiles/other electronics at MRP.....as i said all useless for me..but maybe they aren't for you....i'm gonna cancel this on my next renewal...

Many thanks dude!! 🙂

 

[anish1516]

i suggest you to take SC smart as second card instead of ultimate , very poor reward redemption voucher in theirs portal , better go cashback cards

I asked for Smart card as LTF but she said they have stopped issuing new smart cards.

 

[sourpai]

Only positive left is Utility Payments and IncomeTax payments reward points and if you can use voucher like Uber. If you have sizeable use cases for these, then only keep the card. Else there are better cards out there

 

[ccdc]

I asked for Smart card as LTF but she said they have stopped issuing new smart cards.

did someone from bank contact you directly or agent contact you?

 

[SSV]

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?

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 !!

 

[Indian]

I asked for Smart card as LTF but she said they have stopped issuing new smart cards.

Oh! I came to know only Manhattan and Digismart have stopped , they lied you, contact CC later time (ie March end) and you want SC smart as second card , don't close manhattan , its decent card on scb cards

 

[anish1516]

Oh! I came to know only Manhattan and Digismart have stopped , they lied you, contact CC later time (ie March end) and you want SC smart as second card , don't close manhattan , its decent card on scb cards

Thanks for the suggestion. Noted.

 

[anish1516]

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 !!

Hahahahha agree 100%

 

[anish1516]

did someone from bank contact you directly or agent contact you

Got call directly from bank.

 

[ccdc]

Got call directly from bank.

can you dm me the number....

 

[Animal]

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?

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.

 

[Bigde]

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.

 

[rohant]

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.